Sonia Marsh's Blog, page 18

Do Authors Make Money? Here’s The Truth

I’m in the mood to write something controversial that may get me in trouble, but as you know, my theme is being “Gutsy” so I’ve decided to be honest and say what’s on my mind.

Before I do, let me tell you that I’ve been re-evaluating my goals; where I’m heading with “Gutsy Living” and my coaching business.

As many of you have told me, I’m all over the place trying to promote not only my stuff, but also other people’s books, posts, videos, articles. It takes time, and for me, it’s a 7-day-a-week job. If I were doing this for a successful company, I should be making a six-figure income, easily,  BUT NO!

As an indie author, I choose to spend money on book covers, formatting, hiring a business coach, subscriptions to magazines and organizations, applying for book Awards, attending conferences, flights, hotels (when I cannot stay for free at a friend’s house) printing, business cards, posters, once in a while on a local PR person (for the “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology, book launch)

Now perhaps I’m taking the wrong approach. I cannot sacrifice the quality of my product (books) for a cheaper version of DIY. So far, I have hired professional editors (4 of them) book designers (1106 Design), a film company to film the book launch (perhaps a BIG mistake),  rented a movie theater with a keynote speaker and a panel to of indie authors to entertain our audience.

It’s time for a reality check 

My recent presentation at the #SBWC2014 Santa Barbara Writers Conference

As I’ve heard over and over at conferences:

Don’t quit your day job

We can’t all be like Elizabeth Gilbert who sold 9 million copies of her book, Eat, Pray, Love,  worldwide, generating an estimated $135 million in sales, nor like John Grisham who sold 645,000 copies of one of his books.

Amy Collins, with New Shelves distribution, mentioned during her presentation at PWSD (Publishers Writers San Diego) that published authors selling 25,000 copies, need to keep their day job.

I don’t know of any indie author friends of mine who have sold 25,000 copies in one year. If you have, please e-mail me at: sonia@soniamarsh.

In fact, many indie authors claim they don’t receive Amazon royalty checks each month.

According to BISG.org  (The Book Industry Study Group)

78% of all books are sold online
98% of all books sold online are through Amazon  
Less than 4% of Americans visited a bookstore in the last year.
(These are my notes from the lecture, so as far as I know they are accurate.)

When I make presentations to writers’ groups and at writers’ conferences, I explain how:

This is the best time to be an author, but it is also the worst time. WHY?

It’s the best time because authors have so many options today to market themselves online. If we have a great idea for Oprah’s audience, heck, we can even Tweet @Oprah, and maybe, just maybe, one of her producers will read our Tweet, you never know. Oprah has 5 great summer reads which her Oprah magazine book editor, Leigh Haber, recommends. Why not our books? There are all genres.

It’s also the worst time as there is so much competition today. In 2013, Bowker announced that 391,000 books were self-published in 2012. A 59% increase from 2011.

I started my own publishing company in 2012, called, “Gutsy Publications.” I did this after studying the pros and cons of using CreateSpace as my POD printer, vs. being a publisher and the benefits of using LSI (Lightning Source Ingram) as a printer and Ingram as a wholesaler. If you want to get a local book signing at Costco, or B&N, then starting your own publishing company is the way to go. My author friend, Linda Austin, explains the pros and cons of CreateSpace and LSI, which is now called Ingram Spark, on her site.

Hopefully we all know by now the importance of seeing ourselves as a brand, and our books as a product, but truthfully, why do you think most indie authors need to start a coaching business or a speaking career, in order to hopefully make a living?

Because most authors cannot make a living from book sales alone. That’s the honest truth my dear friends. You have 7 choices:

You keep your day job
You’re independently wealthy and have enough funds to support your hobby (Oops! Did I use the H word?)
You keep writing more books and hope that by the 6th one you can make a full-time living
You start a successful coaching-editing-writing coach or other related business to your writing
You get paid $100,000,000 as a public speaker like Anthony Robbins
You get your book turned into a movie and Hollywood makes you famous
You’re happy being an underpaid author who has a book out in the world

 

So as I wrap up my post where I tell you the truth, I am forced to charge $79/writer who wants to get published in our 3rd Award-winning Anthology.

