In less than 4 months, I will officially be a published author. Me… The girl who has dreamed about it since 5th grade.

I keep getting asked what my “why” is. I have ALWAYS known. I have these characters in my head and their stories are screaming at me, telling me to get it all out or else. I would rather not deal with the “or else,” so there they sit. Many of them (aside from books 2 and 3 of my current series) are already in first-draft form just waiting to be gutted and re-written.

For the longest time, my dream of being published rested in someone else’s hands. You had to have an agent. You had to get a major or one of the minor publication houses to read and accept your novel above thousands of others. Self-publishing meant having to spend upwards of $10,000, which I never had lying around. For the most part, the only control you had was writing the book itself. The cover was someone else’s baby. The marketing was someone else’s job, and they could spin your book any way they chose, misleading or not, just to get that sale.

It isn’t like that now.

Now when I have a 3 (technically 4, or perhaps more) part series (second series, not the current one) with over half a million words that needs cut down significantly, I choose what stays and what goes. I choose the covers. I choose to work with people who do this from their homes and are DAMN good at it, so that the money goes to them directly. I choose the percentage of profits. I choose to put my heart and soul in it, because it is my passion. It is my lifeline. Aside from my minions, it is what keeps me whole.

Would I like my passion to become a steady, sustainable income? Of course. Who doesn’t dream of that? You know what I would REALLY love, though? To have readers who love my characters and stories as much I do. THAT would mean the absolute world to me ????

So no, loves, it’s not about the money. If it ever is, then I will know I am in the wrong business.