DORCAS A. STEVENS

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8 Steps to Self Publishing LIKE A BOSS.

From manuscript to fully fledged book, completely for free!

Considering self-publishing can be incredibly daunting and nerve racking, it definitely was for me.

But having recently self published my debut romance novel ‘Hope & Worth’ I was surprised that my dropping the ‘self-published author’ BOMB was such a conversation starter for closet writers and aspiring authors. So it only made sense to share how and why I did it.

So this guide is aimed at those who are up for rolling up their sleeves, skipping the middle woman all together and going straight to market by self publishing.

DISCLAIMER: This is totally my own personal experience and not a direct reflection of the self publishing process in its entirety. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if I can do it so can you!

So here’s 8 BOSS steps to becoming a SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR …

1. Write the Thing!

You can’t publish what you have not written.

It’s all well and good to research beforehand to see if self-publishing is a suitable avenue for you, but too much information can be as crippling as no information at all. So stop procrastinating and get on with writing the next great thing!

2. Edit Your Manuscript

I chose to self edit my entire 85,000+ word manuscript myself because I was on a deadline and I have trust issues. I’m working on it.

But it is imperative that you produce the best piece of work that you can and that you get fresh eyes on it. You are writing for a reader and not just for yourself. So getting feedback and having someone look over spelling errors, syntax, fact checking or even if the story and journey of the characters makes sense, is so very important.

Of course, if money is no object then hire an editor. But if you have a friend or loved one who also happens to be a great editor, or just a good person for constructive feedback, definitely ask them to look over your manuscript. Pay them back with baked goods, massages or babysitting, whatever doesn’t cost you money.

Now I understand when I say this that time is also a currency, so bear this in mind and spend it well!

Side note: Don’t be afraid of feedback, but be wise and think about providing the best experience for your readers.

| 8 Steps to Self Publishing LIKE A BOSS |

3. Choose your Distributor

I researched which channels my book would work best in reaching my readers and sell well in. I went with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) independent service because I wanted an easy and free way to publish and all the prestige that came with Kindle status.

Amazon is one of the best market places for commercial fiction to market your book without any upfront costs. They have both printing facilities, Kindle and audible, so your book could be available in eBook, paperback and audiobook formats.

You get to set the royalty rate, depending on the format of your book, and they take the printing costs from book sales, commission and then send your royalties to you within 60 days if you have an international bank account number.

For me, it was the most hassle free way of getting my book to market.

4. Add Additional pages

This was such an afterthought for me. I was more concerned with finishing my story to the highest standard that I forgot to consider what else needs to be included like…

Copyright is important. Not only does it protect your ideas and finished work as the author it also looks professional. Using your name and the year of publication along with an appropriate copyright statement constitutes to a decent copyright. You can google a standard copyright declaration and use this, or you can even purchase a copyright on your book. Choosing the former is the cheaper option of course and still acts as a protection so that no-one can pirate your work.

| 8 Steps to Self Publishing LIKE A BOSS |

‘Acknowledgments’ Page

No one writes a book alone. Whether you want to admit it or not you’ve had help. Even if it was just that colleague who would ask you every now and then how your manuscript is going. Or that friend that you sent five drafts to and they emailed you back with pages worth of notes. Thank God, your mum, your favourite barista at that coffee shop you frequent at, and even that agent who rejected you but was kind enough to give you feedback. Honour the people that helped make your book possible.

‘About the Author’ Page

Believe it or not, readers want to know who you are. They want to know what your interests are, appropriate education, accomplishments, what you enjoy doing and where you live! (Not your exact address, a general location will do).

They want to know that the person who wrote this exciting and engaging book for them is a living breathing person and not a robot. So go on, don’t be shy, tell them a bit about yourself.

Side note: This information can also be used on the product description page for your book to give potential readers and idea of who you are.

| 8 Steps to Self Publishing LIKE A BOSS |

5. Check your Formatting

So you’ve got your manuscript, you’ve thanked every possible influencer all the way down to your nursery teacher, you’ve told your readers who you are and you’ve picked your distributor.

Now that you know what you want to market and where you want to market it, make sure the formatting standards of your book, eBook and Paperback meet the standards of your distributing service.

I know it sounds a bit strange doing this editing back and forth, but depending on the trim size you choose for your book (the final size of your printed book), your margins, indents and chapter headings all need to be in line with your distributors requirements. You do want your book looks as legit (if not more) than the latest penguin published title, right?

eBook

Amazon’s KDP has an application called Kindle Create which helps format your manuscript for both eBook and Paperback automatically and convert it to their .kpf file format. It also allows you to check what each page of your manuscript will look so you can see how your eBook will look on different devices too.

