How To Build A Real Writing Career Inside Publishing with Lana McAra

The “candlelit desk” myth is beautiful until rent is due. We talk about the part most writers never see clearly until they’re already stuck inside it: the publishing machine, with its contracts, royalties, rights, timelines, platforms, and the nonstop reality of marketing. If you’re a fiction writer who’s been told to focus on the muse and let everything else “just happen,” this conversation is your reset.

We’re joined by Lana McAra, an award-winning international best-selling author and ghostwriter with 50 titles and over a million books sold. Lana has spent decades in traditional publishing, coaches novelists, hosts a fiction writers podcast, and runs Vendela Publishing with an author-owned model that keeps no royalties and holds no rights. She shares what she learned the hard way: getting published can take years, quality takes rewrites, and no publisher will care about your book as much as you do.

We get painfully practical about what “a book is a business” means on the ground: paying for inventory, event tables, displays, flyers, and the time cost of showing up. We also explore how to judge true ROI, including non-monetary profit like relationships, speaking invites, and new opportunities. Then we move into the long game: building a backlist, keeping multiple projects in the pipeline, creating sell-through, and choosing one marketing channel you can sustain without burning out.

If you’re sitting on a manuscript or a half-finished novel, let this be the nudge to think bigger than one launch. Subscribe for more conversations at the intersection of creativity and systems, share this episode with a writer friend, and leave a review with the one habit you’re committing to next.

Transcript

The Publishing Machine Behind The Dream

0:15

Dear listeners, you know, like there's a romance bold, it's telling about writers. The lone author, the candlelit desk, the muse arriving in the quiet hours, the book that pours out of them as if it were always meant to end. It's a beautiful story, I'd say. The trouble is it's not the whole one. Because somewhere between the page and the reader, there's a vast, intricate, sometimes brutal machine publishing. The contracts, royalties, and uh rights and timelines and platforms. And most aspiring writers never see that machine until they are already inside it, confused, broke, and wondering like why the dream they were sold doesn't pay the rent. Right? The career authors. The ones who actually make a life out of this know something, most of the romantic versions skip over. And a book is not just a book, it's a business. And the writers who understand that early stop writing it kind of in candlelight along enough to learn how the machine actually works. So hey dear listeners, welcome back to another powerful episode of Mind Meets Machine. I'm your host, Avik, and this is the show where we sit at the scene between human creativity and the systems that carried forward. And today we are going into machine. Most people never see from the inside. The machine of publishing and what it actually takes to build a career inside of it, not just one book story. And

Meet Lana Makara And Her Path

2:05

with me, we have a very lovely guest today. Please welcome Lana Makara. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Arve. I'm delighted to be here today. Amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us today. And dear listeners, before we delve deep into our discussion today, I'll quickly love to introduce you with Lana. So Lana is an award-winning international best-selling author and ghostwriter of 50 titles with over a million books sold. So she wrote much of her career under the pen name Rosie Dow, won the National Archistry Award for Reaping the Whirlwind, and her cozy mystery series, Colorado, sold a quarter of a million copies. And 25 years in traditional publishing, 20 years coaching novelist, founder and president of Vendela Publishing, and the author-owned model that keeps no royalties and holds no rights. And the host of the fiction I mean the fiction writers podcast. And there are a lot of things to discuss today. So I'll not take much of your time to elisten. I mean, it's it's the list is very huge. So let's get into it and uh welcome to the show again. Thank you so much. It is it is uh extensive, and when people say I want to talk to you, I'm like, okay, here's a list. Which one do you want to talk about? Exactly. Yeah. So I I

The Big Myth About Author Marketing

3:35

definitely want to start somewhere very honest, like, because because I believe there's a misconception also at the center of how most aspiring authors approach this whole world, and I think your career is the perfect lens to look at it uh I mean through like the dominant story is that fiction is pure creativity, and the only and only non-fiction writers need to think like business owners. So that novelists are different. That the muse takes, the muse takes care of the muse, the rest just happens. But after 50 books and a million copies sold, I have a feeling that you did push back on that hard. Like, I mean, if you can share, like, what do most aspiring fiction writers fundamentally misunderstand about what being a career author actually requires? Wow, what a great question. Thank you for starting out strong. What I didn't know at the beginning, which it took me 14 years to get published, I don't want anyone to think that I had it easy. It took me 14 years of struggle, and I was submitting books to publishers the entire time. So I had 19 rejections. I rewrote my book five times and finally hit it. I finally hit it. So I was teaching myself how to write, basically, because I was learning this and then I would try, then I would go back and learn again and then try. So we have to bring our work up to a quality that is acceptable. And then the next piece was I didn't realize how much it was going to require for me in the process. I figured I have a traditional publisher, they're going to take the book, they're going to do everything. And what I didn't realize was that the publisher requires the author to market. Okay. Regardless whether it's traditional or hybrid or whatever. And really, to be honest, the author is the one who cares the most. And therefore, the author is going to really put muscle behind it and put time and effort into it. Where the publisher may be publishing 50 books a year, 100 books a year. Where do they have the staff or time to give the individual attention to each one of those books? And so that's the reality of it. I I've had so many people, even today, even this month, well, we're on the first day of June, so last month, have said to me, Well, I want a traditional publisher because I don't want to do any marketing. Well, that isn't realistic. Unless you're a celebrity, you know, like a rock star or a sports star or a movie star, something like that. You're not going to get much from the from any publisher anywhere. So, with the exception of Vendela, Vendela Publishing does offer more than anyone else. But even at that, it's a boost, it's a start. It's not a full-term promotion campaign, which is what the author needs to think. So you can think of at least six months to one year after the book comes out to actively look for opportunities to promote your book. Get out there and pitch your book, show up. It's so easy for us as authors to hide. We hide in our office, we hide in a dark room with a candle, right? Exactly. But we have to come out in the light, we have to meet people and talk to people and get to know people, and that's really the way forward. I agree. I totally agree. And

