By Courtney Elisech
WILMINGTON, DEL. — While the Covid-19 pandemic caused many people to lose inspiration and motivation, author Ivy Smoak was a writing machine. She thrived during the lockdown and completed over ten books and is still writing others. As a self-published author, she was able to release seven romance novels and three novellas since the pandemic began. “Empire High Untouchable“ was the first book she wrote after the pandemic began, the fifth installment, “Empire High Runaway,” released on March 10. Before midnight on release day her newest release hit #1 in the Kindle Store.
“I really got to focus on writing without worrying about family or friend obligations,” Smoak said about life since the pandemic began. “I realized that’s what makes me happy, literally writing all day.”
Ivy Smoak lives with her husband, Ryan Hauge, in the small town of Wilmington, Del. They grew up about ten minutes apart but attended rival schools and never met. They didn’t know each other until their freshman year at the University of Delaware.
In a fun turn of events, the main characters in her first romance book, “Temptation,” meet the same way Ivy and Ryan did. Leaving a coffee shop, she quite literally ran into him with the door. Embarrassed, she laughed and ran off as fast as she could.
Later that day she messaged him on AIM and apologized as awkwardly as you’d expect. They spent the whole night talking and falling into their own love story. The rest, as they say, is history.
As the couple laughed and reminisced about the past, they finished one another’s sentences joking about telling the story right. Throughout her books you can find pieces of their life together intertwined in the pages. From their favorite pizza place, Grottos, to their favorite vacation destination, Rehoboth Beach.
Through her writing Smoak found confidence. Her husband joked that she has almost become a new person with her pen name.
“Being Ivy Smoak is my superpower,” Smoak agreed. To protect her privacy, her real name will not be shared. Smoak is a very humble person, sharing embarrassing stories about live-streaming failures and hidden talents as a high school volleyball champ.
She enjoys interacting with her fans on social media outlets like Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook. People were reading more than ever throughout the pandemic and her fan base grew.
“The Smoaksters group is so fun,” Smoak said of her Facebook group that has over 26,000 members. “There are people from all over the world coming together just to talk about books and have fun. That’s been really amazing. I like the community that I feel like it created.”
Social media is now a huge part of marketing, especially for a self-published author. It is also a way to learn how much Smoak’s stories have impacted her fans lives.
“She really gets happy when people message her about the books helping them through a hard time in their life,” Hauge said. It’s a huge compliment to Smoak when she hears from fans about her stories changing their lives.
They do live stream videos on social media often including when they get fan mail and have exciting news to share.
“Most people think I’m an extrovert because of all the lives and my books, which is so not true. I am actually super shy and super antisocial,” Smoak laughed. Her favorite place to be is at home writing all day. Writing was a hobby before a career, so she tries to keep it that way and make it fun.
She also enjoys spending time outside, doing sudoku, yoga, and drinking wine. Even when she’s not actively writing a story her mind can’t stay away from the characters. The sudoku book is full of random ideas she jotted down. Their conversations often drift to, or are interrupted by, brainstorming.
Growing up reading was something Smoak loved, although she struggled with it and had to work harder than other children to excel. Now her favorite books include the Harry Potter series, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and different thriller novels.
While she always wanted to write it didn’t seem possible after years of people telling her she wasn’t good at it. Today she regularly works on many projects at once, focusing on only one or two at a time.
How does she keep it all straight? There is a loose outline for each book but the rest lives in her head.
“I feel like it’s weird to say, ‘Ivy Smoak’s a crazy person,’ but I feel like that is the correct answer,” Smoak laughed.
Entrepreneurs at heart, the couple started a Lego business selling mini figs and accessories after college. Now Smoak’s younger sister, and best friend, manages the business while the couple works together as author and editor.
When Smoak first wrote a book, she tried traditional publishing and was turned away time and again. After a break from writing and focusing on the Lego business she went back to writing. This time the couple worked together to try self-publishing. Through trial and error, she found the genre that fit her best was romance.
Together they create covers and blurbs for the books, edit, do all the marketing, and publish the books. Self-published authors must work twice as hard for success; they see no profits until the books start selling. Marketing is a huge aspect; you could write the next best thing but without marketing no one will find it.
Though they are a team, Smoak shared that none of the books would exist without her husband. One of her favorite things has been sharing it all with him. Between brainstorming together and being her sounding board, Hauge has had the most impact on her career.
Another part of being an author is standing strong when the negativity rolls in. After “Empire High Betrayal” released there was an uproar. Fans of the series flooded Smoak’s inboxes with hate mail and threats because they didn’t agree with the way she ended the book.
“I’ll be honest with you, I almost stopped writing after Betrayal,” Smoak admitted. “I had a really hard time. Even talking about it is hard, I feel all sweaty and anxious. I still get emails a couple times a week from people who discover the series.”
The book ended in a way that fans did not like, and Smoak struggled to find a way past the backlash. She has changed the way she reads emails and responds to messages because of the negativity and backlash.
“I think sometimes people get so caught up in the character, which I love because I want them to love them as much as I do,” Smoak said. “But through the internet you can forget the human component behind it. Now I don’t even read emails if they have a negative start, I just delete them.”
“It’s hard because you are like a mini celebrity,” Hauge said. “I don’t understand how movie stars do it.”
“I think about that, some people have hundreds of thousands of followers. I only have like twenty thousand and I get called derogatory names and torn down for how I dress. And I’m like ‘what does this have to do with the books.’ People’s opinions of my books are not an opinion of me,” Smoak said. “People’s opinions are opinions, and they are not my business. That’s how I look at it now. Don’t feed the trolls. I had to take a step back from looking at stuff because it really messed me up. I almost lost my joy of writing because of it. And I didn’t expect that.”
Ivy Smoak is now a Wallstreet Journal and USA Today Best-Selling Author. She has sold over three million copies world-wide. Her goals for the next ten years include children, being an all-time best seller, living in a castle-mansion, and scoring a movie or TV deal.
“The pandemic really helped me; it was a horrible situation for everyone,” Smoak said. As a homebody she felt like she had been preparing for the pandemic her whole life. “But I really loved being home. My productivity went way up. I am very happy, happier than before the pandemic began.”
