7 figure author interview · Book Marketing Bootcamp

7 figure author interview

Maya Alden was kind enough to share her writing / publishing process in the following interview:

1. At what catalog size did your backlist start producing meaningful income?

First, I think “meaningful” is different for everyone.

For me, the business started generating meaningful income surprisingly early. I launched my first indie book on June 23, 2023, and by September, with only three books published, I was earning enough to feel comfortable walking away from corporate.

But I wouldn’t call that a mature backlist yet. The real shift came about a year later, when I had roughly 12 books published. That was when I began to see the compounding effect of having multiple books and series working for me at the same time, and my monthly baseline moved up significantly.

So if I had to give someone a number, I’d say around 12 books. That’s enough for a couple of series, some read-through, and a catalog substantial enough that one book can lead readers into several others.

2. How has your drafting process evolved over the years, and what part of the process do you think is the most integral to writing 17 books in a year?

So, I sold my first book to Random House in 2001, and it came out in 2002. Yes, that many years ago. I stayed in trad writing mainstream fiction for 9 books over 22 years. So my process has always been: I have an idea, then I write fifty pages or so to test whether it can become a story, and once I know it can, I write the book. The process has changed now in the sense that I don't "test" the story—I let it stew in my head a while before I put it on paper. I know what the story is, and I know it can hold its own. So, there's less trial and error.

I recently started dictation because I usually narrate the chapter in my head before I write it. Now I narrate it to Otter. That creates a great scaffold and first draft. I then work on the second draft. I edit chapter by chapter, so I have the third draft done piece by piece.

Once the book is done, I do one more draft start to finish.

Then off it goes to my editor for copyediting. She sends it back to me, and I do one more read-through. Then it goes back to the same editor for proofreading. The last step is me laying the book out in Vellum. The ePUB file goes through one more round of editing with a second editor to catch any last errors.

Now, about the 17 books. That was 2025, and it is not happening again. Burnout became real this year, so I am cutting down to just 12 books a year. Now, that still sounds like a lot, but as a former marketing executive and product manager, I divided my books into three product lines, and not all books are made equal.

My Regretfully Yours series features novellas. Under 40k words. I do three of these a year.

I have my Vintage romance series, targeting the 35-60 audience that remembers Mills & Boon and old Harlequin that they or their mothers read. I do 2-3 of them a year. They are under 70k words each.

Then I have my prestige titles—these are books under a big banner series like The House of Alighieri or Wildflower Canyon. These books are around 90-100k words. These are my big books. I have only 3-4 a year of these.

This way, I can shift between series—so I don't get bored writing the books, and hopefully my readers don't either.

3. You have a very active Facebook group. Can you talk more about how and when you decided to start it, and how much of your time it takes up now?

I am actually social media-weary and -wary.

When I created the Maya Alden pseudonym, I removed all social media for the real me who wrote the trad books.

Maya's social media focuses entirely on books, with very little personal content. For me, this is important. Anonymity is absolutely beautiful and gives me the freedom I never had. In addition, I can see my career more objectively and alter course as needed without too many emotions involved. This is a business and Maya Alden can be entirely business-minded. It's a gift.

I have a Facebook readers' group and an ARC group, which a wonderful PA manages. She also posts across all social media, where we focus on reels. I post WIP in the ARC group, but otherwise my PA manages it. So it takes me no time at all.

4. What are the top three marketing activities that are non-negotiable for each book launch?

I break down marketing into two tracks: acquiring new readers and taking care of existing readers.

Note: A new book—and I am a rapid release author—is the best advertisement an author can have for new and existing readers. The Amazon algorithm does a lot of the heavy lifting here, which takes the burden off the marketing dollars.

NEW READERS

Amazon ads (managed by a professional because they are tricky)
Instagram Reels –we post reels for our backlist every day. When a reel crosses roughly 10K views, I can usually see a noticeable bump in that book’s revenue. Doing that consistently across a large backlist compounds.
Meta ads (I started doing them in May 2026, and even though they bring revenue, I find them tedious and challenging. I am hiring someone else to manage them because they stress me out.)

EXISTING READERS

Taking care of readers is an important part of this business. I think this is why almost all my books hit the top 10 (without substantial Meta ads) because my existing readers come back for my books.

Newsletter – I started in June 2023 and have 61,000 subscribers now, all coming through bonus chapters. Every book of mine contains a bonus—it's part of my writing process.
Facebook group – as mentioned before, my PA manages this. She runs giveaways and keeps people interested and chatting about my books. She's amazing. We also give away ARCs.

5. If you had to start over today, what would be your first five steps/decisions?

Pseudonym (I did do this)
Research market trends (I didn't do this until six months in, and after I did, the books I produced got more traction). I do surveys and get all the research that K-Lytics does. I also browse Reddit to understand what readers want. FB groups are also a great source of voice of reader. (Link: 2026 Maya Reader Tropes & Trends Survey)
Build a brand around your way of writing and not a specific sub-genre like billionaire or hockey—for me this is angst and betrayal, and my readers came along with me to Tuscany and a small town with cowboys (I didn't know this until much later)
Bonus chapter for every book – the book isn't done until you have the bonus chapter written!
Amazon ads – not on day one, but once you have 2-3 books, you need at least that many to get your money's worth (I started this eight months in and it's been brilliant. I earn 75% of my revenue from my backlist and only 25% from new releases)

6. Email marketing: you have an amazing newsletter which should be studied by email copywriters. Can you talk about the evolution of your list? How you seeded the initial subscribers, your main list traffic sources now and at the beginning, and numbers if you're comfortable.

I didn't start doing this until October 2023. I saw bonus chapters in other books, and I thought maybe I should do this. It has been a gold mine for me. I grew my list from 0 in June 2023 to 800-something in October 2023, and now to 61,000 YTD.

It's the one suggestion I give everyone. Just make the bonus chapter a part of your writing process—get BookFunnel going, and you start building a list of dedicated readers.

Today, I see an OR of 40-50% and a CTR of 3-5%.

I surveyed newsletter readers (I do lots of surveys!) and found they want excerpts and more about the writing process. Deals and free books are not high on their list, which makes sense as most of my revenue—85% of it—comes from KU.

Link: Maya Alden's Winter 2026 Newsletter Survey

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7 figure author interview