Costs Profit And The Real P And L

7:40

and like when aspiring novelist hears you that say book is a business, then what is the part that makes them flinch? Well, with a when you have a book, you have a business, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, because it involves things like the cost of buying the book. You might be reselling it, you might have a book table and sell your book, but you have to buy the book first. They don't give it away for free. So you have that number, that's a cost. You have the cost of whatever event you might go to if you want to rent a table, that's a cost. You have a cost of what's going to be on your table. You want to have a nice-looking cover, you know, a cloth on your table. You want to have a display of some type that's appealing. I have a wooden rack that I put up there so I can stand my books up and show them vertically. There's all of these costs as well. And then there's a time cost. All the time it takes to plan what your table's going to be like, order the supplies. And you also need to order some things printed. You need flyers, you need bookmarkers, you need all these different things that you're going to put on your table. That's a cost. So when you add up all the costs, you have your investment in this event. Now you might be able to use some of those things again. You may be able to use the rack again and so forth. So take that into consideration. But there are costs for every single thing you do. And that goes on the minus side, the debit side of the of the profit and loss sheet, right? That's business talk. And then you have books sold on the other side. Did the number of books sold overcome the amount of loss that you paid? What how does that look? Was this a profitable venture or was it not profitable? Now, there's one thing I would add to this. The money is one thing, but there are other profits than money. If you met someone who has a big list and they're interested in you, that's a profit. If you met someone who has an event and they want you to come and speak, that's a profit. So look at the other profits as well, the connections, to see how it balances out. And sometimes spending more money is actually worth it if it puts you in a room where there are other people that you want to meet. And that goes for the other authors. If you're in a place where there are multiple authors, I try to go around and meet all the authors. I hand out my card, I talk to them. Of course, I have a podcast, and I will say, you know, come and be on my podcast. But there are so many advantages to getting in rooms full of people. If you do some other things, and this is this is another way that you can make money besides books. If you have a class and you sell the class, if you have other things that you do, I'm an editor. So if I meet an author and they say, Oh, I want you to edit my book, well, that's a that's a plus. That's a profit. So think about what else you can do. And this is something that I teach the Vandela authors every week in our meetings. What else can you do to make money? Because if you think about a book, you say your book costs $12. Your profit on that book may be four dollars. So, how many books would it take to make a profit if you're spending $200 on your table? You might have to sell 80 books. Exactly. So focusing on the book is actually not the best idea. The best idea is can I sell a course? Is there something I know that other people don't know? And here's the key to it, which I learned this, I don't know, 25 years ago, which really helped me a lot. So at the beginning of my career, you only have to be one week ahead of other people in order to teach them something. If you're one week ahead, you can hold a class on how to finish your book, how to submit to publishers, you can teach so many things because it's always a learning process. And if you've had a book out for say a year, you could teach about a lot of facets of the publishing industry. How to do book tables, what to get ready, here's my checklist, or this or that. And you can actually begin to help other people, and they are so happy to pay you for that because they need help. They need help. I don't have access to everybody, nobody else has access to everybody. You have access, certain people, and when you're there, you meet them, you're friendly, they connect with you, you have a conversation. Suddenly they know you and they think she might be able to help me. I'm stuck right here and I don't know what to do. I I have consulting, I I let people hire me to talk to them on the Zoom call for an hour if they want. And there's a price for that. It's worth it. It's not that much. But that brings me in some extra income. And at the same time, I'm helping an author. And I didn't do that on my own. Someone emailed me and said, How much would you charge for you to just talk to me about my marketing plan? And so I had to think. I had to come up with a number. And I sent that to him, and he's hired me for two two different times to come back and do another. So you have information that people would love to hear you talk about. So think about what else can I do to help someone and make some extra money too. Very true. Very, very true. Yeah.

