Today’s the day that marks my official debut as an independent author! I’m very excited. And nervous.

ADORE is on sale on Amazon as an eBook and paperback, and free to read on Kindle Unlimited.

In short: it’s a sapphic sci-fi romance about a freelance android mechanic (Riya) who is employed to fix a club owner’s android (Adore), but as their relationship develops, so does her attraction. It’s intended for adults, and I advise those who want to avoid potentially difficult subject matter check the content warnings on my site.

It has taken a lot of effort to get to this point, but the time has finally come!

I would be lying if I said it’s been a lifelong dream to be an author — I never fancied myself as one until the pandemic, and even then, it started as a hobby. Between then and now I wrote over half a million words. It wasn’t as if I didn’t write at all before then; as a teen, I did write silly little stories, a single (bad) fanfic, but most of what I wrote back then was solely for the enjoyment of my friends, or myself. But I’ve always loved reading and articulating my thoughts, so English was among my favorite subjects in school.

They say (and I apologize for not having a source) that the majority of self-published authors sell fewer than 100 copies, and that 4.2 million new titles were published in the U.S. in 2025; of those, 3.5 million were self-published¹. This is a daunting statistic, especially when you’re not great at marketing (oops, me).

However, this is a passion project, and I’d only spend this much time on writing something if I actually enjoyed the process. In that sense, it will never be a total loss. Of course it’d be nice if it gained some traction and made some money back, as I hired a cover artist and bought formatting software (Atticus) — and my wonderful girlfriend paid for the editing — so I’m in the red. But I accepted that the book might not make up for its costs, and I wanted to take this as a learning experience in self-publishing while still striving to make it a polished product.

ADORE had 15 pre-orders (13, if I don’t count 2 from people I know personally), and… I am very touched! When I announced pre-orders were open, the book had no reviews, nor sample text available. I didn’t expect anyone to pre-order, realistically. I hope those people enjoy it, considering they gave me a chance as a new author.

But I have no clue how it will fare post-release. I have a few people who said they’d check it out on KU, I currently have one 5-star review on Goodreads from an ARC reader (which I’m very grateful about), but I hardly have an audience as it stands. My ARC team was only comprised of 20 people. I don’t want to get my hopes up too much, though it’s hard not to!

My only solace is that I wrote something for myself as a lesbian who loves sapphic romance, and I hope it resonates with other people because of that. Sapphic romance has a smaller audience, but I firmly believe it makes us more loyal (and hungry!) for work that represents us. I can’t please everyone, surely, but I did put a ton of work into this project.

I jotted the main premise for ADORE in my Notes app in June 2025, and started properly writing it on August 3, 2025. I was finishing my last year of a school program in the meantime, so it wasn’t like I was writing it at a constant pace, but after drafting, my own relentless editing, waiting for the professional edit, and giving some time for ARC readers, it’s coming out nearly a year after its inception!

It was an intentional departure from a fantasy trilogy series I’m in the process of writing; I wanted to get some experience with self-publishing before tackling such a major project. So, a novella it was, although it took me longer than anticipated. It’s an awkward length at 51,000 words where it’s a little too long to be a traditional novella, but quite short for a novel. I’m calling it a novella anyway, because 1. I don’t want people to get on my case for its length if I call it a novel 2. Novella sounds cuter (haha).

I humbly hope at least a couple people out there will enjoy it (dare I wish for someone to love it?). I’ll probably creep on the first reviews; who wouldn’t be curious? But I’ve heard advice that once the first negative one comes in, maybe it’s time to leave the reviews behind. I’m thin-skinned at times, so I suppose it would be wise to follow that advice. I understand that reviews are a space for readers.

From my ignorant pre-release perspective, my first major goal is to break even. For simplicity, that requires about 800 eBook sales. That feels like a big, perilous number, considering most self-published books don’t sell that many in their lifetime.

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In about a month or two, I may make a post going over my writing process for ADORE, such as taking a look at the first draft vs the final, explaining some story decisions and intentional character quirks, and fun things like that. And if it’s not embarrassing, maybe I’ll discuss some of the numbers post-launch.

That said, I’ll shelve the rambling for later. If you want to give an independent author a chance and help towards said goal, check ADORE out on Amazon!

I don’t know if I have the chops (or the speed) to make it as a full-time writer. I suppose being a modestly successful one is a fresh dream of mine — a tentative one. Wouldn’t it be nice?