It’s now been over a year since my young adult sapphic romance Does Love Always Win? has been out in the world and what a journey its been. Just like querying my book, publication has been a roller coaster of emotions, but overall, it’s been a really fun and rewarding experience.
One of my favorite parts has been meeting the readers and hearing why they are excited about reading my book and why they loved reading it. So many people have said they wished they could have read it in high school, which is exactly why I wrote this book. I was just at an LGBTQ+ book festival and someone came up to me and said they already owned my book and liked it and were going to bring it by the next day for me to sign. I was floored they already owned it; it was such a cool experience!
I also have really enjoyed getting to meet and become good friends with other authors. That is something I had NO idea would happen. There isn’t a single day that goes by that I don’t talk to one of my author friends and I can’t even imagine what life was like without knowing them. They support me in my writing and in my life in general.
Being a published author has helped me increase my public speaking skills. When you set out to be a writer, you don’t think, oh I’m going to need to speak to large audiences too. I’ve never been a fan of public speaking and had to do it for different day jobs but now suddenly I’m doing it for my author career. But this is different. I’m speaking from the heart about my writing and my life, which you’d think would be easier but I have to be vulnerable. Very vulnerable. But the more I do it, the easier it becomes. I just spoke on a panel about bi-erasure with 40-50 people in the audience and I did feel nervous, but not as much as I would have a year ago.
Something that hasn’t been great is reading reviews. They always tell you not to read your reviews and I wholeheartedly agree with this statement but it is so hard not to. I stopped doing it because it just wasn’t healthy for me and didn’t help my imposter syndrome. There are always going to be people that don’t like what you write, you just don’t need to see it.
I have also learned not to burn myself out. You can’t do everything. I scheduled a ton of events the first couple of months for my publication but by the end of it I was so tired and depressed. I set myself up with unrealistic expectations and also left no time for rest. I had to work a day job during the week, was trying to take care of a child under a year old, and then had these events on the weekends, some over two hours away. There was no time to breathe or even enjoy my accomplishment. So in 2024 I stopped doing most events and marketed more on social media and that worked really well. It was easier to find my target audience that way. My book is more niche so I have learned that unless there is an event that is more LGBTQ+ focused, I’m less likely to find my readers and might need to consider if it’s really worth my time or not.
Next up, my YA superhero book Superficial is being published on September 24th! I’m so excited about this book. It’s the book of my heart with a pansexual/demisexual main character who starts to fall for a guy, just like me. I saw a draft of the cover and I’m so in love! I can’t wait to share this story with the world and continue my author career with two books under my belt.
Diane Billas 