$500 Well Spent

After spending over $10000 to get my book published, get reviews, run ads, run the blog, and try to get sales, I said "enough" in June 2024. I was working hard, traveling, and trying to save money for retirement. In 2024, I sold 32 books. All total, I had sold 600. In some ways, it had been fun, in other ways, it had been stressful, and it was time to put it behind me. In fact, I let go of the website. They were charging me $3000/yr to maintain it. When they turned it over to me, it was immediately hacked, and I didn't feel like spending the money to get it back. So, it was over. Or so I thought.

A few weeks ago, a completely obscure British literary magazine called Reader's House contacted me and said they wanted to do an interview. They would send me questions, I would answer them, and they would publish it on-line. Free. I love free. So I said yes.

I was quite surprised when they sent the questions. They were customized to me, my website, my life, my book. They had done their homework. I put my answers together and sent them back, with a photo of the book, a bio, a photo of me, some links, etc.

I got a response in 24 hours. "We love it!" Let me put you in touch with our editor. That's when the pitch came. Yes, we'll put it on line for free. BUT! For an additional XX, we'll do a review. And for an additional YY, we'll publish it in our hard copy magazine. And for $500, we'll do a press release.

I'm quite embarrassed to say that they had me. I called my husband for his opinion and he said - I don't know why you're asking me, I know you're going to do it. I talked to my friends - do your homework. I looked it up on line. Totally and completely obscure. Yes, the magazine was on Amazon. For $30. But it had no reviews. I tried Google. Virtually nothing. In fact, Reddit had an article suggesting that it was a scam. Why was I even thinking of it? Because of those custom questions...

So, I sent them some more questions. What was their readership? How old were they? How often did they publish, why was their website out of date? They answered everything... I was already hooked. I said yes.

Twenty four hours later, they sent a draft of the interview. I was blown away. They made me out to be a literary superstar. A goddess. It was amazing. Take a look. I honestly can't wait to see what they do next. Yes, it's going to be obscure, yes, it's buried. But it's *beautiful*. So I consider it money well spent.

https://readershouse.co.uk/lauren-wilson-brings-life-and-authenticity-to-afro-bougie-blues-and-the-art-of-storytelling/