Today, March 29, 2013 is the one-year anniversary of my debut novel. It’s on sale at Amazon for a mere $2.99. Click here!
Yeah, it’s been a year. In that time, it’s been quite the ride. Here are some things that struck me as I looked back. Exhausting. Overwhelming. And in bullet points, for your viewing pleasure.
Bullet points of having a book published. Year one.
- The joy of a book I can no longer revise.
- The horror of a book I can no longer revise.
- The bliss of handselling.
- The horror of handselling.
- How online hours marketing eats away at my soul, a little bit at a time.
- How wonderful it is to have strangers read my book and give their honest opinion on Goodreads.
- The horror of strangers reading my book and their damn opinions.
- I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of people saying they cried while reading my words. I must’ve done something right.
- Most people celebrated my book and my accomplishment. Most people, but not all.
- Everyone likes a celebrity, even minor ones.
- Having a book out in the world is better than having a book alone in a basement.
- The terror of sitting at signing tables with authors who are much more talented, much more accomplished, much more popular than I’ll ever be.
- Seeing the flash in someone’s eyes. “You’ve written a book. Really?”
- Hearing about people praising you behind your back. Thank you, Colorado Springs.
- Getting calls out of the blue, “Would you like to come talk at our book club?” Would I? Do you even know who you’re talking to?
- The sad fact that I can’t write all the books I wanna write. Not enough time. Too much to do.
- Seeing my name, with an ISBN, on a novel that actual people are going to actually read.
- Reading my words at a book event, and loving them because I’d spent years and buckets of sweat to bring them out and shape them just so.
- Two words: Tax deductible. I thought I had five years for my fiction writing business to be profitable. Turns out, I can pour money into this venture for decades. I keep telling my friends, “I’m going to write until the money is gone.”
- If nothing else, when I die, I will leave a book behind. Not only a book, a book that is uniquely me. A love story with angels, demons, drug addicts, and atheists. That’s my book. That’s me.
- The game has changed. I can’t go back. More than that, I don’t wanna go back. I will write books and publish books until I die. And if all goes well, even after I take that short walk home.
Happy Birthday, Never Prayer! Want to give this little baby the perfect gift? The ebook on Amazon. Hurray!