Why would a woman who has it all throw her life away? Morgan has the perfect life. She married the man of her dreams. Daniel is smart, gorgeous and successful. Everything she has always wanted in a husband and the father of her children. But he’s also domineering, overprotective and jealous. Is living with him enough to drive Morgan over the edge? Or does something more treacherous lurk beneath the façade?
Guest Post
Starting Out As A Indie Writer
What You Should Know
There are probably (mmmm… okay definitely) a ton of writers out there that can give better advice to starting writers than me. But I am a big believer in learning from your mistakes. And oh boy have I made a ton of mistakes. Here’s my advice. Take it or leave it – as you will.
1. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies
When I published my first book, Unforeseen Consequences, I very naively thought that I would sell at least one hundred copies in the first week to friends and family. That’s not exactly what happened. If I’m brutally and painfully honest, I didn’t sell more than 10 books that first week. I made a few glaringly, stupid mistakes. First of all, I didn’t realize that not everyone was obsessed with reading as I am. On top of that, I published my book in the middle of August, which in Europe is vacation season. I hadn’t thought about the timing of my book release at all. After all, the book wasn’t seasonal why should the release be seasonal? Maybe because the vast majority of my friends and colleagues were on vacation and when they returned they had thousands of emails to look at and my book release fell through the cracks?
2. Have no shame/throw pride out the window
In order to sell books as an indie writer, you have to push your books constantly. At first, I found this very difficult. After all, my books are a very personal reflection of myself. It was hard enough to open myself up enough to publish my work. Did I really have to then push my book on absolutely everyone? Why, yes, yes I did and must continue to do so.
3. Instant success is a pipe dream
There are a few indie writers that have made it big. For some reason, everyone focuses on these success stories instead of the reality of the indie writer. The reality is that for every success story, there are several hundred struggling indie writers out there. Let’s not forget that you can be the absolutely best writer in the world but, if you write in a genre that is not in at the moment, you will struggle to succeed as a writer. By all means continue to write, but don’t get discouraged when instant success alludes you.
4. It’s hard work
Potential writers concentrate on the fun parts of being a published writer – writing. The reality is that a successful indie writer spends maybe half of her time on writing and the other half on marketing. When I release a book, I spend 100% of my time on marketing for at least a month. I get a little antsy without having time to write, but marketing is important too! I realize I will never be a millionaire from writing but I want – no need – people to read my work. If I didn’t, I would remain an unpublished author.
Don’t be discouraged! Please, keep writing. Just be sure to take off those rose-colored glasses from time to time.
About the author:
D.E. Haggerty was born and raised in Wisconsin but thinks she’s a European. After spending her senior year of high school in Germany, she developed a bad case of wanderlust that is yet to be cured. After high school she returned to the U.S. to go to college ending up with a Bachelor’s degree in History at the tender age of 20 while still managing to spend time bouncing back and forth to Europe during her vacations. Unable to find a job after college and still suffering from wanderlust, she joined the U.S. Army as a Military Policewoman for 5 years. While stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, she met her future husband, a flying Dutchman. After being given her freedom from the Army, she went off to law school. She finished law school and moved to the Netherlands with her husband and became a commercial lawyer for more than a decade. During a six month break from the lawyering world, she wrote her first book, Unforeseen Consequences. Although she finished the book, she went back to the law until she could no longer take it and upped stakes and moved to Germany to start a B&B. Three years after starting the B&B, she got the itch and decided to pull the manuscript for Unforeseen Consequences out of the attic and get it published as an e-book. Deciding that she may have indeed finally found what she wanted to do with her life, she went on to write Buried Appearances. After moving to Istanbul, she started on Life: Discarded , her third book. Between tennis, running, traveling, singing off tune and reading books like they are going out of style, she writes articles for a local expat magazine and various websites, reviews other indie authors’ books, writes a blog about whatever comes to mind and is working on her fourth book.
1 comment:
Thanks for hosting my blog tour today. I love the blog. So much great information about books.
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