Please see what you get for this fee, and I hope you agree that you’re getting a wonderful opportunity for publication and promotion by agreeing to join our Gutsy Indie Tribe .

Please note that it’s free to submit to my website and get promoted. To get published in our print version will now have a $79 fee.

Accepting story submissions now.  READ MORE HERE

So please let me know if you’re making a full-time living with your book sales. I’d like to share some successful ““My Gutsy Story®” book stories.

 

 

Winner of the May 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” Contest

Laura McHale Holland

This May we had FOUR OUTSTANDING  “My Gutsy Story®” authors. Their stories will be included in our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology, published in the Fall of 2014.  Thank you to all four authors. Your stories are all WINNERS.

Our first place goes to Laura McHale Holland  who won 1st Place for her “My Gutsy Story®” about how she started a new adventure and a new life.

2nd Place goes to Jennifer Barclay, who shares what she did to make her life happy.

Jennifer Barclay

 

 

3rd Place goes to Robin Korth who shares her story about her journey towards self-honesty.

Robin Korth

 

 

4th Place goes to Nancy Sharp with her inspiring story called, “The GIft of Bold Living.”

  Thank you to all four authors. Your stories are all WINNERS.

 

Click on cover to go to Amazon

Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 3rd anthology?

NEW GUIDELINES  contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

Upcoming “Gutsy” Interviews and Webinars

As an author who likes to help other writers/authors/future authors, I’m interviewing some awesome experts through Google Hangouts and Webinars to help you understand the business.

UPCOMING GUTSY HANGOUTS AND WEBINARS 

June 11th, 1- 3:30 pm Santa Barbara Writers Conference

I am speaking on Wednesday, June 11th about “The Author Entrepreneur” How to Market and Sell Your Books. Authors need to become entrepreneurs if they want to sell books. I shall explain how I got my book into Costco, how to create a brand, niche marketing and much more. Please join Marla Miller and me for a great session.

 

June 19th, 9 a.m. PST Gutsy Google Hangout with Angela Ackerman, successful author of The Emotional Thesaurus: A Writers’ Guide to Character Expression , and blogger at Writers Helping Writers.

Watch VIDEO and listen to our Interview on June 19th, 9 a.m., PST

Angela Ackerman started blogging and helping writers describe emotions in unique visual ways. This soon became so POPULAR, she and co-author Becca Puglisi wrote “The Emotional Thesaurus.”

She developed a BRAND through BLOGGING and we shall discuss:

1). How did you come up with the concept?
2). What were your original goals?
3). When did you realize you’d come up with something BIG?
4). How did you adapt to the changes?
5). What were your biggest challenges?
6). Have you always made marketing plans from the start?
7). What made you change your blog name to “Writers Helping Writers”? Branding?
8). What advice do you have for writers about blogging?
9). What are your future goals?
10). How many books do you have now? How are sales?
11). How do you promote your books?
12). Any suggestions to help authors sell more books?

Angela Ackerman is a writing coach and co-author of the #1 bestselling resource, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression as well as the bestselling pair, The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes and The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws.  You can find her at Writers Helping Writers, a hub for all things description.

 

 

June 26th, 9 a.m. PST (California Angela Bole “Gutsy” Google Hangout with Angela Bole, Executive Director, #IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association.)

We shall discuss: What Indie authors/publishers need to know about:

1). The benefits of joining IBPA, 
2). Publishing University 
3). Learning center for authors, indie publisher
4) #ibpa  Book Awards (Benjamin Franklin Digital Awards)

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: True Stories of Love, Courage and Adventure From Around the World, has been named a 2013 Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Honoree Winner.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO ANGELA OUR HANGOUT

All Webinars are recorded LIVE and available on my site for download after the Webinar.

Metadata Made Easy: 

Find the Best Keywords for Books, Blog Posts and Social Media.

