My take back my life song.
Okay, really it's just a blog post.
HI.
I'm Magan Vernon.
You may know me from this blog, Cleveland Author Event, or one of my many books published.
Or you may not know me at all.
And that's okay too.
I've been published since December 5th, 2011. It was a huge learning curve in a time in which self-publishing was still considered a stigma and no one wanted New Adult books or contemporary at the time.
My, how things changed quickly.
I published three books in a science fiction series that did poorly. I was down. I couldn't figure out what I wanted anymore. Was it worth it to publish when I couldn't even cover the cost of publishing?
So, on a wing and a prayer, I put out my New Adult contemporary novel that I wrote in 2009 and in 2012 I hit Amazon top 100 and number 1 in multiple categories. In 2012 it didn't take as many sales as it does today (since there weren't as many people self-publishing), but it was amazing and it made me pumped to write! New Adult sells, yeah!
So then I had this idea I'd been stewing on for years called The Only Exception, about a liberal girl with a dark secret who moves in next door to the conservative governor's son.
This book exploded to anything beyond my wildest dreams.
This book that I wrote for me.
After it exploded I had agent offers, publicists, movie deals, and all of a sudden everyone wanted to be my friend.
Then I got greedy.
I wanted more. Why didn't I hit a list? Why aren't I making six figures a month???
That was the moment I knew I lost the joy of writing.
Instead of focusing on books, I focused on marketing and costs and how can I get my name out there???? I ignored my family and spent hours on Facebook or other social media whining.
I had another book come out in the fall of 2013, The Only One, and it did pretty well. I was excited, but then I thought "Why aren't I doing better? Why aren't I making a list?"
So I put more money out, focused on what books I could write that were going to get me noticed by big bloggers and forgot about all the people who had helped me get this far: my family and my original readers.
I lost the joy of writing. I would groan when I had to work on a book or market and started to hate it all together.
Most of my releases in 2015 failed.
FAILED.
We found out in February that we would be moving with my husband's job, we just didn't know where yet. That was when I decided I was going to finish out the My Paper Heart series (that original book in 2012 that did well) and then stop writing. I would go back to work while the girls were in school or daycare wherever we moved.
I finished a book that came out in April, went to a few events, and found myself getting depressed about the book world.
There were so many negatives and so many things I hated seeing.
So I stepped back from social media.
I put my head down and I wrote the last two books in the series, getting them up for pre-order and ready for my swan song.
I hired a PA in June so she could help me with social media and all release launches and all of these things so I could write.
Something happened in that time.
I fell back in love with these characters and I fell back in love with writing.
I didn't worry about marketing or how much money I had to make, I just wrote.
My PA helped me to find some places to advertise and set up a release plan, then we sent out A Paper Trail and These Paper Walls into the world in September and October.
The numbers kept going up on Amazon.
My rank and my bank account balance.
The books were being shared by big bloggers, people were excited! Ratings were amazing.
So what did I do? Did I start looking for a new agent? Or publicist?
No...
I thought about more books and kept writing. I've written eight more books since then (One full length and seven novellas) that will all be published in 2016.
And you know what?
I'm happy.
I love writing again.
So what's the moral of this?
The moral is, write for love.
Money is nice, but it can slowly kill you if you obsess over it.
A Paper Trail and These Paper Walls were going to be my last books ever, but now, they're just the start of a new chapter.
♥ ♥ ♥
Magan Vernon has been living off of reader tears since she wrote her first short story in 2004. She now spends her time killing off fictional characters, pretending to plot while she really just watches Netflix, and she tries to do this all while her two young children run amuck around her Texas ranch.
Amazon Author Link: http://amzn.to/1Mi23I9
Website Link: www.maganvernon.com
Goodreads Link: www.goodreads.com/maganvernon
Facebook Page Link: www.facebook.com/authormaganvernon
Twitter: www.twitter.com/maganvernon
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