Someone You Should Know: Sioux Falls author has book turned into movie

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - This week’s Someone You Should Know is a romance author in Sioux Falls whose writing is internationally acclaimed.

Amy Daws is a number one best-selling author on Amazon of prolific romance novels with an international fanbase.

“I’ve always been a huge romance fan, and so once I realized how to publish a book, I thought maybe I could try my hand at fiction, and that’s how I became a romance author of 22 books now,” said Daws.

Her first book was a memoir about recurring pregnancy loss.

“We lost six babies in total, and we now have our beautiful daughter Loreli who’s 10. I was kind of journaling a lot about my experience throughout all those miscarriages,” said Daws.

Living in Sioux Falls, Amy decided to self-publish and learned it was not as difficult as she thought.

“With a lot of research and some help from a local author, I published my memoir called ‘Chasing Hope.’ It’s a very emotional story. It’s something that I would cherish forever, but it’s definitely not a genre I wanted to stay in,” said Daws.

Fueled by the positive feedback on her first book, Amy was excited to write more and continue publishing on Amazon and Kindle.

“I think there is a misconception out there that you need to be traditionally published by a big publishing house in order to be successful as a writer. I am living proof that that is not true. This is my full-time job,” said Daws.

One of her notable books is “Wait with Me,” written through the inspiration of waiting to get her car serviced.

“The story behind my book ‘Wait With Me’ is kind of funny because when I finally became successful enough to start writing full-time, I was trying to work from home in my own office, and I had a horrible case of writer’s block. Then I ended up at Tires, Tires, Tires for a service on my vehicle, and I loved their waiting room so much,” said Daws.

This book did so well that a movie company reached out to make it into a movie.

“Even in the book I wrote, the author had a movie deal with a network called Passionflix. I think there was a little bit of manifesting going on perhaps. The next thing I know, Passionflix reached out to me, and they were like, ‘We’d love to turn your book into a movie. Is it open for film rights?’ And I was like, ‘Yes! Oh my gosh, yes!’”

She was very involved in the filming of the movie.

“They were going to film it all in Atlanta, and they had me be a big part of the casting, and I got to be on set the whole time. I got to be on the movie set for the ‘Wait With Me’ production for the full three weeks. It was amazing meeting the actors and the crew and the director,” said Daws.

She owes a lot of her success to her social media platforms, especially TikTok.

“It’s super humbling. It’s still kind of crazy to me that I have real fans out there that will read anything I write. That’s so hard to believe because I’m still a mom and a wife back here in Sioux Falls. When I got to book signings and things like that and there were these long lines for people who want signed books from me, I don’t know how I stumbled into this amazing community of people who love reading, and they look for that for their escape, and I feel so fortunate to be a small part of that industry,” said Daws.

Amy is already writing her next novel and urges budding authors to take a page from her book and not be afraid of self-publishing.

“As a romance author, I am always writing. I have another series that I’m launching, so I need to get back to writing. The movie buzz is so much fun, but ultimately the fans are ready for another book from me,” said Daws.

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