Mackenzie Osborn, a 2020 graduate of Battle Ground High School, released her debut romance novel, “Ask Me To Stay,” and in its first month of being on Amazon, she tripled her sales goal.
Once her debut novel was finished, Osborn set out with humble beginnings, aiming for a sales goal of 10 copies, digital or physical. Since her release on Dec. 5, Osborn has sold 34 copies of “Ask Me To Stay,” and that number is steadily increasing.
Osborn said her success is due in part to her efforts in marketing on TikTok and Instagram Reels.
“I pretty much call it my full-time job of having to become a social media creator,” she said. “Basically, now it kind of comes in the territory of being an author. So I post online daily, and I’ve started to build a small community on TikTok, which I never had TikTok before, so that was interesting. It’s honestly been so fun.”
Osborn has garnered close to 3,800 followers on TikTok as an Indie Author.
As an Indie Author, she essentially does everything herself. As a small, self-published author, she has created her own publishing company, where, in the future, she could assist in publishing other up-and-coming authors’ titles.
To get to this point, Osborn traversed the daunting path soon out of high school and right into the grasp of adulthood. Osborn is a wife and mother, a self-published author, too, all in the same decade she graduated as a Tiger. She also attended Clark College to receive her Associate’s degree in Arts.
“After I got married and had a little one, I was at home and just decided to get into writing more,” Osborn said, adding that she began writing scripts with the vision of always writing a book. “I didn’t really think I could do it, you know, write a book. I didn’t think I was good enough. Maybe there was some imposter syndrome in there, not knowing if I would be seen in the right light, because it’s a scary thing to put yourself out there and put all of your thoughts and your feelings onto a page.”
Osborn said she reached a point where she had to put pen to paper, fingers to the keyboard, and go for it. Oftentimes, Osborn said she would get stuck or try again after reaching the three-page mark. But two years ago, she took off and kept the ball rolling all the way to a month’s worth of sales with her debut novel.
She began writing her 265-page novel in the area she called home, but while her husband continued to advance in his career, they moved to the Seattle area. “Ask Me To Stay” has scenes inspired by Battle Ground. Osborn added that the vision of her home city’s Main Street is a part of the book.
Her main inspiration came from the charming words of a guy in high school.
“A guy had said to me that he would wait for me forever and that he would try until he died, and I just thought that was such a good line and how fun would it be to just write a story around it,” Osborn said.
And then she did write a novel about that.
“So basically the book, it’s two timelines,” Osborn said. “So it goes from past to present, telling the story of Billie and Sean, the two main characters. We see them fall in love in the summer after high school graduation, before Sean leaves for the army, and then we see them get to know each other again 10 years later as adults, after Billie comes back to Washington after being away for 10 years, living in New York. But what I love about the story is that it’s not just about the couple; it also talks a lot about broken families, and you see that in Billie, the main character’s life. She reconnects with not only that old love, but it’s also about reconnecting with family and building those relationships again. She connects with her estranged father and we watch them rebuild a relationship while she’s also doing that with the main male character.”
Osborn did the full design work for the cover of her story, with tulips mentioned a couple of times in the book, after trial and error on designs, Osborn adorned the cover of her paperback with a photo of tulips in a golden hue.
In total, Osborn said she put nearly $500 towards the creation of her debut reading material. She saved costs by doing the cover herself and by editing it herself as well. Some costs were incurred through a professional editor after a beta read by a dozen readers who provided feedback, she said.
To sell a book on Amazon, Osborn said it is completely free, with about 60 percent of the profits going back to her.
“I think for a self-published author, I did pretty decent,” she said, explaining why she is thrilled with selling nearly three dozen copies in a month’s time. “But the key with it is to just never stop trying because, you know, if you stop, if you see those low numbers, you get discouraged and you stop trying. You’re never going to get any higher. So even though it’s low, I’m just going to keep going, keep pursuing. And then hopefully I’ll see them go even higher, even if it’s years from now.”
While her biggest goal in writing is to see a screen adaptation of one of her stories, Osborn, sticking to her humble roots, in the process for her second novel, “How It Was Will Never Be Again.” She plans to release her second title in June.
“That story is about two people who are going through a very traumatic time in their lives and they meet on a bench just one rainy afternoon,” Osborn said. “They decide to spend the day together to distract themselves from the tragedy that’s happening in their lives and as they travel around and get to know one another on a deep level, they realize that maybe the day could be more. It’s meant to be really inspirational.
To follow Osborn’s journey, search @mackenzieosbornwrites on TikTok and Instagram. For her Amazon author page and to buy her debut novel, visit amazon.com/stores/mackenzie-osborn/author/B0D6N3N7C8?.
