Leeanna Morgan is a USA Today best-selling author of Montana sweet romance, with over a million downloads of her books and a following on BookBub of more than 53,000. This former librarian runs her highly successful – and lucrative – book business from her peaceful home in Wellington, New Zealand.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today on The Joys of Binge Reading Leeanna talks about what’s possible in this new world of indie publishing, global reach and the struggle with an international pandemic.

Leeanna’s got lots of First in Series free books on her website. You will find the links for that in the show notes for this episode, so if you are interested in her sweet romance, take a look.  You’ll find some places to start that won’t cost you a cent.

Before we get to Leeanna, just a reminder. You can support the show on Patreon for as little as a cup of coffee a month, and get exclusive bonus content, including five quickfire getting-to-know-you questions with your favorite authors. Check it out at www.patreon.com/thejoysofbingereading/ and join us today.

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Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

What jump-started librarian Leeanna into writing romanceThanking her Dad for MontanaThe business brain behind the creatorWhy she loves shining a light in darknessThe remarkable discipline in her planning processThe treasured book she reads every year

Where to find Leeanna Morgan: 

Website: https://www.leeannamorgan.com/free-ebooks.html

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Leeanna-Morgan-220562971470830/

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/leeanna-morgan

Leeanna's free books: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/leeanna-morgan

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Introducing Leeanna Morgan author

But now, here’s Leeanna.

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there, Leeanna, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.

Leeanna Morgan: Thanks, Jenny. It's awesome to be here and thank you for the invitation.

Leeanna Morgan - Romance author

Jenny Wheeler: We've known each other for years through the New Zealand Romance Writers, and I've always been a great admirer of the way you work. You, like me, are a Kiwi, you live in Wellington, New Zealand, but you've developed a huge following in the U S. Tell us how you got embarked on this amazing adventure. What was it that kick-started you?

Leeanna Morgan: Of all things, Jenny, it was turning 40. I decided that the last 10 years between 30 and 40 had gone so fast that it felt as if I blinked and missed the whole ten years. I decided I wasn't going to let that happen in the next 10 years, before I turned 50. So I thought of one thing I wanted to do, to feel as though I'd achieved something in that ten years. I decided to write a book and that's how it all started.

I wrote one book and I really quite enjoyed it, so then I wrote a second one and I just kept going from there. By the time I turned 50, I had about 20-ish books I'd published. That's how it started.

Jenny Wheeler: My gosh, you make it sound so easy. You have been remarkably productive. As you mentioned, all those books have got different settings and different series, but your genre and tone is very consistent.

It's sweet, small town romance with real life emotion and pain that usually – almost always anyway – finds a happy resolution. That would be fair to say, I think. When you started out, was indie publishing a thing, because you are now indie published aren’t you?

Getting started on a new career

Leeanna Morgan: That's right and have been from the beginning, apart from a little foray into the world of literary agents.  I enjoy indie publishing and it's been amazing for me.

Jenny Wheeler: You certainly have got it tagged in terms of how to proceed. We will get into that a bit later,