July 11th, 9 a.m. PST, 12 p.m. EST

FIND OUT WHAT IT’S ABOUT IN VIDEO 

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT TODAY

Here’s what we shall cover:

You will learn:

1). What is Metadata?
2). How to select the right keywords for your book titles, description, categories, tags and even the text of your book 3). How to use both Amazon and Google’s Keyword Planner for search information
4). How to enhance blog posts and social media mentions like for Twitter and Google+ using the same process

Guest E-book and Metadata Expert Jason Matthews is a novelist, blogger, speaker and self-publishing coach working with writers around the world. His specialties include building author platform, selling at major retailers, social media, blogging and SEO. He founded a Facebook group with over 2,000 writers and hosts an Indie Authors series on Google Plus discussing current topics and interviewing top indies. He can be contacted through his websites: http://ebooksuccess4free.wordpress.com/ and http://your-own-free-website.com/
He teaches a great video course for writers who want to publish - https://www.udemy.com/how-to-make-market-and-sell-ebooks-all-for-free/

 

Get Published in Our Award-Winning “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology
Submission guidelines here

VOTE for your favorite MAY 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” submissions. You have from now until  June 11th to vote on the sidebar, (only one vote per person) and the winner will be announced on June 12th, and will select a prize from our generous sponsors.

Get Published in Our Award-Winning “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology

 Our goal for the My Gutsy Story® Anthology is to become the New Chicken Soup for the Soul® 

 

 

 

Get Published in the My Gutsy Story®  2015 Anthology # 3

My Gutsy Story® Anthology has won 3 significant Awards  (see  below)
Your story will get new readers on the popular  GUTSY LIVING ™ site and promoted on all social media
A monthly vote and the WINNER gets to pick a prize from our list of Sponsors.
Professional editing of all stories before publication
Professional Book Cover Design and Interior Formatting by Award-winning 1106 Design Company.
All published stories will be promoted in the media and press. MEDIA ADVISORY-Bring out the Gutsy in You-Event
We offer a  BIG LAUNCH PARTY  (mark your calendar for September 26th, 2014)
We invite a keynote speaker  and offer a distinguished panel of authors.
We offer our authors books at cost so you can sell them for profit
You website and bio is published in the Anthology giving you more exposure
Sponsors participate in our event and offer door prizes. See 2013 sponsor list.

Get Published in the My Gutsy Story®  2015 Anthology # 3
Only $79

(Each story is subject to approval)

Check out the submission guidelines here

 (We are still accepting stories each Monday for free, however, to get published in the Anthology, there is a fee)

 

YOUR OPINION COUNTS
Help Design the 2014 Cover of the  “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology

(Your ideas will in published in an upcoming post.)

How can we make the 2014 cover different from the 2013 cover?
Should we keep the font on the book cover the same but add a volume number
Should we change the color of the title font for each year
Should we change the turquoise background
Other ideas

 Please answer in the comments below or e-mail me personally with your ideas: Sonia@soniamarsh.com. 

GET YOUR STORY published in this Award-Winning Anthology

 

 

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: True Stories of Love, Courage and Adventure From Around the World, is a FINALIST at the 2014 International Book Awards.

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: True Stories of Love, Courage and Adventure From Around the World, is a WINNER at the 2014 Paris Book Festival.

 

My Gutsy Story® Anthology: True Stories of Love, Courage and Adventure From Around the World, has been named a 2013 Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Honoree Winner.

E-Lit Awards 2013  Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island, received 1st Place

Submission guidelines here

 

VOTE for your favorite MAY 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” submissions. You have from now until  June 11th to vote on the sidebar, (only one vote per person) and the winner will be announced on June 12th, and will select a prize from our generous sponsors.

 

 

A Free Opportunity to Volunteer in Spain-Part 2

 

THE SEGOVIA AQUEDUCT DATING FROM THE ROMAN EMPIRE Carol from Atlanta, Beatriz, Javier, Nancy from Atlanta, Sonia

 

If you missed Part-1, you might want to read it here. Check out the history of this amazing Aqueduct in Segovia.

Volunteering with Vaughan Town in Spain is a wonderful way to immerse yourself in the Spanish culture. During my week mingling with 15 Spaniards and 15 Anglos, strong bonds were formed, and we continue to write to one another even thought the program is over.

So what is the Vaughan Town program and what are you expected to do during your week in Spain?

As a volunteer, you’re expected to arrive the Saturday before the program starts and on Sunday morning, you board a bus with all the participants to your hotel in the Spanish countryside. Our town was Torrecaballeros, and the hotel was called, “El Rancho.”