Extra Income Beyond Book Sales

14:31

And and and you know, like I want to make this concrete for the listeners, like, because book as a business can sound abstract until it touches the floor of someone's actual work or actual week. So if you can, I mean, if if in the everyday version, who are listening, who has the talent, uh the manuscript, maybe even a first book out, what does running their writing like a business actually look like in practical, like day-to-day jobs? Okay, that's that's great because we're gonna break it down now. I love this. This is a great conversation. Yeah. So for the first thing, you need to keep writing. Because as a career author, you want to create a body of work. Once you have one book out, you've learned a lot. And yes, you'll need to take a little break when you're promoting your book at the beginning, say two months or three months to focus on that launch. But after that, you can do some activities while you're working on book number two. And you know, I usually have three books in the pipeline. I usually have three books that I'm either thinking about or have notes for or whatever, because it's very important to consistently roll out a new book. What you're doing is creating a backlist, and a backlist is the publisher's word for other titles that you've already done. So each new book becomes a new reason, a new excuse for you to publicize yourself as an author. You're getting out there consistently, new book, new book, new book, and then you'll have five books. And when someone finds you on book five, they're gonna say, What else does this person write? What else is there? And then you've got easier sales for one, two, three, four, and that's called sell through. So when you're selling through all the titles, that is so much more profitable. I mean, if you think four dollars for one book, if you sell five books, you're gonna get twenty, right? So uh that is part of it, and also the rhythm of writing, publishing, launching, and then writing, publishing, launching, this becomes a lifestyle, not just a hobby. Because when you're serious about becoming a career author, you will arrange your life to be able to do it with the time and with the with the income, all of it, you will rearrange your life. And and just give you a little story of how I started. When I started my writing career, I had seven children at home. They were young, they were young children. I had seven of them, and I was so focused and so intent that I would continue to write because writing built me up.

Daily Habits Backlist And Writing Time

17:55

It was me time, it was fun time. I needed it, I needed to have that time, and so I realized that my only time was between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. before the children woke up, and so I would roll out at 5 a.m., go to my desk, work for two hours, and then go on with my day, and that's how I was able to roll out one, two, and one year, three books in a year while my seven children were still at home. So, yes, I did do some weekends when I could. That didn't happen very often, not very often, but once in a while I could write on a Saturday. So what would be your time slot? How could you reorganize your life to include some writing time? Because I hear authors telling me all the time, almost daily, I don't have time. And then I give them my story. Well, now my children are grown, I have all the time, I can do it, but you know what? I still roll out early. I love the morning hours, it's quiet, the the neighborhood is quiet, the traffic is quiet. I love it, I love it. I got so addicted to that that I still roll out early because I trust me, I am also a morning person, and right now I mean it's a bit of complicated because of to match with different time zones, but I am actually a morning person, and you are 100% right because in the morning when I wake a wake up, it feels like I'm spending time with me. So no one is there. I can do whatever I want to. I can think, my mind works much faster than spending nights and nights to think and do it. So yeah, I mean, for me also it is the best. Yeah. Yeah. I tell that to a lot of people and they go, No, I can't do that. I know, I know, I know. Most people are the night owls and they and obviously I'm not disrespecting them. They're they have their what to say, they have their own arena that period only. But morning is always the best. Yeah. Well, I feel like I have energy. I've just slept. I wake up and I feel like I have energy. Some people wake up at 8 p.m. and they're full on until one o'clock in the morning or something. Then great, just find a time. Just find a time. Yeah, that works for you. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And also, like uh when to want to ask you about uh the because you have done this for uh 25 years and huge, huge achievements and a multi million books, course writing, teaching, building, hosting your own podcast. So I mean, I mean it's it's not a kind of career, I would say. I mean, that's a life built around the craft. So I want to ask you long game. I mean, for the long game, like how do you sustain this over decades? Like, how do you keep loving it when industry shifts under your feet? Well, that's such a great question. And that is a word that I use with my my authors a lot is it's a long game. Yeah, you got to play the long game. So, what that means is you don't put too much pressure on one event. And I had that kind of magical thinking in the past where I thought, if I could just get this, if I could just get in this room, if I could just win this award, if I could just do this, it would all shift for me. Well, you know, there really isn't. There's no magic bullet, there's no magic to to do that. Now, winning the Christie Award did help my career. There's that's for sure. It got me recognition as a good writer, but there's really nothing, no shortcut to consistency showing up and showing up and showing up. I go to a gun show. There's a gun show in my town. I'm the only book person there. Someone in my one of my classes here in my town said to me, You should go to the gun show. There are women there that are following their men around. They're bored. They might be readers. You might sell some books. So I said, why not? I'll try. You know, and I felt so fish out of water. I felt so out of place at a gun show. Little me, I've never shot a gun in my life. I don't really care about guns. But I started going to the gun show. I've been going for about six months or so. Sometimes I sell one book or two books. It cost me $90 for that table. If I sell two books, I might have made $10. But this happened to me the last time I was at the gun show. A woman stopped at the table and she said, I saw something about you, but I can't remember where it was. It might have been social media or it might have been a press release. I don't remember. But when I saw it, I said, Oh yeah, that's the lady at the gun show. So consistency. You just keep showing up. You just keep going. And it is tiring. It is hard. Sometimes it's really boring, you know, to stand there for six hours and chat a little here and there with people. You're not really seeing a lot of action. But then the next time you're there again, people you talked to before will stop and say hi. And the next thing you know, you've started to build a little following. And when someone sees you somewhere else, they'll recognize you. And so you just have to claim your space, find a little place, claim it, and just keep showing up there because eventually people will get the idea this person is serious. They're an author, they've got books. And look, more books today than there was yesterday, and that kind of thing. So you claim your space. Oh, yeah, there's sometimes you should stop going if it's not profitable. But for me, that gun show has a lot of people from my town that I have never met before because it's a certain sector of the community that goes, and I don't have access to them. And once I had gone a few times, I realized this is my chance to meet people I would never meet otherwise. I'm gonna just come here and stay here and meet people and talk to people. And I've had people start to attend my class, my local class in person,

