Get to Know: Avalon Griffin
Talking with the indie author about romance, the challenges of getting her book into bookstores and ways to support indie authors
Welcome to the first installment of Get to Know! This will be a recurring Q&A with folks I find interesting. Longtime readers will know that I started this with These Are My Bitches, which became Ladyland podcast.
Get to Know is free to read. If you’d like to see more of these interviews, consider becoming a paid subscriber, which allows me to pay for transcription.
Avalon Griffin is an indie author living in East Nashville. Her writing blends paranormal romance and fantasy in a setting rooted in urban mythology. Her debut novel, Unbound by Shadows, is about what happens when a wallflower human and a volatile demon both become trapped in a dimension ruled by legendary creatures. They must journey together to find a stone with the power to send only one of them home.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You have a new book you just announced, right?
I do! It’s a novella called To Dwell in Shadows coming out in the fall. It will bridge the gap between my first book, Unbound by Shadows, and my next book, Awakened by Shadows.
Have you started writing your next novel, Awakened by Shadows?
No, I have not! (laughs) I thought with the novella, ‘Oh, I’ll just write a novella in two weeks. It’ll be so easy!’ But it’s been harder and taken longer than I thought. So I’m still getting my ducks in a row for Awakened by Shadows. I’m hoping it will come out in 2025.
What’s your favorite part about writing in this genre?
I love writing romance because the kind of romance that I write about is women’s stories and women getting exactly what they want. It’s about women at the forefront of taking control of their lives and finding a partner that helps them do that. But it’s not because of having a partner, if that makes sense.
In the ’70s and ’80s people thought romance books were a joke and kind of trashy, but at that time it was really women writing stories about women for women. I think that’s why it got poo-pooed. It’s grown and changed, and there’s lots of different stories being told by lots of different people now, but I think people forget that at that time, there weren’t a lot of books available about women’s lives that portrayed women in an empowering way. Romance was what we had then.
What do you think people still get wrong now in 2024?
There’s still some snickering sometimes which, I don’t know, kind of irritates me. I think people focus too much on the spicy scenes, which is fine, that’s what some people want, but also people love romance because of the happily ever after. If you write a romance book that doesn’t have a happily ever after, or a happily for now, it’s not a romance book.
People like the escapism of romance. They like knowing the book is going to end where love conquers all and love wins. That’s what people forget about when they focus too much on ‘Ooh, monster romance and tentacles and minotaur heroes.’ People focus on that and forget the bigger picture.
What has it been like trying to get your book placed in bookstores?
It’s been tough. The only 1bookstores I’ve been able to get them into are ones that have a consignment policy. It’s been tricky because when you’re the author, you can put your book in a distributor like Ingram, but most bookstores won’t buy your book unless you offer a pretty significant discount to them, usually between 40 and 50 percent. So combined with that discount and Ingram’s fees, as an author, I would only make about a dollar per book. Plus, a lot of bookstores won’t buy your book unless you make it returnable, so if it doesn’t sell, they can send it back to Ingram. But in that case, I pay for all the return fees.
When my book came out, I thought, ‘Well I want it to go everywhere. I want bookstores to be able to purchase it. I want libraries to be able to purchase it.’ I offered the top discount and I made it returnable. I sold about 200 books. Six months later, I got a bill from Ingram for $200 for books that were returned. So actually it cost me money to do that.
(Editor’s note: in the week between interviewing Avalon and publishing this piece, Parnassus Books has started carrying Unbound by Shadows.)
How can non-local people buy your book?
They can buy paperbacks directly from me or through Amazon. I have an Etsy store and a TikTok store. I’m on Kindle Unlimited for the e-book. I always tell people if you want to support indie authors, buy directly from the author.
A lot of people don’t understand that Amazon is the best option indie authors have. Romance readers are voracious. There are people who read a book a day. By putting my book on Kindle Unlimited, I can tap into those folks who want to read that fast and don’t want to spend $8, even $4.99, for a book.
The other thing people don’t understand about Kindle Unlimited is that you sign an agreement that says you can’t sell your e-book anywhere else. You can do whatever you want with your paperback, but you can’t sell your e-book anywhere but Amazon.
What advice would you give someone who wants to write romance?
I would say to read widely in the genre, because there’s definitely reader expectations. Romance readers, we love tropes: anything from enemies to lovers, second chance romance, secret baby, all that kind of stuff. There are people who specifically search out those tropes. We use it in advertising, we use it in our blurbs. Definitely get to know those tropes. Get to know them really well, and then you can know how to use them in your book.
Also, know what your comps are. I said my book is ACOTAR meets Ice Planet Barbarians. My book would appeal to fans of those authors. Know who your reader is. You want to appeal to that reader and what they’re looking for in a reading experience. What do they hope to see? What do they get out of the type of books that they read?
What would you say to someone who doesn’t read romance? I feel like there’s stigma around this genre.
I would say – I don’t want to be offensive, but don’t be so snobby! Give it a try. It’s fun. People are allowed to read for fun. It doesn’t always have to be this intellectual, literary pursuit. It’s like watching a fun movie that you know is going to end in a way that makes you feel good.
Do you want to shout-out one or two other authors or books that are in conversation with yours?
Ooh! I would definitely say Ice Planet Barbarians, that whole series, and then Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. Those are my two. Kresley Cole is a legend. I could talk all day about how great Kresley Cole is. She’s a pioneer of – I mean back in the day it was called paranormal romance, but it was really monster romance. Demons and vampires and that kind of stuff. She’s one of my big influences.
Is there anything you’d like to say that I didn’t ask you about?
If you want to support indie authors, please give us a review on Amazon or Goodreads. It’s hard to get people to leave reviews. It’s harder for us as indies because we don’t have a wide distribution like traditionally published folks do. We don’t work with Kirkus Reviews usually or that sort of thing, so the more reviews the better.
I found out recently that if you hit 100 reviews on Amazon, they do an AI generated summary of all the reviews. So even if people are like, ‘Oh, well, she already has 70 reviews, so I don’t need to add another one,’ please add another one! When you hit that hundred it’s a big milestone. Honestly it’s one of my proudest moments – my little AI summary said mine was “a well written romance.” I’m so proud of that. Reviews really do make a difference.
Ways to support Avalon:
rate them on Amazon and Goodreads
buy Unbound by Shadows from Parnassus to show there’s local interest
I have two very important thank-you’s. Hannah Cron, thank you for transcribing this interview. Paid subscribers, thank you for your cash-money, which allowed me to pay Hannah.
love this and am now diving into the "These Are My Bitches" archive because that title alone!!!! perfection!