I'm making sure you have some emotional and bittersweet stories to read.

Howdy! I'm Lauren, and I write historical fiction. I am so grateful to you, my supporters, my readers, and my newsletter subscribers, and I'm here to ask you for a favor. 

Books are actually quite expensive to produce, launch, and market, especially on your own. I've pulled thousands of dollars from my family's savings, and I've been able to pay myself back, but with recent changes in the Amazon algorithm and the increasing cost of ads and stagnant book prices, I find myself about to be pulling money back out of my family savings again.

I am slowly working not to be exclusive to Amazon (such as starting to sell my audiobooks wide and direct), so my income is not completely dependent on whether or not they change their algorithm, which they did twice this past year, and the cost of ads has since tripled and moving toward quadrupling over three years.  It is taken me twelve months and counting to figure out how to get my books back into the algorithm. What used to cost $1.50 in ad cost to sell the series starter, now costs me $3-$5, where my royalty remains at $2.64.

On average, it costs me around $2,000 to $3,000 to produce, launch, and market a single $3-$5 market-priced book, and that is with me doing my own cover design and formatting and having volunteer beta readers and proofreaders and most recently a volunteer development editor. My first book cost me well over $5,000 to produce, launch, and market because I did not have such wonderful volunteers, nor did I do my own cover design.

My Request

So, why am I on BuyMeaCoffee.com? Well, I need help, to be perfectly honest. I need about ~$400/month to keep my author career viable, and that will allow me to produce 2-5 books/audiobooks per year if author income remains steady, which, unfortunately, it doesn't i.e. in 2022, I made only 2/3 of what I made in 2021 with 3 more books out.

If you love my books and can spare a few dollars a month (USD) to help me with costs so I can keep producing books you love, I would appreciate any financial support you can give. Your support will go a long way, and I will be a most diligent steward of your funds. I am taking courses and attending webinars to keep up with ad changes across the major ad platforms and with current launching strategies to hopefully save costs down the road and optimize efficiencies in my ads to hopefully reduce my ad spend as much as I can.

If ongoing support is not your cup of tea, I'd appreciate any one-time help in covering the costs of my book production and marketing tools over on my wishlist. I've listed only the tools that are directly involved in the book production and launch. Helping with those will get your name listed as a Book Production Team Member in the back of each book I publish in the year of your support.

As a thank you:

I've set up different rewards based on membership level. I'll keep producing content as supporters are growing, but if it becomes clear, that this page is flopping, I'll deactivate the page because there are only so many hours in the week, and I still have a day job plus a family. If its turning out I have a lot of supporters who are willing to help out to earn some cool rewards, I'll incrementally add rewards and extras because I truly am so grateful for you.

Can't or don't want to help financially?

I completely understand. Period. I feel bad even asking. But with the climate, as it is, and my other failed marketing techniques, I didn't know what else to do. I love writing stories for you, and I hope I can continue one way or another.

If you can spare a minute or two, I always appreciate a social media post about my books, a posted book review on Amazon, BookBub, and/or Goodreads, a recommendation of my book for a book club or to an influencer, or the gifting of my book(s) to someone who would enjoy them!

Every little bit helps, and I appreciate you, your support, and your generosity. 

And of course, if you'd like to buy me a $1 coffee for my late writing nights, my brain thanks you :)