This Month’s Featured Article

When August rolls around, I get to thinking about books. It simply can’t be helped – in past years, I’ve written about Romance Awareness Month and Read-A-Romance Month for our August issue, highlighting a vast selection of independent authors and their writing processes. Last year, I even expanded this inquiry to encompass plenty of other roles in the online book community, from readers and influencers to photographers and PR. So naturally, when the weather gets warm, my mind wanders to the book world.

My goal in previous articles was to understand the indie romance community and learn why so many people are not just captivated and engaged by this romance-centric literary space, but are also eager to dedicate their lives and careers to this genre, whether that be in the independent publishing sphere or not.

The writing and publishing environment in general has witnessed some significant changes since my last exploration into the subject. It feels crucial now more than ever to delve deeper into these evolving complexities in the industry – primarily, the ever-changing popular preferences, cover design trends, and the evolution of copyright issues and generative artificial intelligence – to assess how independent authors experience and navigate them.

Diving back into the book community

If you’ve ever found yourself on “BookTok” – the side of TikTok that’s all about books and readers – it’s likely you’ve noticed how often popular opinion shifts and changes, creating a constant ebb and flow of what’s trending and what readers are looking for at any given moment. As with any genre, romance fans each have their own specific preferences, especially when it comes to tropes (or, fictional themes and relationship dynamics) leaving authors occupied with far more than just the words on the page.

USA Today bestselling independent romance author Jennifer Sucevic, who started out in the historical romance realm before making the shift to contemporary themes, has witnessed the rise of this new online literary atmosphere. Having published her first book on Amazon in 2015, Jennifer explains how when she began writing sports romance about ten years ago, it was because it called to her as both a reader and author: “At the time, I didn’t even know what a trope was. I just followed my instincts and wrote the kind of stories that pulled me in as a reader.”

Soon, though, as the community began to transform, placing more emphasis on tropes, Jennifer says, “I realized many of the dynamics I gravitated toward have names – enemies to lovers, fake dating, he falls first and harder, and more.”

Now, it’s common for an indie romance author to use these tropes as a way to draw readers in, using catchy phrases and recognizable trope names to promote their books and signal to readers what kind of story they can expect.

For Jennifer, the knowledge of these expectations has been difficult to navigate.“In the past few years, trends seem to have become even more important, and they shift faster than ever,” she observes. “Instead of simply writing the story I want to tell, I now find myself thinking about the tropes and scenes readers are actively seeking out.”

For award-winning, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Brighton Walsh, though, knowing what tropes readers like can serve as a helpful guide during the writing process. “Having more direct access to what readers are loving and raving about has allowed me to think of how I could insert similar situations or feels into the books I’m writing, which has led me to crafting more bingeable, buzzworthy books.”

Brighton, who has had several of her own titles go viral on TikTok and earn the “Best of BookTok” tag on Amazon, explains that it’s not about merely going along with fads, but rather keeping a close eye on what sort of books are garnering attention and aligning these details with her own authorial interests.

“I don’t usually focus on what’s trending because that comes and goes. But if I’m writing a series with four books, I’m going to do everything I can to put the hottest-at-the-moment trope(s) in book one,” Brighton explains. “I’m going to pick something that I think has commercial appeal, of course, but I’m not going to write something I don’t care for just because it’s the hot trend at the moment.”

The ever-changing tide of trends

USA Today and Amazon #1 bestselling author Kandi Steiner has been an independent author for 11 years, so much like Jennifer, she’s been in the career long enough to witness the industry’s consistent state of evolution. “The only constant is change,” she muses. “EVERYTHING changes – what tropes and vibes are popular, book cover trends, which authors are ‘hot.’”

Kandi’s books often originate from “flashes” of ideas that develop over time in her phone’s notes app, and she tries to hold off on trend-based thinking until the book itself is already done.

“It wouldn’t work for me to think about what readers want and try to write that. It just isn’t how my brain works,” she clarifies. “But I DO think about it after the book is written – how can I market this? What would BookTok love about this book? How do I get them to take a chance on me as a writer?”

Independent romance author Jagger Cole has a very similar approach, letting inspiration strike in the form of random thoughts which, inevitably, end up in one of the “eleven billion notes” on his phone.