If publishing on KDP and you don’t use Kindle Create, make sure to format according to the Amazon’s measurement and file guidelines.

Paperback

Similarly, check formatting and page by page measurements according to your books trim size. Be careful though as paperback formatting may need to be altered in some places in comparison to your eBook formatting.

Side note: Only include a contents page of an ebook, not necessary for a fictional paperback.

| 8 Steps to Self Publishing LIKE A BOSS |

6. Make an Eye-Catching Book Cover

This is where judging a book by its cover is allowed. You have to create something that is eye-catching but also fits the mould of the genre or genre’s your book is in. The reason I say this is because we are creatures of habit. We will likely purchase something that looks similar to something we already have or we can associate with some familiarity. I’m pretty sure you could describe the cover of E.L James ’50 Shades of Grey’ in a heartbeat.

Design

When designing your cover try not to go for imagery that is too intricate as the quality may not translate.

If you aren’t splashing out on a photoshoot or hiring a graphic designer you can use Canva, a great website for creating images for multiple use. But because Canva’s free image library didn’t have what I envisioned for the cover of my book I searched and dowloaded royalty free images from Google to create the main image on the cover of my book. To sum up, Google is your friend.

For your cover you’ll need to create 3 images…

Front cover: Name of the book and author

Spine: Name of the book and author

Back cover: Blurb and ISBN (Amazon KDP will automatically add this for you if you don’t have one already).

Once you have created a design that you feel represents your book and you’ve run it by a trusted friend, or a few, make sure you save them as an PNG images. This is the highest quality and will translate well to the digital and print of your book.

If the image still seems pixelated/low quality IMG.Online is a good website to help enhance the pixel quality of your cover or other images.

Side note: The great thing about Canva is that it saves your previous designs so you can always come back to them and use them for additional promo images!

Editing

You can edit together the front image, spine and back image of the book on Word or Pages (for Mac) into one single image. I dowloaded KDP’s book cover template and used this to make sure my cover was in correspondence with their measurements. Make sure you converted this into a PDF file.

Once you’re happy with the size and look, you’re ready to add it to your book!

| 8 Steps to Self Publishing LIKE A BOSS |

6. Create a Standout Product Description

Once again look at how books with a similar genre, audience or author have been presented on their live book page. You’ll need to include a brief description of the book which can be the blurb, any reviews you may already received, information about the Author (told you this would come in handy), and any website or social media links.

HTML

To make sure your book description stands out use HTML tags that allow you to make paragraphs, headings, italicise font, make font bold etc. You must do this according to KDP, or your chosen distributors, HTML guidelines.

If, like me, you find it all too complex, HTML-Online is a great free tool that shows you what the text will look like on your live book page, whilst mirroring the appropriate tags in a separate box for you to copy unto your book description page.

7. Determine your pricing

We all know the hard work you’ve put into your book. But let’s face it, selling it at £1000 a piece sounds may sound like an appropriate amount but most everyday readers will straight up laugh at the price of your product. Again, look at books that are similar to yours, both new and established, and see how much they sell for. Don’t price it so cheap that your readers think that you don’t value the book you’ve worked so hard on.

Amazon also takes a commission for their publishing services so make sure you price it (particularly paperback copies) with this in mind.

8. Hit publish!

Well done! Now that you’ve gone through each section of preparing your book for publishing, double check everything.

Once you’re happy go ahead and click ‘publish’ and give yourself a well deserved pat on the back.

You’ve covered all bases, from manuscript to print, and basically begun to understand the work of about 5 different types of people who make publishing a book possible. So now you can do the steady work of regularly promoting your book. Name dropping it in conversation with people, reading a copy on the train or bus (if you can stand reading your book at this point), and emailing Oprah to add it to her book club.

So go and treat yourself. Have a dance party, take a holiday. Because you my friend, have just made your dream come true!

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More Ways to Thrive as a Self-Published Author

423 days ago I outlined ‘8 Ways to Self-Publishing LIKE A BOSS’. I detailed my very tedious but enjoyable process on the road to publishing my book. As a result, an identity crisis followed, but in it I also learned a lot of things about my identity as a writer and why it always pays off to take a leap of faith.

