Wednesday, October 5, 2016

#IWSG - Yes, I'm insecure, but I'm also resilient.


 
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance.

Need help with a topic of conversation? IWSG has a monthly question for you!
October 5 Question: When do you know your story is ready?

Alex J. Cavanaugh's awesome co-hosts for the October 5 posting of the IWSG are Beverly Stowe McClure, Megan Morgan, Viola Fury, Madeline Mora-Summonte, Angela Wooldridge, and Susan Gourley!
  
***
Insecure: not confident or assured; uncertain and anxious

Resilient: able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

***
I wrote a short story specifically for an anthology that folded like a lawn chair.
I was pissed, but at the same time really disappointed that I didn't get to share my story with my family, friends, and readers.

Of course, there were options.
-Find another anthology - submit
-Find short story magazines - submit
-Find short story contests - enter
-Offer it for free on my blog - in pieces
-Offer it for free w/ newsletter sign-up
-Try to upload it to Createspace/Amazon and sell it for 99 cents

Most of these sounded time consuming, possibly expensive, and really 'out of my comfort zone'.
But, I wanted people to read it. After all, that's why we write them!

Last week all I could think to myself was...
I can't publish it on my own. It's too hard and I've never done it. I don't know what I'm thinking. No one will want to purchase a short story for 99 cents.

Yesterday morning I woke up thinking...Why the hell not? Lots of people self-publish. I'm no different. Hell, if people will pay for dinosaur porn [yes, that's a real thing], then people will want to read my short story! Even for 99 cents!

So, I took the plunge. I went through the Kindle Direct Publishing FAQ sections and I followed all the KDP guidelines and before I even really knew it, the darn short story was up on Amazon!

My point? Was I insecure? Hells yeah, I was. But, it was either leave that short story on my computer for no one to read or try something strange, new, and different!

Our insecurities try to keep us down, but our resilience keeps us going.

***

Interested in the short story?

As Jack Munro struggles with an old demon, Maggie Maguire attempts to show him there's always another way.

You can download the ebook on Amazon. 

***
Interested in blogfests/bloghops? Check out the two in the right hand column at the top of this page!
Rambled by at

56 comments:

  1. Nick WilfordOctober 5, 2016 at 7:29 AM

    Congrats! You made something really positive out of a frustrating setback. Sometimes, trying something new is the best thing you can do. And 99 cents isn't a lot of money. I'll definitely check the story out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex J. CavanaughOctober 5, 2016 at 8:20 AM

    Congratulations, Heather! Glad some of our stories will see the light of day.
    Dinosaur porn? You just gave Pat and the Cat something new to blog about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 5, 2016 at 8:32 AM

      Thanks, Alex! It was a last minute decision. I think I needed to have some control back of my own career. :)

      Heather

      Delete
  3. C.D. Gallant-KingOctober 5, 2016 at 8:33 AM

    Congratulations! Amazon makes publishing very easy - see there was nothing to worry about!

    And for reference, not only do people pay for dinosaur porn, but it's also nominated for Hugo Awards: http://boingboing.net/2016/05/06/weird-porn-author-who-was-drag.html

    IWSG October

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 5, 2016 at 9:49 AM

      Yeah. I know about the awards. It makes me sad, but happy for the author if that makes any sense. :)
      Thank you!
      HMG

      Delete
  4. NicolaOctober 5, 2016 at 8:44 AM

    Good for you, Heather!! Congrats on taking the plunge!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 5, 2016 at 9:49 AM

      Thank you! It was scary, but feels really good to have accomplished it!
      HMG

      Delete
  5. Diane BurtonOctober 5, 2016 at 8:57 AM

    I procrastinated 8 months before trying KDP back in 2011. What was I thinking! Insecurity held me back. I'm glad you took the plunge. Not as terrifying as you thought, right? Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 5, 2016 at 9:50 AM

      Nope. Not nearly as terrifying! What's the worst that could happen? Me not doing anything!

      TY
      HMG

      Delete
  6. Beverly Stowe McClureOctober 5, 2016 at 9:00 AM

    Yay for you, Heather. Congratulations and best of luck with your story. That is exciting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mary AalgaardOctober 5, 2016 at 9:23 AM

    Good for you taking control back on the story. I purchased it. Looking forward to reading it!
    Mary at Play off the Page

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 5, 2016 at 9:53 AM

      Mary! Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it. Control was certainly the issue. :)

      TY
      HMG

      Delete
  8. L. Diane WolfeOctober 5, 2016 at 9:41 AM

    Congrats, Heather! You turned a sour lemon into sweet lemonade.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Stephen TrempOctober 5, 2016 at 9:43 AM

    Heather, we sure are a resilient group aren't we. I'm downloading a copy now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 5, 2016 at 9:53 AM

      Stephen!
      Thank you so much! I appreciate that.
      We are pretty resilient! And darn creative!

