I write for a living -- I'm a professional writer, if you will. It's weird to say those words, much less type them. Wrapping my head around my job, although I've been doing it for about 4 years now, is still difficult.
Even harder since the last 8 months have been very different.
I freelanced for about 3 years. Basically, I wrote boring articles about computers or gardening and it paid the bills. And I got to work from home in my PJs. Life was good. Then the Google panda update hit and my cushy freelancing gigs dried up. So, as we started 2012, I was out of a job. Really. Totally unemployed.
Now, I wasn't homeless. No. I had a savings account and grad student loans. I could find something new. I had too.
Then I stumbled on a ghostwriting gig. The pay was decent, and it came with a lot of creative freedom. While I dabbled in non-fiction and article writing to get by, fiction is my real passion. I jumped at the opportunity, but I had to learn how to write something I'd only ever penned in fanfiction before.
Okay. Deep breath. I can do this.
I write erotica and erotic romance.
There. I said it. Secret out!
The ghostwriting gig paid more for erotic stories, so I wrote a few. Then I started reading forum posts and blogs about self-publishing. A lot of writers were making a lot of money doing what I was doing, only they got paid in royalties instead of an up-front ghostwriting fee.
Why wasn't I doing that?
Long story short (too late) I did/am. And it's the best decision I ever made in my entire life.
So, that's why I started this blog. I'm not going to tell anyone my pen names (or my real name, although it's not really a secret considering I'm posting this on FB. Hi, friends from FB who chose to read!) But I do want to talk about my journey and decisions -- why I made them and how much I enjoy what I do.
I'm the Indie Writer Girl, and I have a few things to say.
No comments:
Post a Comment