Romance author Ana Huang says self-publishing books is like running a small business

• Ana Huang started as a completely self-published author.
• Huang, now a beloved BookTok author, compared self-publishing to running a small business.
• Huang is releasing "The Striker," her 13th book, on Tuesday.

Even the most casual of BookTok users know Ana Huang's name.

Huang, 33, is the bestselling author of the "Twisted" and "Kings of Sin" series. She has published twelve novels to date, and her 13th book, "The Striker," a sports romance about professional soccer player Asher Donovan and former professional ballerina Scarlett Dubois, hits bookshelves Tuesday.

Forbes reported in July that Huang had sold nearly 1.5 million copies of her books in 2024 alone, making her the fourth most popular BookTok author of the year.

When Huang first started releasing books in 2020, she was completely self-published, and she had her big break when "Twisted Love" blew up in 2021.

For those who became familiar with her work via BookTok — where she boasts over 12.5 million likes — Huang probably seems like an overnight success story.

But Huang told Business Insider that her Cinderella story took years of hard work behind the scenes, which made her more passionate about self-publishing than ever.

Self-publishing for creative control

Unlike many unknown authors, Huang didn't dream of signing with a traditional publisher when her writing career began.

"I didn't start out thinking I would be traditionally published or even that I necessarily wanted to be traditionally published," Huang told BI. "And I think, for me, it was because I value having creative control over my work."

"I like that it was so nimble," she added. "If I wanted to change something in my book, I could immediately just do it, and it would change the next day."

Huang was also drawn to mastering all the different aspects of publishing.

"Self-publishing is kind of like running a small business," she said. "I loved the challenge of learning how this whole business works, learning the marketing, being part of that community."

Self-publishing has been on the rise in recent years; even Taylor Swift is embracing the model. It lets authors break into the industry without getting signed by a literary agent or publisher, which can be a barrier for many writers. Authors can also share their books with the world more quickly and keep more of the royalties they make on their works.

The amount of money authors make self-publishing their books varies, but some writers previously told BI they make over $10,000 each month just by self-publishing on Amazon.

Despite the appeal of self-publishing for many authors, working with an established publisher — particularly one of the big five like Penguin Random House or HarperCollins — is still the goal for many writers. These publishers offer expert editorial, marketing, and sales staff, allowing an author to just write instead of worrying about how to get their books into the right hands. They also offer a sense of prestige that's often lacking in the self-publishing space unless an author finds wide commercial success, as Huang did.

Huang started by self-publishing her works as Amazon e-books and independently printed hard copies of her books for a period. According to her website, her self-published hard copies are no longer available in print.

Today, Huang's books come to the world in a hybrid between self- and traditional publishing.

She works with independent editors and proofreaders rather than staffers at a big publisher, and she told BI she also has "alpha readers" who read her work as she writes it. For "The Striker," she selected alpha readers with knowledge of soccer and ballet to help push the story in the right direction.

Bloom Books, an imprint of the independent publisher Sourcebooks, distributes Huang's works in the US so she can reach an even wider audience. Bloom publishes other popular romance authors like Meghan Quinn and "Fifty Shades of Grey" author E.L. James, who signed with the company in 2021, Entertainment Weekly reported.

Although Huang launched her career by self-publishing, she told BI it took years to figure out how to make it work for her.

Research was key

"Twisted" was Huang's breakout series, but she self-published four books in her "If Love" series in 2020.

Huang, who studied international relations in college, told BI she focused her marketing efforts almost entirely on social media for that series, using the professional skills she already had from a previous corporate job.

"I had a little bit of a leg up because I did a lot of marketing in my old day job," Huang said, adding that she also spent a lot of time running a personal travel Instagram at the time. "That was what I really leaned in on when I started marketing my book."

When working on "Twisted Love," Huang wanted to invest more in her writing, so she spent time developing a business strategy.

"When I decided to treat this as a career, I listened to so many podcasts. I read all the books, the articles," she said. Huang also joined groups on Facebook for indie authors, learning from her peers.

"For like a year or two, all I did was just consume content about self-publishing," Huang said. "It really helped, and it just got to a point where I was able to know the nuances of the industry."

That research led her to invest in BookTok, where she grew much of her organic audience.

BookTok made a big difference

Huang became an early adopter of TikTok, joining the app in December 2020, which she says helped her develop a readership.

BookTok has drastically influenced the publishing industry, changing how authors reach their audience and how publishers find writers to work with.

As of Tuesday, Huang had 724,000 followers on the app.

"It was a lot of fun, and that was my primary marketing channel," Huang said of her experience with BookTok. "I think I was lucky because I got in so early, and it's been kind of amazing to see it soar to where it is now."

"The biggest benefit is that it's great marketing, especially if you don't have a big budget, which most authors when they're starting out, or even when they're not starting out, don't have," she added.

Huang said she also finds TikTok helpful for market research, though it's important not to become dependent on readers' opinions.

Although TikTok sometimes seems like a place where authors achieve overnight success, Huang said that's not exactly the case.

"You know that saying, overnight successes are usually 10 years in the making?" she said. "You don't see all the work and time that goes on behind the scenes that leads to that moment."

Huang isn't slowing down anytime soon. She will release two books next year: "The King of Envy" in March 2025 and "The Defender" in the fall.

Huang told BI her fans can look forward to a darker hero in her next release.

"I think I am going back to my morally gray era, which I'm always excited about," she said. "Asher is such a green flag. But I'm like, 'Sometimes I need a little extra drama and suspense.'"