A Productive Weekend and an Empty Wallet

Being an indie author is weird, sometimes.

I just had a super productive weekend from a creative standpoint. In the span of three days, I cranked out two short stories and continued hammering away at the first draft of our Orchard Pointe project (which is around 91K as of today). All told, I ended up writing over 6,000 words, which is NaNoWriMo levels of productivity for me. And it was good stuff, too. I'm really happy with how both of the short stories turned out, and they were very different from one another, so I felt like I worked different muscles between the two of them.

And yet, as I ordered some print copies of my current books this morning for an upcoming author fair, I watched my savings account dip down to pretty much nothing. Which reminded me that after a little more than three years of being an indie author, I really haven't made a penny off of my writing. When you factor in cover designs, print book costs, tables at cons and marketing, I'm at least a couple grand in the hole right now, probably more.

When I self-published Courting the King in Yellow back in October 2012, I told myself that for the next five years, my focus would be solely on writing as much as possible, getting my stories out there, and improving my skills. And when I look at those three goals, I feel like I've made great progress. I have five books out there--three in the Parted Veil series, my podcasting book, and HARROWED, which I co-wrote with the amazing Jolene Haley. I've been a part of short story collections and will have two new stories out in the coming months. I have made time in my life for writing in a way that causes minimal negative impact on the rest of my family (I write early in the morning while the rest of the house is asleep). And my writing skills have improved, both through practice and through working with Jolene, who I have learned so much from in the span of the last year. So much.

But some days, man. Some days, it's tough not to get a little discouraged.

And it's on those days that I'm glad to have a support system of other writers. Jolene is a rock of encouragement and positivity and she's a blast to write with. And the crew over the the Midnight Society is a wonderful group of people who are constantly rooting for one another. I'm so glad to know them. We had our first Google Hangout over the weekend with the whole group, and it was a ton of fun.     

So, creatively--progress. I'm working hard, and I've got some great people around me who are cheering me on and making me better.

Financially--I can't worry about that right now. Because if I start to, I stop writing. And I love writing. 

Besides, I've still got two years to go.

Back into the fray.