Riley Paige is an up-and-coming contemporary sports romance author. Her books revolve around bringing awareness to mental health, intertwined with romantic elements. This year, she has already published two novels: her debut Broken Play and her sophomore Red Zone, with one more on the way this year. Riley has been making her name known in the indie author spotlight!
Riley caught my eye with the marketing of her debut novel, Broken Play (PCU Book One). She kept appearing on my FYP on TikTok, and after about two weeks of nonstop exposure to her and her content (along with engaging with it), I caved and bought her novelāand I am so glad I did. Riley has crafted an in-depth world with characters so raw that it’s hard not to relate to them. I have not only been fortunate enough to connect with her on social media, as she is incredibly engaging with her fans, but I have also been able to interview Riley and gain insight into what it is like to become an author in this new age of media, along with what the future holds for her, her books and the characters.
After an extensive thank you from my end to Riley for giving me the opportunity to not only dive into the PCU universe, but her as a writer and person, we went headfirst into what inspired her to start writing in the first place. “I have always been a creative person. I actually started out with songwriting, and one day I looked at what I wrote and thought that would make a really good book,” Riley stated. This marked the beginning of Broken Play in 2013. Since then, it has undergone many changes, and with being mostly written on her phone, the storyline we got in June was not set in stone until February of this year. āIt was Valentine’s Day this year. I heard āLove You, Miss You, Mean itā by Luke Bryan, and I was like, what if she called but left a voicemail instead?” With that, the Broken Play we have now quickly took shape.
Riley and I got to discussed the mental health representation in her books and what made her to lean that way within the sports romance, stating that, especially within female characters, such a big focus isnāt something we often see.
“We mostly see the male main character (MMC) with the fear of being abandoned, and the female main character (FMC) helps him. I knew if I did this with Jaxson, he would get even more love, but I wanted to be Maddison, even though we didn’t have the same struggles. I put that fear of mine in her.”
Within this, we discussed the inspiration behind her characters. “Lyla’s OCD is just like mine; it’s something I struggle with every day. Everything has to be perfect. I’ve been told by readers that it is written differently from Broken Play, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted it to be like you were inside the mind of someone with OCD…” This, in my opinion, is why Riley’s characters are so raw and personal.
While discussing her characters, I asked her who her favorite couple (released or unreleased) was. Even though we both agreed it was like asking her to pick a favorite child, she said if she had to choose, she would choose Lyla and Carter (even though he’s blonde) from her most recent release, Red Zone. This led us to talk about the characters in her upcoming releases, along with the tropes in Book Three, and her producing her own audiobook for Broken Play (I know she’s a girlboss). I was able to get the inside scoop on some things that havenāt been released to the public yet, and let’s just say she is going to make my wallet hurt. What is in store for the PCU Universe is absolutely overwhelmingly exciting.
When talking about what’s in store for not only her series but her as an author, and whether if she would stay indie or go mainstream (traditional publishing), “There are a lot of companies that will try to pick up your paperback rights… the right deal would have to come around for me to want to do it.” With her rapidly releasing novels this year, she discussed how most “trad” publishers might not want to release new novels every two months. (Yes, since June, it has been Ā a two months gap between the release of book 2 in August and 3 this Novemberāagain, girlboss!) When asked how she manages to do this, she stated that she tends to write 15-20k words per sitting. Along with all of this, Riley does almost all of her own marketing. (Have I said what an absolute girlboss this chick is?)
Before Riley became an author, she was engaged social media marketing (hey, me too!). Having a background in it definitely helped when she got involved with authors and BookTok in January 2023. Although she no longer does socials for other creators, it doesn’t mean she has slowed down with marketing on media. Riley has 30 TikTok accounts that she posts content on at least once a day, her main ones for promoting her books being @booksbyriley and @rileypaigebookshop. Even though she does most of her marketing along with running her multiple businesses (with her business manager assisting with the rest), she yearns to focus just on the writing part of being an author, and even though she loves interacting with her fans, writing is her ultimate goal.
When I asked Riley what it felt like to get so big so fast, she said that it was surreal for her because she didn’t have anything to base it on. Riley is as humble as they come because, with over 6,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, over 14 million page reads, and selling over 2,000 novels, she still stated that sometimes she feels like she hasn’t made it. Not only that, she has made a deep personal connection with her fans.
I can talk from personal experience that Riley is not only a great author but a great person. During our interview, we talked about some of our favorite genres, upcoming book releases, what Her Campus is, and many other things. The Riley I got to talk to in this interview and interacted with on socials is real and sweet. I got to know and see a side of her that not only makes her writing feel more personal and raw, but also brings a deeper meaning to it in general. Riley took a chance on a college girl who really enjoys her work and wanted to know more about her, and I personally think that says so much about her character. She not only let me get to know her but also asked about my experience in college, and wanted to get to know me as a person. I can say that Riley 100% deserves the attention she has been given, and I am so excited to see what the future brings her and the PCU Universe.
If you want to keep up with Riley and her amazing work, you can follow her on her socials or check out her website https://rileypaigeauthor.com/ or check her out on Kindle Unlimited. I promise you won’t regret it!