Media

Heidi Joy presents to writing organizations, book clubs, and welcomes media inquiries.

She’s a proud indie author who recognizes that there’s nothing independent about successful publishing—she hires multiple editors, designers, and publicists to help produce her books. Fantastic mentors throughout the writing community are her greatest source of inspiration and learning. Contact her to learn more.

Presentations

Heidi Joy loves sharing her publishing and writing experience with other authors. She presents on these topics:

• Make Them Melt: Mechanics and Metaphor of Writing Steamy Scenes
• Snap, Crackle, Pop Dialogue: How to Write Banter That Sizzles Off the Pages
• You’re Doing It Wrong: How to Make the Most of Working With an Editor
• The Indie Author’s Launch Kit: Best Practices in Packaging Your Book
• Indie Ingenuity: A new spin on the boxset & writing process (on The Self-Publishing Roundtable)
• Tropes with a Twist: Reinventing classic storylines
• The Rules of Subtraction: How working with less can help you accomplish more.

Stats & Facts

• Books published: 7 of her own novels, 1 children’s book, 6 collections
• Date of first publication: Dec. 12, 2012 – age 36
• Education: BA Communications: Journalism, Pacific Lutheran University
• Genre & categories: New adult steamy romance, erotic romance, women’s fiction and children’s literature
• Most popular book: Tattoo Thief, with 100,000+ downloads
• Favorite books: West With the Night (I named a character after Beryl Markham in Tattoo Thief)
• Typical time it takes to write a book: 45 days (fastest: 26 days; slowest: 8 years)
• Typical time it takes to produce a book: 4 months, including writing, editing, marketing and publishing
• Hours worked per day: 4, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., 4 days a week, plus some weekends
• Average words written per hour: 1,200
• Writing strength: Dialogue
• Writing weakness: External conflict
• Hardware/software: Mac, Scrivener, InDesign, Vellum
• Favorite writing resources: Save the Cat; Write, Publish, Repeat
• First month’s earnings as an author: $50
• Average annual growth in sales: 300%
• Sell-through rate (readers who buy the next book): 83%
• Hours spent writing & publishing in 2014: 900
• Agency: Open to representation
• What does your mother think of you writing steamy sex? Mom is proud of me, but she doesn’t read it.
• Currently writing: Skip a Beat (Tattoo Thief #5), The Phoenix Decision (Grace Colton #3).

Appearances & Events

Heidi Joy is attending these upcoming events as a speaker or signing author:

• Desert Dreams Conference – Scottsdale, AZ – June 1-4, 2017 (speaking & signing)
• Novelists, Inc. conference: Discovery – St. Pete Beach, FL – Oct. 4-8, 2017
• Currently accepting additional speaking or signing opportunities.

Past appearances:

• OMSI After Dark: The Science of Sex – Portland – January 2014 (signing)
• Emerald City Author Event – Seattle – June 2014 (signing)
• Jan’s Paperbacks duo signing – Portland – November 2014 (signing)
• Love & Fifty Author Event – Sacramento – February 2015 (pictured above, signing)
• Summer Lovin’ Reader Party – Temecula, CA – June 2015 (signing)
• “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing – New York, NY – July 2015 (signing)
• Willamette Writers Conference – Portland, OR – August 2015 (speaking)
• Passion in Portland Author Event – Portland, OR – September 2015 (signing)
• Emerald City Author Event – Seattle, WA – April 2016 (signing)
• Spark Conference by TrackMaven – Washington, DC – May 2016 (speaking)
• Chicago-North RWA Spring Fling Conference – Chicago, IL – May 2016 (speaking & signing)
• Golden Gate Author Event – San Francisco, CA – June 2016 (signing)
• Romance Writers of America National Conference – San Diego, CA – July 2016 (speaking)
• Passion in Portland Author Event – Portland, OR – September 2016 (signing)
• Novelists, Inc. Conference – St. Pete Beach, FL – September 2016 (speaking)

Memberships

• Novelists, Inc. — Board of Directors (2016, 2017), Editor of the Nink newsletter
• Romance Writers of America — National conference speaker
• Rose City Romance Writers
• Willamette Writers — Conference speaker
• Romance Authors Unite
• New Adult Authors Unite