I am an author. I’m have been afraid to say or write that for...

I am an author. I’m have been afraid to say or write that for fear of it becoming untrue. Maybe it won’t be true next month, or next quarter, or next year. 

I had a ten year plan to becoming a “real” author. I figured if I wrote for ten years, I could have a backlist of 50 or so books, and if I sold one or two a day of each, I’d you know, be alright. But as of October of last year, something happened: I started making an income above minimum wage—after earning way less than minimum wage for three years.

I’m not sure what all stars aligned exactly. After Kindle Unlimited was released, I thought I might have to readjust my ten year plan to twelve or eleven years. Even with a new release, I barely earned $1000 in September.

Maybe it was that last BookBub promo? Maybe someone important mentioned my books? Maybe it is like a snowball rolling down a mountainside and I gathered enough word of mouth to get a boost?

The only star I know truly helped is you, my readers. 

I’ve done so much wrong. I don’t have the right covers. The covers I have shouldn’t work as well as they do (I’ve been told so often, and I am on my way to redoing my covers).

I write in third person present tense.

I had no idea what I was doing and the first books I published looked like gobbledygook on all older Kindles.

I didn’t know how to edit properly (I’m a dyslexic; I couldn’t take a paper document with all errors marked in red pen and input them myself. Now I know.)

But my readers stuck by me. You let me know about my formatting errors. You helped me take my really bad covers to something that is well branded and neat, you let me know (gently) that my grammar needed work. 

I’m not making 100K a year, or even half that, but I’m making a respectable income. Enough to pay for healthcare and childcare, and a little extra. Enough to say, “Yes, I write, it is my main thing.” Enough that I can spend hours working on pretty pictures of boys for my new covers and have my husband not look at me too askance. (And a pretty girl and “interesting looking” dog too, very soon!)

(Writing stories and drawing pretty pictures—this is exactly how I spent my highschool years! What have I done to deserve to live out my second childhood so early?)

Anyway, I don’t know how long this will last, but thank you for giving me some of the best six months of my life.

Thank you for reading I Bring the Fire. Thank you for reblogging new releases and giveaways and pretty pictures. Thank you for your reviews and emails and friendship.

I hope I can continue to write you stories that bring you joy. Tomorrow I have a little something special for my mailing list as a thank you. I hope you enjoy it.

(The scared kitty in the picture above is me. I know it’s all going to go belly up tomorrow. An asteroid will hit my car. The kitchen will catch on fire. Everyone will decide Loki is old hat … I don’t know … but it will happen!)