South Wales Author battles book giants for charity

With High Street booksellers struggling, and Covid-19 forcing book publishers to push back releases, Bookseller estimates over 10,000 new titles are set to flood the market in September.

Welsh Author Lily Hayden has her own agenda for pushing her newest release into the public arena – as she is donating all 2020 royalties to charity the Huntington’s Disease Association.

Lily’s fifth novel, Coming Back to You, is due for release on 21/09/2020 with all 2020 royalties going to the Huntington’s Disease Association.

Despite the coveted Top 10 lists still being dominated by the Big 5 + Amazon’s own publishing imprints, Hayden is quietly confident that there has never been a better time to be Independent. As the world moves through these unprecedented times, society is emerging with a higher collective social consciousness.

While the publishing industry is rapidly looking to keep up with the changing world through long overdue calls out for under-represented new authors, profit losses, recent bestseller list scandals in the UK, and a recent call to limit Amazon’s power over the industry in the US have put a dampener on the prestigious world. Indie Authors are rapidly becoming the new Small Businesses with savvy readers eager to discover new favourites.

A mother of four who quit a career in banking to write her first book in 2018, Hayden managed to surpass the average expectations of an indie author selling copies of her books worldwide despite zero media and publishing contacts. Hayden’s self-proclaimed brand of ‘chick lit with a kick’ has gained a small loyal fan base and praise from mainstream bloggers. A trademark of Hayden’s previous releases is the happy-ever-after of ‘chick lit’ for readers who want the light-hearted entertainment of a romance without the cliché of a man saving the heroine.

Charities have been hit hard during the restrictions of Covid-19 just like millions of furloughed or laid off people throughout the country. The independent path has given Hayden, who works 40 hours a week while raising her 4 children as well as writing, the freedom to write the books that she wants to rather than formulaic crowd-pleasers.

While big publishers have tens of thousands of marketing expenditure to claw back, Hayden has low overheads and has been able to make all her books free at the beginning of the UK’s lockdown as well as donate all royalties in 2020 from her next release to charity.

Check out Lily’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lily-Hayden/e/B07CR8KF7Dref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share