 

There are four towns in Spain, (all outside Madrid) to choose from. Depending on the dates you select, you will be allocated to a different location.

 

After our  one hour and fifteen minute drive, we had a cafe con leche (latte) at the hotel, and friendships and conversations started sprouting. We had time to unpack before lunch which was served at 2 p.m. Yes that’s normal for Spain, and siesta time is after lunch, from 3-5 p.m. I used siesta time to catch up with my e-mails.

The food was outstanding, especially the fresh fish, and local dishes. We were given options to select from daily. A bulletin board outside the bar, listed the menu for the following day and there were two choices for the first course, two for the second and two for dessert. Salad and fruit were also available daily, for those who wanted to stay trim, and not gain too much weight. Wine and bread were also served at lunch and dinner. Breakfast was buffet style.

Andrew, a fun Scottish guy from Edinburgh, started a daily ritual of getting a cafe con leche at the local bar across the street at 8:30 a.m. For me, a coffee addict, waiting until breakfast at nine, seemed way too long. Local Spaniards were already starting their first shot glass of local liquor before going to work.

Activities Schedule:

Our job after breakfast was to check our schedules, and a list of the following activities were posted.

One-on-One where you talk to a Spaniard for one hour. You get to choose if you wish to walk and chat around town or in the lush green pastures where rabbits race across the green fields and hide behind bushes.
Conference calls/Telephone sessions, where 3-4 Spaniards are in a conference room on speaker phone and you answer their call in your room and discuss real-work/life related situations for 30-minutes.
Help your Spaniard prepare a 5-minute presentation in English which they will be expected to make in the evening before dinner at 9 p.m. Yes, dinner is at 9.

 

There were other games and fun things like skits, presentations, acting, singing with Pete and his guitar, that we did in the evenings.

I took the opportunity to make a short power-point presentation about my family’s year in Belize, which the Spaniards enjoyed. I asked them to please give me a review on Amazon Spain, after reading my memoir, Freeways to Flip-Flops.

NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS
 Get Published in our 3rd
“My Gutsy Story®”Anthology in 2015

Check Back on June 5th
For New Publication Guidelines
or

E-MAIL: Sonia@SoniaMarsh.com

FOR DETAILS 
 

 

Click on cover to go to Amazon

 2013 Benjamin Franklin Honoree Winner

2014 International Book Awards FINALIST

2014 WINNER of the PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL

Vote Now For Your Favorite May 2014 “My Gutsy Story®”

VOTE for your favorite MAY 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” submissions. You have from now until  June 11th to vote on the sidebar, (only one vote per person) and the winner will be announced on June 12th, and will select a prize from our generous sponsors.

 

LAST VOTE FOR 2014 ANTHOLOGY BEFORE PUBLICATION IN SEPTEMBER 2014
Want to get published in our 3rd “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology?
Check back on June 5th for the new guidelines.

Our 1st “My Gutsy Story®” is by Jennifer Barclay, “What I Did to Make My Life Happy.”

SONIA MARSH SAYS: An uplifting story about how Jennifer took charge to change her life.

“Why wait for someone else to change my life? In fact, I was lucky: now, there was only myself to consider. I’d so often compromised for a partner.”

Our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®” is by Laura McHale Holland. 

SONIA MARSH  SAYS: Another inspiring story about seeking a new life and taking the plunge to do something different.

 

Our 3rd “My Gutsy Story®” is by Robin Korth. “How Could This Happen, I’d Done Everything Right.”

SONIA MARSH SAYS: Such an honest account of facing consequences.

“The journey of self-honesty is a day-by-day, get-braver-as-I-go sort of thing.”

 

 

Our 4th  “My Gutsy Story®” is by Nancy Sharp, “The Gift of Bold Living.”

SONIA MARSH SAYS: After the death of her husband, Nancy takes a bold approach to life with her young twins.

