When the pandemic hit, Elsie Silver found herself in a position many of us might recognize: Her freelance work as an editor for academics had dried up, and because her husband was an essential worker, she was doing the lioness’s share of child care for their toddler.
A few weeks after release, one of her books, set on a ranch in the Rockies, went viral on both Instagram and TikTok.The Kindred Wolf/Supplied
And, like millions of others, she found herself taking refuge in the escapist (heaving) bosom of romance novels, devouring up to four books a week during lockdown. Unlike 99 per cent of the reading population, however, Silver turned her voracious appetite for happily-ever-afters into her own happy ending as the bestselling author of more than a dozen novels.
Books we're reading and loving this week
“It was really my mom who was on me, saying, ‘You need to do something for yourself, you need your identity back,’” says Silver of this unplanned – but very welcome – career change. “I just started waking up at five in the morning, because my son didn’t wake up until seven, so I would have about two hours to just write that first book that had lived in my head.”
That was Off to the Races, about a talented horse trainer (who happens to be running from a past life as the daughter of a disgraced former Canadian prime minister) who lands a dream gig at a racing stud ranch in British Columbia – only to find her professional life deliciously complicated by the undeniable spark fizzing between her and her boss, a scion of a famous Vancouver mining family who’s working out some demons of his own.
Supplied
“I was writing it for fun, really. I didn’t have any intention of publishing it necessarily,” says Silver, who uses a pseudonym to create a little bit of distance between her real life and her more, shall we say, enthusiastic fans. “But when I finished it, I was like, what do I do with it now?”
As an avid Kindle Unlimited user, many of the authors she’d been reading at the time were self-published, which led her to choose the same road for her own debut. At first, not much happened – “as someone who’s fiercely competitive, it was not what I thought it would be,” says Silver – but she kept writing anyway, because she was enjoying herself, and she could make her own deadlines.
These BookTok influencers are finding success in turning reading into a game
Want your teen to read more? Try these strategies, from a dad and author
By the time she finished the Gold Rush Ranch series, she’d actually been able to sell enough, mostly e-books, to replace her freelance editing income. She was building a fan base, and quickly needed to hire an assistant to help her handle the unseen admin of the self-published author, such as the social-media posts that are integral to finding an audience without the engine of a traditional publishing machine behind you.
Six weeks after the release of the first book in her second series, this one set on a ranch in the Rockies, Silver went viral on both Instagram and TikTok. One BookToker made a video about the book that was seen by more than two million people, while a reel from Silver’s own account hit millions of views too. “It was truly the lightning strike that everybody dreams of,” she says.
Not long after, the book hit No. 1 on Amazon; shortly after, offers from traditional publishers began to roll in. Silver is now published by romance juggernaut Bloom Books, home to E.L. James, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Ana Huang and Sierra Simone. “It’s been a blur from there,” says Silver.
The Globe spoke with British Columbia-based Silver about embracing traditional publishing, changing reader tastes and writing Canadian romance.
What made you say yes to traditional publishing when you were having so much success doing it on your own?
I can only do so much, because I’m not tapping into the Indigos of the world, or Shoppers Drug Mart or Walmart, all those places where I know that reach really expands, and where publishers excel. It was a decision made for longevity, and diversification. I still have my e-book and audio rights in North America, and the publisher has just taken the paperback sales. It felt like not putting all my eggs in one basket, like a smart business decision.
Even in the four-ish years you’ve been doing it, do you feel like the business of romance novels has shifted?
Now, there are so many indie authors who have been picked up. You see it more in all the bookstores, too. The tables are right at the front, not hidden in the back. There have been huge changes.
How does it feel to have been part of this incredible romance explosion?
It’s really a cultural shift, and valuing women as consumers. This genre has been selling exceptionally well for a long time. That’s not new. What is new is that we’re actually catering to that part of our population. It’s really exciting to hear not just women talking about it, but men talking about it, or couples reading them together. There’s nothing more universally relatable than a love story. I know my books are more spicy than some, and less spicy than others, but for me it’s more about the characters and the development.
In terms of audience tastes, interests, likes and dislikes, has anything shifted there?
At the beginning of my journey, there was a real emphasis on the spice and the sex scenes. I do feel that in the last little bit – which is good for me, because I do prefer a slower burn – people have almost tired of the spice that starts early and is frequent. What I see is people wanting more angst or longing or the little Pride and Prejudice pinkie touch where you’re itching for something to happen between them. The snippets they’re picking up on BookTok are less about this really spicy line he said, and more about this really heartfelt thing he said. It’s still romance, but the craziness of “Oh my God, we can talk about sex” has settled down a bit.
With that lessened emphasis on spice, it asks you to flex different muscles as an author, I would imagine.
Yes, especially writing contemporary romance. The main plot point is the romance, but having some sort of external conflict or storyline beside is helpful. Those are some of my favourite scenes to write. Even as an author, I almost feel a bit tired of spicy scenes. There are only so many ways to write it, or so many fresh ideas, whereas there are so many options for storylines or different twists and turns.
Your books are set in Canada. Do you think there are any unique sensibilities or characteristics that make them ‘Canadian romances’?
Aside from my spelling or where things get changed, like when I say, “They went to grad together,” and they say, “Oh, you mean prom?” Usually I’ll change them, but in one of my books I said “Coles Notes,” and somebody messaged and said, “It’s CliffsNotes.” I went on a search for it, and there’s the whole history of a man who actually started Coles bookstores, and started Coles Notes, and then told his counterpart in the States, “You should do these too,” which is how CliffsNotes came about. So I said, “I’m not changing it because it was ours first.”
It’s interesting you say that, because I’ve spoken to Canadian authors who’ve set something in Toronto, but their publisher told them to set it in New York if they want to reach a wider audience. It can be a real business decision.
There is something about the characters that changes. There was a recent online conversation about cowboy romance, or rural romance, and political affiliations, and how that relates to these characters that live in small towns. And there was somebody who said, “That’s why I only trust Elsie Silver, because hers are all Canadian.”
There is something unique to the Canadian setting. I travelled to London recently for a signing, and for them it’s something so foreign. They say, “I just dream of going to Canada, to Alberta.” For them, it’s almost like us picking up a book about Italy. This ranch, set against the Rockies, is something they haven’t seen before.
You’ve written a lot in such a compressed amount of time. Are you planning to keep up that pace?
That pace has become way more challenging, and truthfully, not sustainable for my mental health. I will be slowing down. I went from releasing every four months, which is pretty standard for indie, to every six. At the time, I was like, “I’ll be irrelevant!” That felt like slowing down a lot, and I believe my next series we’ve plotted out every nine months, but I’m not nervous about pushing that out further if I need to.
Where does that confidence come from now? I can imagine feeling like you’ve got to keep feeding the beast is a real fear.
It all just changed so quickly for me, in a matter of a few months. It felt like playing Whac-A-Mole just trying to stay afloat. I definitely overcommitted for signings and events, and I’ve had to scale back to keep my writing schedule. It changed so quickly, and there was this feeling it could go away just as quickly too. It felt really daunting to take my foot off the pedal at all. I needed a year to prove to myself that it wasn’t a dream, or that I wasn’t going to wake up and sell zero books one day.
It’s one of those things where people meet me and I say I’m an author, and they’re like, “Oh, how nice that your husband supports you doing that,” and then he has to barge in and explain everything, because he won’t have that. There is this dreamy quality to get to do this for a living that just feels surreal. Now that I’ve settled into this new rhythm, I do feel comfortable giving myself some more rest.