When writing becomes...

I’ve had a very profound realization lately.  Want to know what it is?  I’ll share a little secret with you.  Lean closer to the screen and I’ll whisper it to you…

Writing is my JOB.

Whoa!  I know, right?!  When did that happen?

Sorry about that, I got a little carried away.  lol  But seriously, it did just kind of hit me a few days ago that writing is literally a job for me now.  I wake up at six in the morning, work until my kids wake up sometime around seven.  And then I resume work at nine, after I take my three-year-old to preschool until I pick her up at noon.  And I’m always jumping back to work on one thing or another throughout the rest of the day.

Yesterday I literally worked a full eight hour day.  With my one and a half-year-old clinging to my side and my three-year-old running around half the day.  It was a crazy but awesome day.

I had a lot of self-doubt when I started out on this self-publishing journey.  At the beginning of 2010 I didn’t really know of anyone who was self-publishing, much less anyone who was having any success.  I could only make a few pennies for all I knew.  And after I did self-publish, I made just a few pennies, for a really long time.

And then something changed a few months ago.

Suddenly I was climbing some carts, gaining some rankings.  Suddenly I was like “Woohoo!  I’m going to make a few hundred bucks this month!”  And suddenly my jaw is hitting the floor as I look at the numbers, do the math on royalties, and still can’t believe what I’m seeing.  Suddenly I have days like today where I’m #2 in contemporary fantasy for Kindle and steadily around #8 in YA fantasy. 

Suddenly I’ve realized- I’ve done it.

And with that very humbling, very awesome success comes a lot more work.  Just keeping up with my email requires a lot of time during the day.  And it’s amazing.  I love hearing from fans, from people who’ve enjoyed Branded, Forsaken, and Eden.  And I love the connections I am making.

But the thing that drags me down occasionally is realizing that sometimes taking care of the job part of my writing gets in the way of my actual writing.  I spend as much time on the business, email, promotional, whatnot side of things as I do on the actual writing.  And some days it gets, I don’t want to say frustrating cause that’s not the right word, but, well, some days I wish I could just ignore that side, and just write.

But one thing that I can say is this: I LOVE my job.  I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was writing epic Harry Potter fanfic’s with my best friend at thirteen.  I always thought being an author would be the coolest job I could ever ask for.  And it is.  It seriously is.

And I can’t thank you all enough for letting me turn my dream into my job.

5 comments:

DJ D. said...

I am so happy for all your recent success. The stories you craft are brilliant and masterfully told. And your design work? Just as stunning. I am honored to have gotten to know you over this past year, and I wish you nothing but the best. :-) Just don't forget me when you're hanging out with JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer.

Patricia JL said...

=) Congrats! Don't forget you also do cover art too. Amazing cover art. (I have gotten nothing but complements on mine.)

Jeanmarie Anaya said...

What an inspirational post! Congratulations and keep up the good (fun!) work! I hope you get to continue doing it for a very, very long time.

C.J Duggan said...

That is awesome Keary! You are an inspiration to all of us. It's so great to see hard work and passion pay off. And I totally understand the frustration, it's a tricky thing to ballance the networking with the writing and not to mention reading (not enough hours in the day) lucky it's full with the things we love! I have just added Eden to my cart so consider that another stat for you! x

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