 

Click on cover to go to Amazon

 2013 Benjamin Franklin Honoree Winner

2014 International Book Awards FINALIST

2014 WINNER of the PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL

NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS
Get Published in our 3rd
“My Gutsy Story®”Anthology in 2015
E-MAIL: Sonia@SoniaMarsh.com
FOR DETAILS 
 

The Gift of Bold Living

The Gift of Bold Living

“My Gutsy Story®” Nancy Sharp

The date, June 17, 2006, was a defining one: widowed and with five-year-old twins in tow, I headed west to Denver. Life in New York City after 18 years just wasn’t worth the fast, noisy, people-populated-like-ants, cash-depleting hassles-everywhere grind. Certainly, I was sad to leave behind family and friends, but the prospect of a different life, one that I could invent, was too fierce a pull to ignore. Moving to Colorado was more than the dawn of a new decade (I had just turned 40); it would be my Act II.

Much has changed these past eight years. My twins are 12, I met and married a native Coloradoan, and I became a stepmom to two boys, now 21 and 22. Today I worry about social connections, ample exercise, and too much video time for the tweens, and dating, organization, and career opportunities for the older boys. My new life has broadened my worldview: I can now grill and pull weeds and even, brace yourself, use a power drill.

By recasting my life, I proved to myself that when the unthinkable happens, we need not be in stasis. Hope and possibility exist, I think, even in the grimmest of times. I should know. My first husband died of a brain tumor at age 39, leaving me with two and half year old twins. Those were hard, hard times. Just when I thought I couldn’t see beyond the vortex of grief, I found a shred of hope.

My moment of transformation arrived with little fanfare. While driving with a friend to visit my family in Connecticut, I suddenly blurted out, “Why can’t I just move to Denver?” Lisa, my pretty and deeply spiritual friend who knew my longtime love of Colorado, answered, “You can. What’s stopping you?”

“Well,” I began dismissively, “there’s my parents and my mother-in-law. I’d have to buy a house, find new work, find a school for the kids, make new friends, blah, blah, blah.”

As the list of why-not-to-move-to-Colorado’s grew bigger, they also became more diffuse. Lisa was unfazed, like a mirror reflecting the longing of my heart. Suddenly, I understand that none of these perceived obstacles came close to what I had already conquered. Just like that, my decision was made. I’m not a runner and never will be, but the surge of energy I felt at that turnkey moment could have propelled me to run the New York City marathon (the real one).

That’s the upside of change: the adrenaline-pumping feeling of hope. Losing my husband to cancer changed my life forever, but moving to Colorado gave me hope that a new life was possible. What does this really mean? In my view, we can choose not to be defined by the past. We can sweeten our lives any moment, any time. That’s right.

You might be thinking, “Well, she had extreme circumstances.” Yes. Extreme events can lead to dramatic changes, but sometimes the opposite is true. It’s easier and safer to stay put when life mows you down, but is it wiser? Saner? I felt stuck for a full two years before making my move. I put on mascara and dragged myself to work, made Micky Mouse pancakes for my active toddlers, even dated a little. I tried to be positive about my future, but in reality, I was just getting through the days. I didn’t live my dreams. One day bled into the next and that is how I passed the time. It’s human nature to want to be fixed in time. But at what cost?

I had no grand plan when I moved to Colorado beyond the desire to claim breathing space for the twins and me. I knew that I was a skilled enough writer to be able to find consulting work when I was ready, just as I knew that I would branch out beyond my one friend in Denver (my college roommate). Since all expectations of the world I once envisioned for myself had already been crushed, I found a strange calm in starting anew. Everything felt fresh and exciting.

It was in this spirit of bold living that some seven months after arriving in Denver I came to reach out to a widowed TV news anchor who was selected as one of the city’s “Most Eligible Singles.”

What did I have to lose by writing him? Maybe we could be friends?

I had never even heard of Steve Saunders before reading about him in the newspaper, nor did I know about his equally well-known father, a veteran print journalist.

I fired off an e-mail and a photo to Steve letting him know that I was new to Denver and that I was also widowed with two children. I proposed that we meet for coffee.

Two weeks passed. No response.

Maybe he never received the e-mail? 

In a burst of courage, I decided to resend it. This time Steve responded within the hour, apologizing for his slow response. He wanted to talk. He wanted to meet.

