I hope that you all can feel the level of Fan Girl experience I am having at this very moment. It is times like this that I freaking could kiss Mark Zuckerburg (the creator of Facebook) for giving me access to my favorite authors such as today with Jennifer Ashley.

Below is an interview that I was able to do with Jennifer Ashley/Ashley Gardner about genre jumping. It always fascinated me how successful she is in not one, not two, but three different genres. Check out our interview below and learn from a true master.

 

BC: Thank you for taking the time to talk with me about…publishing and writing. I’m an avid follower of your work. I started, like many, with Ian Mackenzie. I’ve followed you on social media for a little over a year now.  So when I was introduced to the Captain Lacey series it was intriguing to me to see if your genre jump was successful. 
Like straight up are you making money on it? 

JA: Straight up, yes! I’ve been very, very pleased with the sales of the Capt. Lacey series. It’s now coming out in audio as well (my narrator says he’s just finished book four—books 1-3 are already available), and I’m happy with those sales too. Historical mystery is a small niche genre, so I was not expecting much at all. I’ve been pleasantly surprised!

BC: How did you go about pitching it so it could be published? 
JA: The original six books (starting with The Hanover Square Affair), were published by Berkley Prime Crime years ago. They went out of print quickly (I guess the market wasn’t ready for them then), and I republished them myself when self-publishing started to be a big deal. I added a novella (the Necklace Affair) that I’d written but never published, a couple of short stories that had been published in small magazines (The Gentleman’s Walking Stick etc), and then wrote three new books, the latest of which, Murder in Grosvenor Square, came out this past October. I’m busy writing more now!

BC: I know this is very borderline stalkerish so I apologize. But I connected with you so I could watch you and see how you have achieved your success. And I love your books. Honestly here is what I have come up with.
1. Stellar writing
2. Series writing
3. Volume/Backlist
4. Consistency 
5. Interaction with your audience on social media
6. Fast writing
Is that pretty accurate or do you have a crystal ball you aren’t sharing? 

JA: LOL I think of all of those, consistency has contributed the most to success, as well as volume—readers do like to delve into series that are already going and read them all at once. I do write fairly fast—takes me 1-3 months on a story, depending on length, though I know authors who write faster.

BC: I mean you have like over 85 novels out right? Would you say I got any of that right? Oh and there is one final one that I think really I admire the most. You absolutely love what you do. Correct?


JA: You are right that I do love what I do. I learned a long time ago that if I don’t love something, I’m miserable, and I suck at it.
As an author, you can get kind of shoved into a box or into a genre / style of writing you don’t enjoy. I’ve resisted that. I’m very stubborn about making sure I write what I love to write. Being an author is a stressful occupation—why make it more stressful?

And, yes, I have about 80-85 books and novellas, last count.


BC: Are you a full time writer? Like are you at that level where you are able to do writing full time and sustain your bills and such?

JA: I do write full time, have been since 2001, even before I got published. I realized that my brain was not going to focus on being a writer until I just became a writer. I knew I’d always dink around trying to be a published author while I was working a full-time job, and never do it. So I quit.
Did I plan this well, and have my bills paid off and money saved up? No. My husband and I were stone broke. But I had faith in myself to make it work, and I made it work. (And TG, my husband had that faith too)
I have been able to support the family with writing since about 2005, and the last six years have been my best ever. You’ll notice it took 4 years of writing FT before I was able to make a living at it. We ate a lot of macaroni and cheese.


BC: For me as a marketer, you are like a fascinating study, but then as a reader and author you’re someone I root for. So taking anytime to answer these question was so great. Thank you. 

Below you can see what I’m talking about by check out the Captain Lacey series and Jennifer’s Amazon page. That’s where it all happen’s ya’ll. All her books are there.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Thanks again Jennifer.

 
Capt Lacey Series. 












 Ashley Gardner Author Page