Same Old Halloween, brand new ghosts

 I'm pleased to introduce 'Red Tash' - an indie writer and co-contribuotor to the anthology 25 years in the Rearview Mirror, edited and compiled by Stacy Juba. For more on this book, check out the links below.

Same old Halloween,

brand new ghosts

a guest post by Red Tash

Autumn of 2012 has turned out to be quite an enjoyable season.  I always love fall, enjoy my birthday as part of it, soak in the beautiful weather and devour the food!  The older my four kids get, the busier our lives get, too, but it's all good.  As I assemble six last-minute costumes, I remind myself that eventually I'll be an empty nester, and I should savor each moment of this journey with them.  I definitely do.  Halloween each year has become a great time for making memories, and I take more photos than my iPhone was designed to hold!

So, yes, we have Halloween traditions now (trick or treating, costumes, pumpkins, crafts), but this time of year adds a new annual event for me, professionally.  In the fall of 2011 I launched my burgeoning career as an indie writer.

Well, that's not strictly true, as I was a freelance journalist for years before that.  “Freelance” is another way of saying “self-employed,” right?  But for some reason, when applied to books, the label morphs into “indie.”  Okay, I'm an “indie now.”

Having completed my first full October as an indie author, I stop and look back on how far I've come.  This time last year, I was still meeting people in my field, and figuring out if they had any insights I could learn from.  There were so many things I had to learn about genre, pricing, marketing strategy within the confines of the Almighty 'Zon (aka Amazon.com, the Titan of online bookstores), and what going indie would mean for my career in the long-term.  Opinions were all over the place!  Who should I listen to?  Who could I trust? 

This time last year, I barely had any real writer friends who would talk turkey with me in terms of sales and numbers.  There were a couple, but that was it.  Now I know at least two or three dozen people I could ask point-blank “How many books did you sell last month?” and I feel strongly they would tell me honestly.  To have made these relationships and been privy to this kind of personal career information from other writers is a huge leg-up in this industry!

In the fall of 2011, I had only released one novel, and had one more almost finished, and I wasn't sure I wanted to write follow-ups to my first couple of novels until I had fan feedback, so that was what I set out to garner.  The good news is that this past year has been terrific in terms of connecting with readers!  They've reached to me and the overwhelming majority of comments have been positive and encouraging.  Many are outright demanding!  (I need to get to work on those sequels, after all!)  Last year I had a few potential readers.  Now I have fans.  I have also given my fans other stuff to read!  In 2012 I published my second novel, was published in seven anthologies (some indie, and some traditional), picked up an Author spotlight column for a local news blog that drew national attention more than once, ran a lot of features on my blogs, and was featured on a slew of other websites, including being named October's Geek Girl of the Month for the popular Inveterate Media Junkies blog.  WOW!  What a year!

When I say “Same old Halloween, brand new ghosts” in the title, I don't mean that there's anything really haunting me from my writing past. Rather, I have learned a lot from my varied career producing material.  Now that I feel like I've got my feet wet in this wacky world of indie publishing, I'm looking at 2013 with wiser eyes.  I know how important the upcoming “Kindlemas” season is to my career, and I'm hopeful that the seeds I've planted this fall will reap a great harvest under the mistletoe.

Maybe it will, maybe it won't.  Yes, I'm in writing for the money.  Not just the money, but income is a big reason why I do it.  I think I have increased my sales about 8x over this time last year, but that's not saying much—yet.  Yes, I worked hard for it, but I have bigger goals than that. 

When I look forward to the fall of 2013, I can't imagine what kind of blessings it will bring.  Costumes and pumpkins, for sure, but what else?  I wonder how I'll look back on the writer that is me now from another year's distance.  There are a lot of lessons I wish Red Tash 2011 had picked up on faster, but I have to cut the girl a lot of slack, too: she did good.

Next comes National Novel Writing Month, followed by a blessed month “off” for Christmas and time with family, then 2013 begins a whole new adventure.  Will I still be “indie” this time next year?  Who knows!  I'll take it one book at a time.

Thanks, Tracy, for having me!

Red Tash is a journalist-turned-novelist of dark fantasy for readers of all ages.   Monsters, SciFi, wizards, trolls, fairies, and roller derby lightly sautéed in a Southern/Midwestern sauce hand-canned from her mama's recipes await you in her pantry of readerly delights. Y'all come, anytime.  http://RedTash.com

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25 years in the Rearview Mirror

If you enjoy magazine columns and Chicken Soup for the Soul books, then we're sure you'll enjoy our collection of essays, designed to warm your heart, raise your spirits and compel you to examine your own life. Get a full listing of authors, essay titles and retailers here: http://stacyjuba.com/blog/25-years-in-the-rearview-mirror-52-authors-look-back/

Follow the 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror Blog and Radio Tour schedule here and enter for some neat My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software: http://stacyjuba.com/blog/25-years-in-the-rearview-mirror-blog-tour/

And don't miss the chance to join the 25 Years in the Rearview  Mirror Yahoo Group, a fun and inspirational group that discusses the past and will help you to stay on track for the future. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/25YearsRearviewMirror/