T L Swan is a Wall Street Journal, BookTok, International, and #1 Amazon bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated into 11 languages and have hit #1 on Amazon in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany. In April 2024, it was announced that Swan was launching a new publishing venture, Keeperton. Keeperton’s inaugural imprint, Arndell, will focus on romance, with future plans to introduce imprints specializing in fantasy, general fiction, nonfiction, and crime and thriller. The company plans to publish 10 titles—four frontlist, six backlist—under Arndell in its first year, and will be distributed by Simon & Schuster.

Congratulations on the launch of Keeperton! It’s incredibly exciting. Tell us how this came about and the inspiration for this project.

For as long as I can remember, I haven’t been entirely happy with the traditional publishing model. I don’t like the way that indie authors have been treated in bookstores, but I will say it’s getting better. A lot of publishers are now letting authors keep their e-book rights and things like that. My plans were all before this turn of the industry happened. When I started negotiating contracts for myself to go into bookstores, I just wouldn’t sign them, it wasn’t for me. It got me thinking, if I was unhappy with the traditional publishing models, there’d be other authors that were also unhappy. When I started, this was more of an intel mission, I was doing lots of research and going down this rabbit hole and then I was like, I’m going to try and get someone to do this with me. Simon & Schuster is an incredible company, and we just went for it. It’s turned out to be more incredible than I could’ve ever imagined. Simon & Schuster took us on worldwide, and the team that I’ve hired is just incredible. Submissions have just opened and we are completely blown away. We’re so grateful for everything that has happened so far, and we’re so excited.

How do you hope Keeperton will be different from other publishing houses?

I’ve worked with publishers before and our strategy is very different to the mainstream strategy, whereas we’re not signing 60 or 70 authors in the same genre who are competing against each other. We’re signing three or four max. The service they’ll be getting from us will be very different than being clumped into a romance pool and fighting it out in the stores. For us, it’s a service thing. We want our authors to be looked after. We’re looking at this as more of a partnership than as a publisher vs. author. We want the authors to have as much say in their career as we do. It’s a big deal for me. I’d say it’s more about conditions and care for the authors.

You’ve written an impressive number of books. Tell us about your writing process.

I’m an organic writer, I don’t set a daily word count. I can’t pump out a book like it’s a school project. I daydream a lot of the time, and I’m either completely immersed in the book, or I’m out of it. I will daydream, plot and then it sits with me for about 8-9 months, I have a folder full of info. Then I’ll daydream some more, I’ll write 1-2 chapters and then sit with it for a while, write another 2 chapters, sit with it some more. Then usually by chapter 8 it clicks and I’m writing non-stop, writing 12 hours a day because I can’t stop. I’ve tried to fight it, and honestly it doesn’t work for me, it’s not how my brain works. I’ve learned to accept that I can’t plot storylines when I know who the character is because it clouds my judgment on what the character would do.

What’s your favorite thing about being an author?

The readers! They’re just so nice, everyone is so nice and for me, this being a mid-life crisis thing, I think the satisfaction of knowing that I went back to a childhood dream and things have gone so well. I’ve got this amazing team of staff, and now Keeperton, it blows my mind every day. I don’t take one second of it for granted because I’m so grateful.

You’ve had a massive amount of success (NYT,# 1 Amazon), do you feel any pressure to continue that success with each book you write?

Yes, I did. So, two or three years ago the pressure got to me. It was kind of a combination of a lot of factors. I went through menopause at the same time that the pressure got to be too much. I describe it as the worst day of PMS, but it lasts two years. So, you can imagine that, combined with pressure, combined with trying to be creative. There’s nothing creative in your mind, you don’t want to write about women being sexy, you want to write about murdering men! I get why a lot of older women authors switch to writing crime! I had to be kind to myself, I took a year off and traveled with my family. I acknowledged what was going on, and admitted, I don’t have to put out four books a year anymore, I don’t need to do that financially. For the past two years, I’ve only released one book, but mentally I’m so much stronger and tougher and I’m writing better than I ever have. I needed that break, and to step away to realize there’s no pressure, the only pressure I have is from me.

Where do you see the romance genre going in the next few years?

The romance genre is the biggest genre in the world, it makes more money and sells more books than any other genre. At the moment, there’s a shift in the tides where women are not ashamed to say that they read romance. You can see it in bookstores, you can see it in the films that are being optioned, it’s such an exciting time for romance authors. It’s exciting, and the publishing market is finally realizing that indie authors are a force to be reckoned with, they’re smart business women and publishers should pay more attention to them, they’re the ones that are running the romance community. It’s a really exciting time, I love romance!

The Bonus by T L Swan

Grace has the perfect dream job and all her plans would be falling into place if it weren’t for one thing. She is hopelessly in love with her handsome, brilliant, sharp-tongued boss. While he’s off living his best life, she spends every weekend waiting for Monday when she can see him again. Determined to go get her own life, she hands in her resignation. But Gabriel won’t accept it and instead offers her… bonus.

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