SFA 063 – Getting Movie Deals and Amish Romance with Serena Miller

We had a guest on this week’s Six Figure Authors, USA Today bestselling romance writer Serena Miller. She’s both traditionally and indie published, and she’s had one of her books (Love Finds You in Sugar Creek) made into a movie with a second movie in the works. She has written mysteries and lumber camp historical fiction but is best known for her Amish romance novels. She’s won the RITA and other prestigious awards.

Here are some of the questions we asked her on the show:

What got you into writing and also indie publishing? Which of your books are traditionally published and which are indie?
You have a variety of genres in your backlist, Amish romance, historical romance, and mysteries. What’s prompted you to jump around, and has that posed any challenges as far as keeping readers on board?
Are there any other genres that interest you? Other areas you might dabble in?
What led to you writing Amish books? And how popular is the Amish romance market with readers?
How competitive is it? Is it still possible for new authors to break in?
Perhaps a silly question, but have your Amish stories been well received within the Amish community?
What are some of the tropes that differentiate Amish stories from the rest of the romance genre. Maybe these are my own preconceptions coming to the surface, but I would suspect that Amish romance would be fairly clean, for example.
Any advice for someone thinking of transitioning into Amish romance?
Did you pursue a movie deal, or did a studio/production company come knocking?
What advice do you have for authors who are wanting to get their books made into Hallmark movies? (We know Hallmark is a little different from regular Hollywood.)
Let’s say someone in our audience is fortunate enough to catch the interest of a production company or studio. Are there any potential pitfalls to look out for? Red flags that might make a deal not worth pursuing?
You’ve received some pretty awesome awards! What advice do you have for authors who want to have their books recognized in this way? And in what way have the awards helped?
What are the marketing tactics that you’ve found effective for Amish romance?
What does a book launch look like for you?

You can visit Serena on her website or check out her books on Amazon. She also has a story out in the Amish Christmas Miracles Collection (out November 10th).