While he doesn’t necessarily seek out the dark romantic, normally mafia-esque tropes that he writes, Jagger admits, “A huge part of writing genre fiction, especially as an indie author, is that you absolutely do need to give people what they want to read. And yes, sometimes that means pulling your book a little more in the direction of a current trend in tropes or subgenres.”

He also points out the need to be careful about reviews, which can impact the creative process. It’s no surprise that Jennifer, Kandi, and Brighton also have their own limits when it comes to reviews and how much they can read them.

“Even with the good reviews, I tend to kind of gloss over them when it comes to being influenced by them. Otherwise, you’ll get a situation where you fixate on that one reviewer who really wanted a clown in the book,” Jagger jokes. “So, all of a sudden, all of your books involve clowns, and 99.9999% of your readers are very confused about it, because none of them ever even remotely asked for clowns.”

Judging a book by its cover

While tropes are certainly a major factor in the evolution of trends, cover design has led to front-and-center discourse in the community. What’s popular for cover design has not only developed significantly over the years, but it’s an intensely pivotal part of the job.

Kandi explains the broader culture shift with romance covers quite aptly, discussing how model covers, which display real, romantic-looking people, were popular and well-loved by readers for a long time. She attributes this to the fact that readers were proud to show off their covers, signalling to the world that they were reading romance and that it was their right, welcoming the question, “Whoa, what are you reading?”

She continues, “But then, as TikTok began to embrace the book community, I think especially young women readers found that attention to be too much. They wanted to be able to read at the pool or beach, on the train or plane, or in the same room with their grandmother without people raising eyebrows and wondering what they were reading.”

Kandi has fully embraced the ever-expanding options for covers. “No matter what the trends do, I just remind myself to have fun and lean into it. Some of my favorite covers might never have been born if I’d just decided to stick to what I knew.”

Jennifer seconds this, noting how important it is to make that investment for readers and deliver something special for them. Today, a cover might feature a model, a cartoon, an illustration, an object, or be otherwise considered “discreet.” Authors might also offer special editions featuring foiled dust jackets, sprayed edges, and custom interiors.

“It’s exciting to have that creative freedom, but it also adds pressure,” Jennifer points out. “With so many beautiful designs flooding the market, choosing the right cover style is more important than ever. You want a design that fits the story and resonates with your target audience, but you also need it to stand out in an oversaturated genre.”

Although picking the right cover model to capture a character’s essence is still a huge part of Jennifer’s (as well as Kandi’s, Brighton’s, and Jagger’s) work, she’s also been collaborating with artists in recent years to make custom artwork for her books, which shows just how hand-in-hand these creative pursuits really are. “There’s something really special about seeing characters brought to life in a specific scene. It adds a whole new dimension to the story,” she muses.

Giving readers the best of both worlds

In many ways, trends for tropes apply in a very similar way to covers. Jagger, because he writes in the darker romantic niche, explains how he tries to hit the same notes readers will be expecting when designing his own covers as he would in the actual content of his books – thorny roses, fire, or shattered glass might appear on the alternate covers of his dark mafia books, for example.

Indie romance author AK Landow, who I interviewed for our first investigation into the genre in 2023, explains that as a rom-com writer, she’s had to lean into the cover expectations for that niche – bright colors, illustrated designs, and a playful vibe – to signal to readers what they can expect. “I’m finding my illustrated covers are bringing in a whole different group of readers,” she says. “On social media, they will not assume it’s a rom-com unless it’s illustrated.”

Jagger also observes that a big reason for the change in cover preferences over the years has been TikTok algorithms censoring content that appears too risque. “I still mostly release books with model covers, because that works for me,” he explains. “But I love that it’s always changing. It keeps things fresh and encourages creativity and new ways of thinking, and that’s always a good thing.”

Brighton was a photographer and graphic designer before becoming a full-time author, giving her particularly sharp insight into this side of the work. “When I was traditionally published, I was at the whims of the publisher and had to follow what they commissioned,” she shares. “But with my self-published books, I’m able to adjust to those trends and alter when possible.”

However, with the emergence of the discreet and illustrated cover options, Brighton wants to ensure that this trend isn’t reinforcing the shame and misogyny often experienced by the community. “I do believe we’ve slipped backward a bit in cover style. Many romance readers are ashamed to show off what they’re reading, which I think contributed to the boom of both illustrated and discreet cover design styles,” she posits.

