Romance Author Success Story

27 Books, Female Firefighter Heroes, and the Long Game of a Romance Career: Inside Constance Phillips’ 15-Year Journey

There’s a moment at every big publishing conference where a chance conversation becomes the most valuable thing that happens to you all week. For Alexa, that moment at Author Nation was standing in the drink line next to Constance Phillips — who, it turned out, has quietly published 27 romance novels over the past 15 years.

That’s the kind of writer you say yes to immediately when you have a podcast.

In this episode of Alexa’s Book Marketing & Publishing Chat, Constance pulls back the curtain on what it actually looks like to build a romance writing career one book — and one stolen hour — at a time.

Writing From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Constance has wanted to be a writer since junior high (the kind who carried notebooks instead of listening to her teachers). When her kids were small, that meant writing from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. — her peak creative hours. She kept at it through the revise-edit-submit cycle until she finally broke through with Press at Moon Press, publishing her fairy series and Resurrecting Harry, a reimagining of a reincarnated Harry Houdini.

Then she pivoted. Not because the paranormal wasn’t working, but because she wanted to stretch. A publisher’s call for a story with a lawyer hero turned into the Sunnydale series — small-town romance set around a therapeutic horse riding facility — which spun off into To Protect and Serve, a firefighter and police series.

That world is still expanding. Six Sunnydale books and counting. A To Protect and Serve series with a deliberately female firefighter heroine in book two and a planned female paramedic for book five.

“I Just Think It’s Important to Bend Those Gender Stereotypes”

This was one of Alexa’s favorite parts of the conversation. Constance didn’t accidentally end up writing female firefighters and female paramedics — she chose it. The same impulse drives her to write characters with physical disabilities into a small-town world that, in lesser hands, could read as monochrome.

“I just try to paint the world wide,” she said.

That choice matters. It’s also one of the reasons her series build the kind of loyal readership where someone finishes book one and immediately downloads book two.

Four Books a Year — Here’s How

For the last three years, Constance has produced four books annually. Her secret isn’t faster typing. It’s overlap.

While she’s editing one book, she’s already two thousand words into the next. Not every day, but most. Some days when the editing is brutal, she gives herself permission to just edit. But she protects the new-words habit because she knows what happens if she lets herself “take a break” between projects: one book a year, maybe two.

“Any word you put on the page is a good word,” she told Alexa. “If you only had time to write a paragraph, well, you’re a paragraph ahead.”

The Financial Truth Most Authors Won’t Say Out Loud

Alexa asked the question other interviewers tend to dance around: are you making a living from this?

Constance’s answer was honest. Not yet — and she said it without flinching. Her husband’s business carries the household. Her sales are growing. The wheels are turning. And every dollar that comes in tends to get reinvested — into advertising, into a new computer when the old one finally gives up, into conferences, into the vendor shows she’s started doing again this year that have visibly grown her fanbase.

That’s the real shape of a building author business. Not the influencer pitch where 27 books equals six figures. The reality where reinvestment is the operating cost of staying in the game long enough to win.

Why Small-Town Romance Is Having a Moment

“When the outside world’s a little dark, we all like to go a little bit warmer.”

Readers want the cozy. The Gilmore Girls town. The familiar diner. The hardware store you’ve visited in four other books. Constance grew up in a small town and writes what she knows — and her readers reward her for it. Series like hers give people permission to escape into a place they already know, where the side characters from book three become the leads in book five.

The Advice That Will Keep You Writing

Constance has a saying she returns to whenever she’s down: most people who quit don’t realize how close they were to making it when they did.

And her favorite gut-check question for any author thinking about walking away: If you couldn’t write for a living anymore, would you really stop writing?

Most of us wouldn’t. The stories still come — in restaurants, in line at the store, in the shower. That’s the answer. That’s the reason to keep showing up.

Look Back, Not Just Forward

Both Alexa and Constance landed on the same closing insight: writers are brutally hard on themselves because the target keeps moving. More books. More royalties. More readers. The goalpost shifts the moment you reach it.

The antidote? Look back at where you started.

Alexa recently got a new bookshelf and put all of her books on it specifically so she’d be forced to remember what she’s already done. Constance encouraged listeners to take those reflective moments seriously. You’ve come further than you think.

Where to Find Constance

• Website: ConstancePhillips.com
• Instagram: @constancephillipsauthor — her most active platform right now

Keep Building Your Author Business With Us

If this conversation lit a fire under your “next book” project, you’re exactly who we built WIP Society for. It’s the year-round home for women authors and publishing pros — virtual conferences, monthly Q&A sessions, bootcamps, networking, writing sprints, and the kind of community that keeps you writing when the slow seasons hit. We have a Marketing Bootcamp in June and our Business Bootcamp is coming up in August 2026 and are included with Society membership.

Learn more and join us at mywipsociety.com.

Or grab your ticket to the Marketing Bootcamp here!

Q: How many books has Constance Phillips published? A: As of this episode, Constance Phillips has published 27 romance titles — a mix of novellas and full-length category romances — across paranormal and contemporary subgenres since 2010.

Q: What romance series does Constance Phillips write? A: Her two flagship contemporary series are the Sunnydale series, set around a therapeutic horse riding facility in a small town, and the To Protect and Serve spinoff series featuring firefighter and police heroes and heroines. She also writes paranormal romance, including a fairy series and Resurrecting Harry, a reimagining of a reincarnated Harry Houdini.

Q: How does Constance Phillips write four books a year? A: She overlaps her writing with her editing. While revising one manuscript, she’s already drafting one to two thousand words a day on the next book. She credits this discipline with keeping her output at four titles a year for the last three years.

Q: What is Constance Phillips’ best advice for struggling romance authors? A: Keep going. Most people who quit don’t realize how close they were to making it when they did. She also recommends asking yourself the litmus-test question: if you couldn’t write for a living, would you actually stop writing? If the answer is no, that’s your sign to stay in it.

Q: Where can I find Constance Phillips online? A: Her most active platform is Instagram at @constancephillipsauthor. You can also visit her website at ConstancePhillips.com, where direct buy links will be available soon as she rebuilds on Shopify.