Dinner last four hours. At first we kept the conversation light (I really was curious to know what it was like to be a TV Anchor in Denver). But ultimately we began to trade “war stories” — the toughest moments for him during his wife’s illness, the worst times for me, the gray aftermath of living with loss, and of course, the way our losses had affected our children.

Nancy and Steve Wedding

We had many dates in the months that followed. They were fun, light, and adventurous. And so began the process of blending two families. By then we knew we wanted to marry. The love we had found in one another was real and true. We understood how the past crept into the present, but in each other were able to discover peace and joy in living every day. Our story is still being written, still being lived, past and present and future at once. In the words of Joni Mitchell, “Well something’s lost but something’s gained.”

To bold living!

 

NANCY SHARP is the author of Both Sides Now: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Bold Living (Books & Books Press, February 2104). She frequently speaks to large groups about bold living, contributes to the Huffington Post, and authors the blog Vivid Living: Life in Full Bloom…Thorns and All. ™

 Both Sides Now won a 2014 National Indie Excellence Award, and 2014 International Book Award. 

Please join Nancy on:

Facebook
Twitter: @BoldLivingNow
Pinterest
LinkedIn

SONIA MARSH SAYS: I love your proactive approach to life and especially what you said:

“In my view, we can choose not to be defined by the past. We can sweeten our lives any moment, any time. That’s right.”

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENT FOR NANCY BELOW AND SHARE HER STORY

Click on cover to go to Amazon

 2013 Benjamin Franklin Honoree Winner

2014 International Book Awards FINALIST

2014 WINNER of the PARIS BOOK FESTIVAL

NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS
Get Published in our 3rd
“My Gutsy Story®”Anthology in 2015
E-MAIL: SONIA@SONIAMARSH.COM
FOR DETAILS 
 

Get A Free Vacation In Spain While Speaking English

How Could This Happen? I’d Done Everything Right

The day I started telling myself the truth

 “My Gutsy Story®” Robin Korth

It was an August afternoon in 2006. I was standing in the quiet of my living room. The “whoosh” of the air-conditioned air coming from the vent above my head made the silence hard to ignore. The room felt very large. I felt very small. My husband had moved out two weeks earlier. My son was away at summer camp. My daughter was somewhere else. I was utterly and totally alone—not a single soul needed me or cared where I was. The chill of this truth arrowed my heart and I began to cry. Then I began to sob. Then I howled. The pain and the tears shook me to the floor.

I was 51-years-old with not a clue as to how I had gotten to this place of feeling so solitary and undone. Life had treated me badly. I had done everything right, but it had just come out wrong. How could this happen? Who was to blame? I remember eyeing that terribly cold room as if the answers might be found there. As if someone would walk in the door and say, “Gee, Robin, I am at fault. Let me fix it all up. I’ll make it okay.” But no one was coming. I was the only one there.

Then the bomb exploded. “It’s you,” said a voice in my head. “You are in this room, here and now, because you chose to be. Isn’t it time you take a good look? Perhaps it is time to do something about what’s going on in your life.” The challenge of these words stopped my self-sorry tears as I just sat there—very, very still. I then wiped my smeary nose and I chose. I chose to start telling myself the truth.

My marriage was in serious trouble because I had grown lazy, selfish and scared. I had stopped talking to my spouse or showing my real self to him. Our relationship had slid into a black hole of us each “doing our own thing” and meeting at meals to talk over the future of our children or the price of a new computer. I could not remember the last time we had shared anything intimate or heart-felt. It had been too easy to go to sleep each night denying that anything was wrong. The intimacy of sharing the same bathroom and bed now masqueraded as a full-loving partnership. I had done nothing to stop the march of this sad show.

My eyes widened as more truth seemed to just rise up from the floor.  Where was my daughter right now? I assumed she was safe, but I knew nothing of the specifics or people who filled her spirit and her days. She had gone away to school and I had let her slip from my grasp. She came home on weekends here and there. We smiled and we shopped. We watched a movie or two. I asked how she was and she told me fine. My daughter was an “I love you” stranger now. I had let this happen.

