I feel like I’ve been all over the place lately with the blog. Kind of like life. Anyway, today I wanted to talk about being an indie author. Let me say straight away, I like being indie. I like knowing that both success and failure sits right in my lap. I’ll admit I much prefer the success part rather than the failure part.
Be that as it may, I like being the place where the buck stops. Why is this important? Well, I’ve had to do some overhauling on my writing, and writing plans. I have had to look at what I want to do, and what will work with the goals I have for 2016. Suffice to say, in order to spare you all a long, boring diatribe, the two don’t always meet.
That’s the awesome thing about being indie. At the end of last year, I looked at where I was, and I won’t lie to you all. It wasn’t where I wanted to be. So I did some reading, and tried to look at other avenues, and then I looked at me-to see where I might have done something differently or better.
That is never fun.
But there are things I can change. So I’m doing it. Because I think I need to, and when something isn’t working the way you want, you need to make changes. Not that you have to hop like a mad rabbit from one plan to the next in a frantic race to find the right way. But you need to make a plan, and stick to it, and when you see, after a respectable amount of time, that’s not working, it’s okay to change.
As an indie, I can do that. I don’t have to run it by an agent, an editor, or a publisher. Now, Lisa, some may say, Perhaps they would have kept you from making a mistake in the first place.
Fair enough.
But let me counter, my friend. I have friends who have all those wonderful people working with and for them. They are also in a state of looking over what worked, and what didn’t. Some have fared better than I, some worse. So I’m not sure that having those people working with you guarantees anything.
2015 was a great learning year for me. I figured out what I absolutely must keep up with, and what I need to shift or change. That’s valuable.
It’s not easy, and requires I work every day on some aspect of my career. It’s a lot to keep up with. Some days, I slack horribly. Learning to work through that has been a piece of the process along with everything else. But I’m improving and that is a positive to celebrate.
So there you have it. I’m in the midst of reorg-and while it’s a bit chaotic, it’s a good thing. See the Seth Godin quote above. It’s so true!
While I’ve been doing this, I went online on Monday, and read that David Bowie, the Goblin King, Major Tom-had left us. I cried. I cried off and on all day. I’ve loved him since I was ten years old. He was the first artist I saw in concert. We were in the fourth row-All the Ziggy fans were up there-talk about an eye opener!
It brought home the fact that time, for us, is finite. That we must not hesitate, must move forward, take the chance, and Carpe Diem.
I read an amazing, amazing tweet about him:
Dean Podestá If you’re ever sad, just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie.
Aren’t we all lucky as hell? Be like Bowie, take charge, and sally forth!
Rest in peace, Goblin King.
