Valentine’s Day may be over, but for some writers romance is top of mind year round. The twelve authors who comprise the Jewels of Historical Romance have collectively logged more than 200 years writing in the romance genre and have launched more than 200 eBooks!

Members of the Jewels of Historical Romance had just two things in common when Cynthia Wright and Lauren Royal formed the group in the summer of 2012. They all wrote historical romance, and they all were holding down top spots on ebook bestseller lists. Their careers spanned various decades, with Jill Barnett and Tanya Anne Crosby launching their bestselling romance careers in the 1980s, and Danelle Harmon, Cheryl Bolen, Brenda Hiatt, and Annette Blair debuting in the 1990s. Lauren Royal, Glynnis Campbell, Laurin Wittig, Colleen Gleason, and Lucinda Brant came on the romance scene in the new millennium. Eleven of the 12 members began their careers in traditional New York publishing, and all 12 have now enthusiastically embraced indie publishing.

We asked them to come together (virtually, of course) for a guest post on how they joined forces as independent authors, what they’ve learned from the experience, and what they love about self-publishing.

Has self-publishing changed your writing and your writing career?

Regency writer Cheryl Bolen, whose first book was published by Harlequin Historical in 1998, says while her earlier books would rate a 6 or 7 on the “heat scale,” she’s happy to now write a less sexy book–now that she’s indie publishing. “On the digital shelf, there are books to appeal to vast array of readers, and now I’m happy to offer romances more like those I read long ago as a young wife,” Bolen said. “You can be deeply romantic without a lot of graphic descriptions of sex scenes.”

Laurin Wittig, who writes about sexy Scots, says the digital format has allowed her to rekindle her writing career. “I thought my career was over when traditional publishing didn’t want any more books from me. Once I got those books back and self published them I discovered there was an audience hungry for my stories still out there. Hearing from those readers has been wonderful and I now have the career I always wanted!”

How has digital publishing changed a writer’s relationship to readers?

As a self-publishing author, Jill Barnett enjoys that her books “have a whole new life and with social media, I love hearing from new readers who love the stories I have to tell.”
Although Colleen Gleason had published more than 15 books with New York publishers, none of those titles were historical romances. She had to wait until the indie-pub revolution in order to find an audience for her beloved medieval romances—which she’d written and submitted over the years—and she’s found what she’s always suspected was true: that New York publishers missed the mark when they said medieval romances don’t sell. Colleen is pleased to say, “Yes, they do!”
How does your group work together?

When the group formed, almost all of the authors were strangers to one another–though many of them were known by their reputations. “The cross-pollination that occurs when quality authors of the same genre introduce their fans to the group is incredible,” said double Rita-finalist Glynnis Campbell, another successful author of sexy Scots.  “All of us have benefited by sharing our audience.  Also, combining our efforts, talents, and capital has allowed us to do things we couldn’t do on our own, such as offer impressive monthly prizes, create boxed sets, and hold popular virtual events in our Facebook Jewels Salon .”

Self-publishing can be fast-paced. How do you keep writing so many books?

All of the Jewels write at least five days a week. The group’s most prolific author, multi USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Annette Blair has written more than 40 books. Blair writes anywhere from three to 18 hours a day and admits historicals take a lot longer to write than her contemporaries. Danelle Harmon said of her publishing process, “I get very deeply involved in my stories and when they’re done, it’s terribly hard for me to let them go and move on. It took me six months to write my most recent book, Lord of the Sea.”

Bestselling author Tanya Anne Crosby said now, “It’s the simple fact that I’m writing for my readers that really does wonders for my creative energy. This year alone I have four brand-new releases scheduled!”

What are the advantages of self-publishing?
Along with getting paid monthly and having total control over your covers, the Jewels agree that gaining control of their publishing careers makes a huge difference in their experience. A huge proponent of indie publishing, Brant says she loves, “having control of the entire process, from writing the book, through choosing an editor, working with a cover artist on what I want the cover to look like, and getting direct feedback from readers. Oh, and of course the more equitable distribution of monies earned.”

The topic of control also extends to titles that this group of authors has launched in digital for the first time. For Brenda Hiatt, 15 of her 17 books are re-releases of books previously published in the 1990s and early 2000s. “In the case of at least two books,” she said, “I was able to update/improve the actual story before re-releasing them as indies.” Lauren Royal concurs, saying that re-releasing these books herself, she’s been able to add back in scenes her publisher cut to reduce production costs for her long books.

How do you manage the business of publishing?

Though all the Jewels of Historical Romance enjoy crafting sigh-worthy romances, they’re also businesswomen, and all of them have a keen interest in checking sales volume at regular intervals. “I obsessed over sales numbers and checked every day—or several times a day,” Royal said, “but I quickly learned that can be a terrible time-suck, not to mention a distraction from what I really needed to be doing. Now I use BookTrakr, an online service that tracks my sales, ratings, rankings, and reviews, and emails me a combined report of the previous day’s numbers every morning.” In fact, Royal was the inspiration for this tool: BookTrakr was developed by her husband and oldest son “because they saw me going crazy checking my sales numbers.” Royal said.

What’s the best thing about working together on your publishing careers?

For the group’s founders, Royal and Cynthia Wright, and more than half of the Jewels of Historical Romance, the highlight of both their indie publishing careers and their collaboration is the fact that for the first time, they were able to land spots on both the USA Today and the New York Times best-seller lists. Just recently, Scandalous Brides, a digital boxed set of full-length Regency romances by Annette Blair, Cheryl Bolen, Lucinda Brant and Brenda Hiatt, made number 4 on the NY Times combined print-ebook fiction list.