My son was at camp in upstate New York. His almost-teenage-hood was messy. He wasn’t happy or doing as well as he could. I had so easily marked all the stuff off on his “must-have” summer experience list, and just given him over to someone else’s care. What was really going on with my boy? Did he cry at night? Was there a young woman who longed as much for his smile as he did for hers? Besides loving math and computers and white-sauce pasta, what was special to him? I didn’t know these answers. I had been too wrapped in my own lostness, in my own I-don’t-want-to-look fear.

I did not know my husband, my daughter, my son. I did not know my own self. I had set us all aside and apart from myself. This truth—that I was responsible for my being alone and terrified—caused sweat to prickle my armpits and my breath to come short. My choices and actions had brought me to this place of soul-punching despair. I remember looking slowly around that room where I sat, seeing it all as so different now as this truth sank home. In that single moment, my life went from outside to inside. Inside, where I understood, finally, that I create it all.

How powerful I was! Look at what I had done. What could I not do if I chose differently and acted differently? My heartbeat was a peaceful cadence in my chest as I sat on that floor, clear-eyed and very calm. I was done. No more denial. No more blaming others. No more hiding from the painful stuff, being lazy and soul shy. I was going to start living my life with conscious choice and honest good care.

My life of deep personal truth began on that hot August day. But it did not end there, not by a long shot. The journey of self-honesty is a day-by-day, get-braver-as-I-go sort of thing. It means being kind and patient with myself, too. For so much of what I hold as “true” are things I never even thought to question before. In the setting aside of old habits and old thinking, I allow the inside of me to come blossoming forth with wonder, curiosity and love. Living this way brings a power and a joy to life—and an ability to share myself with generosity and openness—that I choose to never, ever let go.

ROBIN KORTH is a renegade and an outlaw. She is also an international speaker, writer and businesswoman. Number four in a family of seven children, she grew up in the 1960s uncluttered scrub palm neighborhoods of Miami, Florida.  After years of doing life as she was “supposed to,” Korth walked away and began doing life from deep inside. She captures her experience in her book Soul on the Run, which will be published by Balboa Press in May 2014. Soul on the Run is Korth’s courageously honest exploration of the power and joy that living is meant to be.

In 2013, Korth launched her information and blogging website, which generated more than 40,000 on Facebook in its first year. She also introduced the “Robin in Your Face” daily motivational app, which has been downloaded thousands of times across the globe. She is a divorced mother of two, has a friendly rescue dog, named Scruffy and a self-assured cat named Sean. For more information, visit www.RobinKorth.com.

 

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Links: View book and purchase information here.

Twitter: @RobinKorth

 

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SONIA MARSH SAYS: I commend you for your honesty. Figuring out that you were all alone because you were responsible for the outcome, and being willing to admit this, is admirable. Parts of your story resonate with every mother, wife and woman.

 

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Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 2nd anthology?

Please see guidelines below and contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here

 

PLEASE  COMMENT AND SHARE ROBIN’S STORY USING THE LINKS BELOW.

Winner of the April 2014 “My Gutsy Story®” Contest

This April we had FOUR OUTSTANDING  “My Gutsy Story®” authors. Their stories will be included in our 2nd “My Gutsy Story®” Anthology, published in the Fall of 2014.  Thank you to all four authors. Your stories are all WINNERS.

Our first place goes to Ginger Simpson won 1st Place for her “My Gutsy Story®” about whether she caused her husband to turn to drink. The phrase that struck me in Ginger’s inspiring story is:

“Wanting someone to change isn’t enough. They have to WANT the change.”

Ginger Simpson

 

2nd Place goes to Kathy Gamble, about finding her way as an expat living in different countries around the world.

 

 

3rd Place goes to Benny Wasserman, about the impact that one teenage friend had on Benny to change his life.

BennyWasserman

 

4th Place goes to Alana Woods for her inspiring story about her 200-mile trek across the U.K.

 

Alana Woods

  Thank you to all four authors. Your stories are all WINNERS.

 

Click on cover to go to Amazon

Would you like to submit your “My Gutsy Story®” and get published in our 2nd anthology?

Please see guidelines below and contact Sonia Marsh at: sonia@soniamarsh.com for details.

You can find all the information, and our new sponsors on the “My Gutsy Story®” contest page. (VIDEO) Submission guidelines here