E750 - Lauren Kristen Roberts - Gemini Divided, The Breadcrumb Game, Fan Fiction Writing and Author Tips

EPISODE 750 - Lauren Kristen Roberts - Gemini Divided, The Breadcrumb Game, Fan Fiction Writing and Author Tips

Author and self-published novelist Lauren Roberts joins us from Northern Virginia to share the winding journey behind her books, her business decisions as an indie author, and the family support that keeps her stories moving forward. She talks about the many places she has lived, raising three teenagers and a dog named Thor, and how superhero fandom and comic books show up in her household culture as naturally as books do.

Lauren pulls back the curtain on the economics of self-publishing, explaining how word count, print costs, trim size, and paper choices all influence the final price of a book and the profit an author can reasonably expect. She describes learning that two novels with very different lengths were earning her different margins despite having the same list price, and how that realization is shaping her approach to her third book. She also explores the intangible impact of a cover that truly fits the genre, acknowledging that while she outsources cover design, a strong visual first impression is crucial for attracting the right readers.

Marketing, for Lauren, is as hands-on as her writing. She keeps inventory in her office so she can sell signed copies at craft fairs, book events, and any local venue willing to host an author table, often driving up to two hours to meet new readers. Her books are distributed through IngramSpark to online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and she has personally approached independent bookstores to get copies onto shelves.

Lauren’s path into fiction began during a lonely season in Virginia Beach, when she was home with three young children, working part-time and craving something creative of her own. She rediscovered writing through fanfiction, using beloved TV series like AMC’s “The Killing” and NBC’s “Blindspot” as playgrounds for practice and experimentation. That fanfiction habit, combined with her husband’s suggestion to create original work she could monetize, led to a framework and characters that eventually became her debut novel.

In Gemini Divided, readers meet Jen, a former military operative working as an assassin to pay for her mother’s chemotherapy. The job fills her with guilt, but she sees no other way to cover the medical bills. Her double life becomes untenable when she is assigned to eliminate her favorite TV actor, the very person she secretly writes fanfiction about. Lauren explains how early drafts lacked a clear reason for Jen’s choices, and how feedback from her own mother forced her to create an emotional and moral foundation that would keep readers invested in a morally complicated heroine.

Her second novel, The Breadcrumb Game, follows Ella, whose house explodes just as she checks the mail, forcing her into an uneasy partnership with a grumpy FBI agent. As they race to learn who is trying to kill her and why, Ella’s childhood “breadcrumb game” with her estranged sister becomes a key to deciphering clues only she can recognize. Lauren hints at a shared universe between The Breadcrumb Game and Gemini Divided, with subtle nods that reward readers who pick up both books without requiring a specific reading order.

https://laurenkristenroberts.com/