The Long Game Of Showing Up

25:10

and other other connections that I've had. So there's more to it than selling books. But another piece of it is show, show up, just show up and keep showing up. There's a man in uh in my class, he's got nine books out, I think. He was a pastor, but now he's retired. So he's an older gentleman, very, very friendly, and knows a lot of people. But he just started to figure out Facebook, and he started running giveaways. If you share my post, I will give you a PDF copy of this certain thing. And he sent me a text message this week, and it was a screenshot of 125,000 views on one of his posts because of this stuff that he's been doing. Now, there's another thing of showing up. He decided I'm going to do this, and he just kept showing up week after week for probably three or four months, and now he's building. He's building. That's the kind of consistency that it takes. Now, I'm not saying you need to do everything at one time, he's doing one thing Facebook posts with these little giveaways he's doing. That's it, that's all he's doing. So find something that you could do that you would not feel too weighed down and stay with it. Stay with it. This is a long game. Don't go home discouraged and say, I'm not going back. Give yourself time. Give yourself time. Say, I'm gonna do this for the next six months, or I'm gonna do this for the next one year. It doesn't matter what happens. I don't care if I sell a book or not, I'm still gonna go. And that's when you can start getting traction. I had to do it, and every successful author I know of had to do it. James Redfield wrote what did he write? No, the name of the book just went out of my mind. It was a very famous movie about energy and the Celestine prophecy. It's a very famous movie. But James Redfield back in the day, and I think this was in the 1980s, so it's been a while. There was no Amazon, there was nothing then, and he couldn't get accepted by publishers. Do you know what he did? He put boxes of books in the trunk of his car, and he drove around the United States for two years selling that book out of the back of his car. That's what I'm talking about. It's a long game. His wife went with him, they were she was supportive. They lived out of the car for two years selling his book. Look at it now. It is a classic. Everybody knows what the Celestine prophecy is. Most people have seen the movie, and it was a groundbreaking work about energy, and he believed in what he had. And now he literally changed the consciousness of the United States through his consistency. Consistency. Right. Amazing. So I'd love to ask you if listeners want to connect with you, what would be the great medium to connect?

Where To Connect And Final Nudge

28:45

It's so easy. Put Lana McCara in Facebook. I'm also on Instagram. But if you go to my website, lana McAra.com, and I'll spell it Lana L-A-N-A. Makara is M-C. C isn't Cat A-R-A, M-C-A-R-A.com. And there's a contact page there for me. There's also a free giveaway where if you're a fiction author, you can download a plan, what I call the novel notebook, and it's a plan for how to get your work organized. That's totally free. And you can email me, lana at lanachira.com. I would love to hear from you. I answer every single email. Thank you, Alvic. Amazing. Thank you so much, Lana. And to our listeners, what I'll do is I'll put all the links and the details into the show notes for your easy reference. And I have to say that everyone who is listening, if you are sitting on a manuscript or a story, or half-written first novel, or just I mean long-held dream of being a real author, let today be the nudge. And not to write faster, to think bigger. About the career, the business, the long arc of the work. The books will the I mean the books that will matter most haven't been written yet, and a few of them might be inside the people who is listening right now. So share this with someone who you know who's still calling themselves an aspiring writer. Maybe today is the day they drop the word aspiring. So with this with this hope, definitely. I'm your host, Erik, and this is my name is Machine. We'll meet you back here soon. Until then, write the thing. Then learn the machine. That's how career gets built. Thank you so much.