“On a personal level, I don’t love that. Not the designs – I actually quite like them and have many for my shelves! But when those designs come because of shame, I hate that,” she clarifies.

Indie romance author Maggie Rawdon, who was also interviewed in our first piece on the topic, explains that at the end of the day, cover design should be all about listening to your heart. She exclaims, “I’ve found that no matter which kind of cover you pick – model, illustrated, or discreet – someone will hate it and let you know about it, so in a world where there is no pleasing everyone, do the thing that makes your creative heart happy!”

Protecting intellectual property

Another significant responsibility for indie authors isn’t about creation at all, but rather protecting the integrity of what they’ve written and the fictional worlds they’ve developed and shared with readers. From writing and editing, to designing and marketing, independently published authors juggle a variety of responsibilities, running their own business at every level. While many in the community are able to hire folks to help them with PR, personal assistance, and more, the brand itself, and the ability to protect said brand against piracy, is yet another worry on authors’ minds.

When it comes to piracy, many opt to hire a service that monitors the web for pirated copies of their books. This service can then send cease and desist letters to get these versions removed from the internet. Brighton shares that she’s had over 35,000 takedown notices sent through the service she hires. “Amazon has been known to remove Kindle Unlimited books because of being posted on pirate sites, but otherwise, I don’t concern myself with it,” she says.

Kandi remarks that for a short period of time, every book she published to KU would be pirated and sold on Apple Books, jeopardizing her KU enrollment. While she was able to fill out a form through Apple to have these pirated versions taken down, she finds piracy more concerning when it comes from readers themselves. “It’s very discouraging, especially because I offer my books in affordable programs like Kindle Unlimited, as well as run sales on them all the time. I also offer many freebies throughout the year,” she explains. “I just try to focus on the amazing readers who support me and how thankful I am for them.”

Jennifer takes a similar approach to the issue, striving to focus on what she can control and refraining from hiring a takedown service. She describes, “I’d rather focus my energy on the amazing, supportive readers who continue to show up and make this career possible.”

AK, who has had many of her own works pirated, explains that unfortunately, “Pirating is part of this process. The more popular a book is, the more it’s pirated.” She affirms, “If a time comes when Amazon gives me an issue about pirated copies, I know I’ve done all I can to protect against it.”

Having previously been a professional musician, Jagger witnessed this issue in the music industry first-hand. “I came up while Napster and online file sharing was almost literally burning the music industry as it then existed to the ground. It’s changed a lot since then. But we all still listen to music. We all still buy music. The same goes for books,” he asserts.

What about AI?

Jagger points out that from the sheer amount of AI-written books flooding the market, to the AI book covers trained on stolen, copyrighted material, the emergence of generative AI comes with a ton of ethical and intellectual property concerns. He even notes that he’s started to worry about being accused of AI in his own work.

“Do you write and release books at a rapid pace, because you’re working your ass off writing ten hours a day, five days a week? Must be AI. Do you use em dashes? Totally AI,” he quips. “So now, I’m actively altering my writing voice to not sound like the plagiarism machine that probably trained itself off of my writing voice.”

Indeed, Brighton adds that while the future of AI is unknown, what is for certain is that her books, along with every other author she knows, were used to train AI systems without permission. But she will always stick with human art: “I will continue to be committed to hiring voice actors for my audiobooks and artists for my commissioned artwork because having that human touch is important to me.”

It’s true: you’ll be hard-pressed to find a machine that can achieve what real human perspective and emotion can. Following suit with Brighton, Kandi affirms her commitment to human voices and artists, emphasizing, “I think art IS human and that’s what makes it so special.”

The complexity and depth of the indie romance community is certainly built on these authentic, personal foundations, and while the genre itself, online trends, and the independent publishing landscape will continue to evolve, one thing remains certain. “There will always be a demand for stories written with genuine emotion and a human touch,” asserts Jennifer. “And that’s something AI can’t replicate.”

If you’d like to read the full interviews with Jennifer Sucevic, Brighton Walsh, Kandi Steiner, and Jagger Cole, as well as follow-up interviews with AK Landow and Maggie Rawdon, you can find them on our website mainstreetmag.com. Here you’ll also find the authors’ socials and more info!