Lyla Sage: Done and Dusted author got the email that made her a BookTok sensation two weeks afte rbeing laid off

Self-publishing used to be a dirty word in the book world; now it’s making women tens of thousands of dollars and setting some on the path to global fame.

One of them is Utah-based author Lyla Sage, who was watching reruns of 2000s drama Friday Night Lights when inspiration for her debut novel struck.

It was early 2023 and she spent the next three months penning the manuscript for Done and Dusted, a Western romance with a love interest she describes as “a grown up Tim Riggins [if he] went to therapy”.

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Determined to get it published, Sage opted out of the arduous process of emailing traditional publishing editors just to be rejected and instead turned to the internet.

”I had access to Google and a dream,” she tells 9honey, and so her self-publishing journey began.

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at mleach@nine.com.au

Self-publishing (also known as independent/indie publishing) has exploded in the last few years, with more than 2 million indie titles now released every year.

Indie authors grossed more than $1.3 billion in ebook sales in 2022 alone and the 2023 Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) Big Indie Author Data Drop report revealed the space is particularly lucrative for women.

It showed female authors earn about 40 per cent more than men in indie publishing, compared to traditional publishing, where men earn 41 per cent more than women.

Self-publishing is also more accessible for authors from minority groups who face significant challenges in the traditional publishing industry.

Sage decided to invest all the money she had (admittedly, not much) into publishing Done and Dusted herself, outsourcing the editing and cover art then publishing it through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform.

With a background in marketing and communications and a keen eye for the rising popularity of the romance genre on BookTok, she opted to do all the marketing herself.

“I never spent any money on ads or anything like that. It was just me blasting myself all over the internet,” she laughs.

The goal was to make it onto Amazon’s top 100 Western romance list and earn back the money she’d spent on the book.

Instead, she got laid off one week after publishing it.

The book was selling well, giving Sage a small financial cushion before she had to start looking for jobs but she admits she was in a “pretty s–t” situation.

Two weeks later she received more shocking news, though this time it left her speechles for a whole different reason; an editor at Penguin Random House was offering her a deal to traditionally publish Done and Dusted.

Then an agent reached out wanting to represent Sage and in October 2023, the first run of traditionally published copies of Done and Dusted hit shelves.

Sage is among a growing number of indie authors who have landed lucrative traditional publishing deals after finding success in the self-publishing space, including the likes of Colleen Hoover, E. L. James, M. L. Wang and many more.

Two years after she self-published her debut novel, Sage has released three more romance books in the Rebel Blue Ranch series – including her latest, instant number one New York Times bestseller Wild and Wrangled – and has had her words read by people all over the globe.

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She’s made a great living in the process and, much to her delight, never actually had to look for a new day job as her writing career can comfortably sustain her.

Some critics online and in her hometown of Utah still try to say that being a romance author isn’t a “real job” and some men are “intimidated” by it when she’s dating, but Sage has never let it bother her.

“I do this for a reason and the reason isn’t just me anymore, it’s also for all these people who have championed me and run alongside me as I chase my dreams,” she says.

Without the other indie authors who paved the way and shared their wisdom, Sage may never have had the guts to self-publish Done and Dusted and she hopes that her success will empower other female authors to take the plunge too.

Self-publishing is also a powerful tool against the censorship of marginalised and diverse narratives, something that has been on Sage’s mind much more of late.

She’s witnessed a spike in book bans in the US over the last few years, especially since President Donald Trump entered the Oval Office for a second time in 2025.

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At least 10,000 books were banned from US public schools last year including titles about racial justice, LGBTQ+ experiences, disability, climate change and more.

More recently, Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden due to her “pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children,” according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

This, despite the fact the US Library of Congress is a research library that does not loan out books to children.

There has been a concerning shift in the way books are consumed and controlled in the US and Sage hopes authors will continue to make their voices heard, regardless of whether it’s through traditional or indie publishing.

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