Michelle M. Pillow

Publisher info

Michelle M. Pillow is a prolific NY Times & USA TODAY bestselling author with over a million books sold. Though she writes in many genres, she is best known for romance and mystery. Her rich world building creates portals for the imagination. She is a winner of the RT Reviewers' Choice Award. Fan favorites include the Qurilixen World (a multi-series collection) and Warlocks MacGregor series. She loves to interact with readers. Visit her at MichellePillow.com.

Smashwords Interview

Who are you and what do you do?
I'm bestselling, award-winning romance author Michelle M. Pillow. -- It always seems strange talking about myself like that because most days I just feel like a girl with a computer. -- I write in a variety of romance fiction genres, including futuristic, paranormal, historical, contemporary, fantasy, and dark paranormal. I have been all over the publishing world--from traditional "big name" publishers to e-first publishers and now Indie.

My first book was published April 2004 and is called "The Mists of Midnight", a Regency-set Ghost Romance (anniversary edition now called Forget Me Not). Since then, I've published nearly 100 titles, many of which are in their second and third editions. Being prolific is easy when you love your job! Several of the titles have also been published in foreign languages, including Spanish, German, Japanese, etc. And I have titles published with The Raven Books, Pocket Books, Random House, Virgin Books, Adam’s Media, Samhain Publishing, Running Press, and more.

I've been on the Amazon bestseller list multiple times, nominated for the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award 2011, the winner of the 2006 RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, nominated for the 2007 RT Award, a Brava Novella Contest Finalist.

You can find out more online here: www.MichellePillow.com
You had already "made it" why on Earth would you go Indie?
When Mandy Roth (Raven Happy Hour) and I (The Raven Books) started indie we were told that it was a mistake. We both had big NY traditional publisher contracts. We were at the sought after e-first publishing houses. We'd had multiple contracts with stacks more on our desks waiting for consideration. No one could seem to understand why we would want to leave traditional publishing to strike out as Indie authors (mind you, this was before the big self-pub boom that later hit).

The truth is, we didn't leave all our publishers. We still have great ties with them and offers stacked on our cyber desk for consideration. In 2008 we had the option to take our books out of contract with some of our publishers. We both had extensive backlist titles and, though we had offers to re-contract them elsewhere, there was just too many of them to have them re-release in a timely manner. For me, many of these were part of series that readers were eager for more of--like the futuristic romance multi-series: Dragon Lords, Lords of the Var and Space Lords. With over 10 books in that multi-series alone, releasing 1-2 books a year to balance them out with new releases would have taken 5-10 years just to get part of my backlist back out. Reader wanted more books now (which is always an awesome thing to have as an author!). Thus, we decided no risk, no reward and jumped in with both feet.

Our traditional background helps tremendously when navigating the self-pubbed waters. There are pros and cons to both traditional press and being indie, and I decide what to do depending on my goals with a particular book. Also, we built fan bases from the ground up and paid many writerly dues. In the end, The Raven Books was one of the BEST! career decisions I've ever made.
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Where to find Michelle M. Pillow online

Where to buy in print