Dorcas A. Stevens 2021 © Author of ‘Hope & Worth’

It’s been a year since I took the plunge, bypassed the gatekeepers and owned my business owner status by putting my book out into the world!

So what happened after that?

After fighting the urge in the first six months not to un-publish my book from Amazon at least a dozen times, I have accumulated some lessons, liberation and wonderful readers along the way. And though my book is not in the Guardians bestsellers list, the process of staying the path has opened my eyes to the reality and freedom of being a THRIVING SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHOR of my 5 star rated book ‘Hope & Worth’…

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ADVERTISING and PROMOTION

1. Cast Your Net

After I hit the very intimidating yet thrilling ‘publish’ button on Amazon and experiences the thrill of success, the very daunting task of marketing hit me.

How was I going to get my book out there, and who was going to buy it?

Here’s where Drake’s lyrics “started from the bottom…” began to ring true. I mean this in the most respectful way possible, but start from the bottom with the people right there with you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with blasting as many people on your WhatsApp, email list or LinkedIn about the amazing book you spent months creatively writing and working hard on. In fact, it’s an achievement most people would marvel at, celebrate with you and want to buy into. Utilise that! It’s not very often that most people get to know a published writer so milk your status, uniqueness and niche for all you can with your Aunty, her best mate and that person you used to go to school with fifteen years ago. You never know where your next book sale can come from.

2. Cast Your Net Even Further…

Now, there’s no point staying at your current level of influence.

After all, we still have to get to the “…now we’re here” part of Drake’s lyrics.

For me levelling up looked like using all my social media channels to engage the potential audience of friends of friends of friends. I’m talking all thrusters on Facebook, Twitter with a separate authors pages on these platforms, whilst on Instagram with my personal profile. Eventually I extended my reach to complete strangers in specific Facebook groups. By contacting the group or page administrators there were special days where writers like me could specifically promote my book or for it be featured on lists for more people to see it on. These groups ranged in interest and narrowed down as I went from people interested in reading, romance fiction, female writers, female readers and really anyone or space that seemed like fertile ground for readers of interest in my novel.

Joining these groups also enabled me to watch and learn from how other self-published writers introduced themselves and promoted their book/product/brands. Sometimes that meant becoming friends with other self-published writers so they could read my book (and I their book also). This was a great opportunity to be offered feedback, a review, a re-post or even tailored promotion for my book too! What a great way to make some more writer friends, especially now!

And even wider than that, it also allows you to engage with a wider community of go-getters like yourself, who are just as eager to support your work. Even though I am no longer on these social media channels, I’m still in touch with some of the people I met on there. Plus, I’m now able to use these lessons from those interactions in my subscriber Newsletter to help engage a more exclusive audience.

3. Host an Event

About six months after I released my book I hosted an online event on Zoom called ‘Waiting on Your Words’ which was essentially the launch of engaging a more exclusive audience for my work and insights as a writer.

I just didn’t know it yet…

This online event was really an opportunity for me to put my face to my book in a way that people could see and hear. I was asked questions about my process, the themes and the characters in the book and my overall mission as a writer. For me that unlocked my passion for sharing tips, tricks and overall enthusiasm for the creative magic and wonder of writing. Through that I’d discovered that I had a lot to say about stories and writing than just my stories would allow. Which then became the springboard for me to launch my quarterly subscriber newsletter!

4. Start a Newsletter

As I said, there’s something wonderful about the process of writing and knowing that you aren’t doing it alone.

The thing about meeting other writer friends and hearing about their journey is that not only does it make you feel less alone (let’s face it, writing can very much be a solo act) but it’s all HUGELY inspiring. The more I would talk to other writers, the more I found nuggets of wisdom that seemed silly to keep all to myself. So I wanted to create a one stop shop where aspiring, current, curious and all the above writers could benefit from these sit down sharings as well.

Creating a newsletter was the avenue in which I chose to do that. I’d considered a YouTube Channel, but as much as my other day job is being an actress, I’d much prefer using my words. Ha. So far I have been going strong for the past 9 months with my quarterly bulletin. The gestation period has resulted in the birth of something special that is more solid in shape and identity now more than ever.

So if, like me, you find that you have more than the words of a story to share with the world, why don’t you create a space where you can collate information to share with others to help in their writing journey as you continue to grow in yours too. Right now, for me, that primarily looks like a newsletter. And if you fancy sneaking a peak too, subscribe to my newsletter for some encouragement, challenge, inspiration and some darn good words too.

5. Have Some Goodies

No, not that kind. Goodies to give to your readers.

