Fully Booked EP175: Can You Have a Writing Career Without Amazon?

Fully Booked: The Hidden Gems Author Podcast

This week, Craig and Roland welcome Lauren Carter Reilly to the podcast—a trailblazing author who’s rewriting the rules of self-publishing by steering clear of Amazon entirely when it comes to finding readers for her Gothic horror series The Wonderful Lady B and her upcoming romantic comedy In This Fair Chase.

Lauren’s writing career has roots in her background as a classically trained actress, a background she used to captivate an audience of 142,000 TikTok followers with witty, shocking, and engaging video shorts that featured many of the characters she’d later go on to write about in her books. This audience gave her the leverage to skip the hamster wheel of Amazon publishing entirely, empowering her to sell books directly to readers instead, through both her website and local independent bookstores.

Driven by a commitment to creative freedom and ethical publishing in a world that often pushes authors toward corporate platforms, Lauren’s journey is a powerful example of how authors can build a brand on their own terms, market their books organically, and navigate the challenges of writing across genres.

Lauren Carter Reilly

https://www.glamourpossum.com/

Hidden Gems

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All episode details and links: 

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