Dobi Daniels is the author of clean medical romances who also writes medical thrillers under the name Dobi Cross. She will share her background that helped prepare her to rapid release medical novels; which genre is easier to break into–romance or thrillers; and what her recent Bookbub promo experience was like.
Q. Is Dobi your real name or a nickname?
A. Shortened form of a real name. I use it for safety reasons.
Q. Okay. It’s a cute name. I do think of Harry Potter…
A. That’s funny.
Q. How long have you been published? And how many books?
A. I first published a short story as part of an anthology on July 2, 2018, but published the first novel in Oct 2018. I have 8 books and 2 short stories under both names.
Q. Both names? Which kind of stories are published under which name?
A. Thrillers under Dobi Cross, primarily medical thrillers. Clean romance under Dobi Daniels primarily medical romance.
Q. I am zoning in on the word “medical.” Because at some point since we’ve known each other the past year, I asked if you have a medical background, and you said you did. Can you tell me more about that?
A. I trained and practiced as a physician for a couple of years before going into business consulting.
Q. So you went to medical school for several years and then worked for two in the field?
A. Medical school, then worked for about four years. It was a wonderful time but I’ve always liked the business side of things so I figured it was a better fit for me. But I worked primarily with healthcare companies and organizations so my knowledge and skills were very much applicable. The last sentence is in reference to my business career.
Q. What kind of medicine did you practice?
A. I was a family physician.
Q. I think it’s cool that you have that background for what you are writing. So tell me how you got into writing novels.
A. I’ve always been an avid reader and had a huge library before the era of ebooks began. So there’s always been that love. Working in corporate America meant I was always working for someone else and my time was not my own. I figured I needed a backup in case I wanted a slower pace of life. So when I was on 6-month maternity leave after the birth of my child, I thought it would be Great to learn a new skill and writing was the first that came to mind. So I enrolled in a writing class at a non-profit called GrubStreet. It turned out that my first class was taught by a well-known author (I had no idea at the time!) but she was very gracious and encouraged us a lot despite our horrendous writing. Or at least mine was.
Q. Were you writing a romance then?
A. At the time I had no idea what I wanted to write since I read widely across genres. We had writing prompts and I wrote everything from women fiction to literary, horror, thriller etc. it was more about learning the basics ropes of writing and kicking the writing side of our brains alive than anything else. I knew nothing about POVs (point of views), etc. I was a literal novice.
Q. Did you have to switch from left brain medical mode to right brain?
A. Not really. In medicine, you have to be observant and be able to describe what is happening to a patient yet be succinct. I guess maybe that’s why I find it hard to write long novels lol.
Q. What is the market like right now for medical romances? I seem to remember that recently you’ve hit bestseller status in your categories.
A. I think it’s hot because I see a lot of folks jumping into it. It turned out that Amazon created a specific category right around after I started publishing in it so that really helps. But like everything else, it might fade a bit eventually but I believe the market will always be there. There are readers who like everything medical from thrillers to romance. But those readers can be picky. They like the medical aspects of the books to be as accurate as possible.
Q. I can believe that. I can’t even imagine trying to write anything medical without doing some deep research. Is that possible for a regular author? To have access to medical people / experiences?
A. Sure. Google is your friend and maybe occasional fact checking with medical folks you know on any technical aspects.
Q. Your medical romance has billionaires in it. Why did you choose to go that route?
A. I’m a big fan of the rich guy/wealthy trope. I had my MCs (main characters) as millionaires originally and I figured why not just make them billionaires? I do intend to branch out into other tropes but I’ll probably always come back to it.
Q. Which is a better market, straight up medical romance or medical thrillers?
A. Medical thrillers is a more established market, has more readers, but harder to break into. Medical romance is a newer smaller market (in US but not in the UK), but easier to break into. So for example, I released my thrillers first but no matter what I did, it was hard to get visibility. But not so with romance. But now my thrillers are a bigger percentage of my income versus a couple months since it has more visibility now. Even though it has fewer books than my romance.
Q. Nice. Congrats. And you recently had a Bookbub on one of your thrillers, correct? How many times have you applied for a BB and how did that go for you?
A. For Dobi Cross, I applied the first time with book one, got rejected, and then applied with book two and got accepted. I had run a promo on book one about a week before that, so I figured that was probably the reason for the rejection. For Dobi Daniels, I have applied three times, one each for the first three books. But I planned to wait a bit before I apply again.
Q. Were you pleased with the results? Do you mind sharing what kind of profit margin you were able to earn out of a BB?
A. I made about 7 times the cost of the BookBub and the tail is still going on. There was a glitch when the book went back to paid so I lost ranking in the book which would have increased the payoff but what I had was already great. I also get preorders on the next two book every day without any ads.
Q. That is fab. We are down to our last question/s. (I better make it good.) How often are you publishing in either name and what is your rapid release process?
A. I try to publish romance every two months if possible. The Thrillers every 4 to 5 months. I can probably publish faster since it takes me 1-2 weeks to write the first draft, but somehow it works out that way with life and family. My thriller fans are always complaining that I spend more time on my romance books lol.
Q. Ha ha, that’s cute.
A. I use the thrillers to clear my brain after writing romance for some time. So it’s therapeutic for me 😀.
Q. I can see that. Dobi, thank you so much for your time. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you better. Congrats on all your success and may you have more!
A. Thank you! It was great chatting with you! And can I mention that you have great covers!
Q. Thank you! I have great cover artists.
Check out Dobi Daniel’s Amazon page here, and Dobi Cross’s here.
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