When I was promoting my book on various groups and pages, I set up a limited promotion for people to respond to and win a free tote bag. This worked a treat and actually helped me to engage with a few readers I otherwise wouldn’t have. These were people completely far from my sphere of geographical and cyber reach. It helped solidify my book as a product for consumption. Also, the tote bag was creating more advertising for me wherever the reader used it! Win, win.

So don’t knock creating a few t-shirts, pens, bookmarks or any other promotional product that can help with the appeal of your book. Your bank account and book’s sales spreadsheet will thank you for it.

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CONTINUE TO WORK ON YOURSELF

As you focus on all the out-pour for your product and writing career, don’t get lost in keeping track of only tactile progress and productivity. You are the person who is being most affected, so here are some ways you can continue to love and nurture yourself to help you best serve you and your writing…

6. Develop Your Own Rhythm

Stamina is important for any task that requires regular and long-term commitment. Being a writer is one of them.

Listening to what works for your own overall well being, career progression and creativity is so important. You can’t write well from a stressed, strained or striving place. Or maybe you can. But it would get exhausting very, very quickly.

Much like running a marathon (which I have never done) pacing is important. Sometimes you may have to dedicate just an hour a day to writing. Whereas at other times you may have a deadline that requires you to do long writing sprints instead, cancelling the week’s worth of binge worthy Netflix series with your housemates. Maybe you will need to go away somewhere and experience some focused solitude. Or maybe you just need to book a couple of days off from your day job to submit for that writing competition that could change your life.

Whatever it is, plan, make time and have energy for it.

Oh and don’t compare yourself to what your writing friend may be doing. What is useful and productive for them may not be so for you. Make room and be open to the flow of creativity and develop a stride you enjoy and that actually produces good writing.

Wait, you can have fun whilst writing? Yes!

So while you’re at it, check in with yourself too. Have you had a good meal today? When was the last time you felt the wind on your face? Have you had some water lately? Make sure you are living too. You may be a recluse, but life is not. Writing is not for the faint of heart and what you are doing requires courage, so make sure you celebrate those mini achievements along the way too. Celebrate the fact that you opened your laptop and researched carnivorous plants native to the Amazon. Or that you met your 200 word limit for the day. Or that you finished the third draft of your TV series treatment. You are a champion and should be celebrated like one!

7. Remember…

Don’t stretch yourself too thin

Your output is totally dependent on your capacity, so don’t stretch yourself too thin.

I know I’ve already mentioned this briefly, but it’s worth re-iterating that it’s so important to track your efforts and see where the return on your investment is. Your investment being all your targeted energy, creativity and genius. For me, I struggled to keep interacting on a more public platform like social media on a regular basis because my time just didn’t allow for me to be consistently present on there enough. But what I did find was that more personal and targeted efforts like WhatsApp broadcast messages to friends and acquittances reaped a more positive and fruitful return in book sales and support. So focus your energy on wherever best suits your communication style and skill set. And don’t forget to take regular breaks to celebrate and recuperate. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

You are a business

With all my talk of product and productivity, I’m sure you’ve probably figured out by now that being a writer is a lot like owning your own business.

It takes daily and regular commitment, promotion, risks, mistakes and successes to share with the world the book you worked hard to creatively and masterfully write. So much like a business regular attention, upkeep and expenditure is required. Having business premises like my Amazon page which my book is published onto, my own website, a separate email address for my newsletter contact and even a P.O Box were all part of it. Operating like I would a business owner helped separate my output into more clearly defined and trackable tasks and outcomes.

No longer did I find myself making endless lists daily and shooting in the dark, hoping I’d hit my targets. No. Instead I set myself specific goals, for example, updating sections of my website for better interaction and flow for the viewer. Or creating images to represent my brand and then testing their effectiveness with friends and family feedback.

All of these things can start off as trial and error, but once again if you focus on developing your rhythm and listening to what works for you, you’ll soon find you’ve got yourself a pretty successful system going.

Your dream can be made reality

I have to admit now that I’ve made my dreams come true of publishing my very own novel it was hard to not just sit down and book a year long cruise (travel restrictions permitting). But actually in all this I have learned that staying focused, putting in the work and trusting the process is making the dream a reality. No fairy dust needed. Okay, maybe a little. But we writers are dreamers and therefore innovators by nature. So don’t be phased by how big the dream may seem initially. Size it down to goals and daily commitments. And once you hit those targets and develop your oh so graceful and unique stride, you’ll look back and be so impressed with the mammoth task that you took on and accomplished. How?

Like a boss, obviously.

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REFLECT

Reflective practice is said to be important for anyone desiring to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their professional practice. It allows you to identify strengths and weakness, stay open to learning and improve on overall quality of experience and productivity. Being a writer is no different. As I’m sure I’ve established by now, you are building something. And building requires planning, resources, process and reflections. Especially if you hope to do it all over again, but better.

8. Learn Some Lessons in What You Would Do Differently

Now that I’ve outlined what worked and what may not have worked, I’m certainly wiser for it. More than anything, this journey has taught me to not give up. But if I could do a few things differently, I would…

Hire a book designer

I love my books design. It’s simple, memorable and does the job. But I also know that someone else could’ve brought their vision, creativity and knowhow to take it to the next level.

I love collaborating with people, but unfortunately I missed an opportunity here in my haste to get the book out there by my deadline. I missed out on the first and most vital point of contact for the reader: the book’s cover image. The storytelling begins with the first image, usually the book cover, and as such it provides a compelling and accurate representation of the story and its characters.

In hindsight, I think I played it safe. If I had given my book more time, I probably would have had a more music inspired book image or let my designer run free with their inspiration. So for anyone else who may be as impatient as I can be, take your time in deciding your book’s cover image. Your book will thank you for it.

Hire an editor

My words are my own, and I’m very grateful for the flow of the creative universe that has gifted me with them. But I also know that getting a second opinion can be helpful.

In all my bravado and risk-taking nature, I deliberately chose not to hire an editor to glance over my manuscript (which would later become my book). As a result, I had to suffer the cringe worthy moments of having friends and family message me about a typo or format issue along the way. Of course, I have much thicker skin for it, but I definitely could’ve benefited from far fewer weeks of panic editing than I had to do. At one point I actually had to force myself to stop for fear that I would start writing a completely different novel!

Thankfully, now I’m open to helpful criticism. But if my manuscript had gone through the scrutiny of a skilled editor, I probably would’ve saved myself a lot of sleepless nights and cringing.

Not stress or worry as much

Having said all of that, I wish that I had enjoyed the process of trail and error a whole lot more.

With hindsight, I can see how necessary and beneficial it was for the continued success of my book and the growth of my writing career. But whilst I was in it the strong and wrong desire to be at Dorothy Koomson level notoriety made me sell myself short. Everyone has to start somewhere. Even if that somewhere is misspelling your character’s name once or twice. Or even taking the risk to leave social media altogether to focus on engaging your audience better in a way that suits my skill set. Certainly on the other side I can irrevocably say that all the risks and mistakes were worth it.

So having said all this, would I do it again? Absolutely! Bigger and better and with a whole team of smart, talented and skilled people with me.

| More Ways to Thrive as a Self-Published Author |

Want to start your own Self-publishing journey?

Check out my blog 8 ways to Self Publishing Like A BOSS.

IS THERE GOING TO BE A BOOK SEQUEL?

Thank you for reading my second blog post! If you haven’t read the first book ‘Hope & Worth’ yet, what are you waiting for? The second one?

Well, here’s some good news. There will be a sequel to Trent and Nora’s love story! I am in the middle of working on Trent and Nora’s next adventures in love, emotional intelligence and healing. There will be travels, romance, drama and a whole lot more music too. I know you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it. So hang tight, release date to be announced on my website soon…

Still need to read ‘Hope & Worth’? Buy it here as an ebook or hard copy now.

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Seasons of Love

What is a ‘Seasoned Lover’?

A seasoned lover is typically a phrase not all that referenced. This idea that something has been accustomed to particular conditions or even been flavoured. Certainly you and I have heard or used the term ‘seasoned’ for a traveller, or a turkey (you can see my mind is still on last year’s Christmas dinner). But I’ve only recently heard it being used in regard to a persons experience with love.

Of course in theory it makes sense that love, like wine, could get better over time, or over seasons. Love after all is an individuals choice and a process in which time is an essential part of. But the meter in reality (dare I say this as a romance writer) doesn’t always prove the most exciting. The value of time is not exactly a popular precept in modern culture nowadays.

Seasoned love is not popular in culture.

Growing up my mum definitely didn’t say to me, “Finding love later in life is a good thing,” and popular culture’s #Relationship Goals don’t exactly scream this sentiment from roof tops either. Modelling this in picturesque snapshots of what idealistic love looks like with younger heart throbs like Twilight’s Edward and Bella or Disney’s Jasmine and Aladdin. Leaving the less palatable versions of people who have storied past’s of heartbreak, divorce, unconventional couplings, being solo parents, health issues , etc., with barely a look in or a chance to be represented.

Today’s idea of romance, or certainly my generations idea, is to be young, single yet get the perks of being in a committed relationship without having to declare that you’re in one. And this casual culture of romance doesn’t always allow for flaws. In our microwave culture, love moves quicker, until we hit a wall in the marathon that is “relationship” and when we can’t get past the flaw wall, we bow out…

Social media and online dating can of course offer opportunity for connection and deeper long-lasting intimacy but the casting of such a wide net actually can be counter productive in producing a laziness and lack of commitment when we can so easily move on to the next one. A kind of desensitising takes place where the ideal image of romance starts to become only a fiction or a hashtag and we settle for what is available to us, forgetting that we have whole lives ahead of us, and not everything is for now.

This idea that things happen in time, “Good things come to those who wait”, isn’t exactly in line with the use of Zac Efron’s “YOLO” (you only live once) tattoo. This sense of immediacy makes us feel like time is running out and if we don’t get the partner, or hook-up with that person/s, or live your best life (like, right now), our world will implode.

Let me state this, what I’m not trying to say is being younger means you’re dumber and destined to fail at love until you reach a certain age threshold. Nor am I saying that being older automatically makes you wiser and more likely to publish the next ‘5 Love Languages’. I know of some younger souls who have a wealth of wisdom in romance and some older individuals who sure are clueless about want they need in relationships.

What I am saying is it’s all about the individuals perspective first, and how they see themselves being loved and loving. Greater perspective in life tends to be moulded when you’ve exercised patience, and experienced more of life itself and the people in it. Whilst perspective is not the sexiest word in the dictionary, and neither is satisfying, it is where development starts. Unfortunately our modern culture moves way too fast for patience (what even is that?) But let’s be honest, we are affected by what we see, or don’t see.

Buy ‘Hope & Worth’ Now

A lot of what mediatised and popular culture shows us about romance conditions our expectations of it, and when said expectations aren’t met we are left with this gap that can leave us feeling unwanted, unworthy of a worthwhile kind of love or like we have a third arm.

A healthy expectation of romance.

A healthier expectation of romance has to come from somewhere, right? Absolutely! Fiction can be that source, since we all know that writers are one of the many types of people that look at the world and turn it over again and again in our minds to present some kind of message to the world. Or, to point out a blind spot in our culture’s periphery and give helpful insight. At least that’s what I think our job should be anyway.

I personally took on this challenge with my latest book ‘Hope & Worth’ where I used my own, my friends and loved ones experiences and penned it down with a whole bunch of imagination (this may be the reason why you’re reading this blog in the first place). I had read and continue to read books about wonderful humans who find love in both their young years, older years and everything in between. And, since we’re comparing, I have to say there is greater understanding of what one wants in life, or, at the very least, a more likely tendency to question what that is the older they are. “What do I want and who do I want to do it with?” The launch of every romance.

But, if I haven’t already lost you ‘pretty young things’ to thoughts of irrelevance and typical millennial insecurities, or you ‘wiser owls’ to assuming that this post is an indulgent and naive rambling of such insecure millennial, please answer me this; is love about the long game?

Why is a seasoned lover more popular in fiction?

Being older, or more advanced in years, isn’t exactly the stuff in which blockbuster movies are made of. It’s not often you follow the protagonist through their teen years, university and/or work years, well into their lives and so on, before they find a love that lasts. But romance is certainly like this in reality. There isn’t always just the one moment, one person, one marriage, one sexual encounter and so on. There are episodes, cycles, chapters, even volumes. And fiction certainly has a tighter grip on exploring this journey than culture does, which is why I fell in love with it.

From my experience, most romance fiction that centralise the story around older heroines and protagonists capitalise on what culture seems to miss; the growth of the individual. These stories don’t negate the experiences of the characters earlier years, but they do use them as lessons.

As someone in my “young” middling twenties, I can sound somewhat contradictive in my view, after all I’m not all that “seasoned” in life myself. But this is literally my personal experience of reading and writing and living in the world and finding my views on romance and the individual constantly being contended with the worlds ever changing culture. After all, we do stay the same as humans. We want two basic necessities in life; love and health. But how we go about receiving and giving these things is an entirely different story. One that writers and readers alike get to experience in various different ways, with various different people, in time.

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