      Heather

      Delete
  10. Julie FlandersOctober 5, 2016 at 10:17 AM

    Awesome!! Good for you for finding a new home for your story so everyone can enjoy it. Yay!

    ReplyDelete
  11. J.S. PaillyOctober 5, 2016 at 10:44 AM

    I like to believe the best way to learn something (such as KDP) is to just go do it. Good for you for getting over your insecurities. You're an inspiration to the rest of us.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Christine RainsOctober 5, 2016 at 10:44 AM

    Way to go! That is awesome. You know it's good when you get thumb's up from the A Team! :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tony LaplumeOctober 5, 2016 at 10:51 AM

    Sometimes I think the more obviously niche something is, the easier it is to find. So, dinosaur porn...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 7, 2016 at 9:40 AM

      Yeah. Afraid so. I was concerned including that in my post. I don't want people to go look it up! :)

      Heather

      Delete
    2. Tony LaplumeOctober 7, 2016 at 10:50 AM

      I didn't look it up! :p

      Delete
  14. M.J. FifieldOctober 5, 2016 at 11:08 AM

    It's terrific that you moved forward and found a new home for the story. I purchased my copy the other day. I hope you're having much success with it. :)

    And now I'm not to totally not Google dinosaur porn...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. M.J. FifieldOctober 5, 2016 at 11:08 AM

      *And now I'm off, I mean.

      Delete
    2. Heather M. GardnerOctober 7, 2016 at 9:41 AM

      Thank you, M.J.!

      You know that never comes off our search history!

      Heather

      Delete
  15. Michelle AthyOctober 5, 2016 at 1:31 PM

    Yay Heather! I'm considering doing the same thing, actually. My book is up on Amazon through KDP (isn't it super easy?), but I've never done a Kindle Single before. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 7, 2016 at 9:41 AM

      It took some time, but it wasn't difficult.

      Thank you!
      Heather

      Delete
  16. StephscoOctober 5, 2016 at 2:06 PM

    Congrats on taking control over this story yourself! The best part is you can do whatever you want with this material. You can offer it as a freebie for joining your author newsletter--an option that comes highly recommended from many writers I know and social media strategists. I wish I had more content so I could offer it as a freebie incentive, but I'm working on it!

    Here's my October IWSG post: Top 10 Ways to know if you're ready to share your writing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 7, 2016 at 9:42 AM

      I thought about the newsletter, but I just can't put that back on my plate right now. It's a great idea though.
      Thank you!
      Heather

      Delete
  17. emaginetteOctober 5, 2016 at 2:23 PM

    Love the pics. Good luck. :-)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

    ReplyDelete
  18. cleemckenzieOctober 5, 2016 at 2:52 PM

    Without resilience where would we writers be?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Cathrina ConstantineOctober 5, 2016 at 3:05 PM

    Writer's need resilience in order to survive!!! Your short story is doing great in the rankings, Heather!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 7, 2016 at 9:43 AM

      Thank you!
      It didn't take long to fall though. :)
      Keep moving forward!
      Heather

      Delete
  20. Tamara NarayanOctober 5, 2016 at 4:46 PM

    Yeah! Good for you. Welcome to the world of self-publishing! The uploading is the easy part. The marketing is the tough part. (Bet you knew that already.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 7, 2016 at 9:44 AM

      We picked a really hard job, didn't we?
      What were we thinking?
      :)
      Heather

      Delete
  21. JenniOctober 5, 2016 at 6:34 PM

    Congrats! Way to turn a bad thing into a good thing. There's so much we can't control in publishing, but you turned it around.I love your cover.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Erika BeebeOctober 5, 2016 at 8:24 PM

    I really like how you took a bunch of worries and made something really great and positive out of it. I wish you luck with your ideas, writing, and I hope you have a great rest of your day :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 7, 2016 at 9:45 AM

      Thank you, Erika!
      Sometimes we just have to push ourselves, cause no one else will!

      Heather

      Delete
  23. ViolaFuryOctober 5, 2016 at 10:34 PM

    Heather!

    Writers and artists may be insecure, but we are tough. We HAVE to be, or else there wouldn't BE any writers and artists. It's not the number of times you get knocked down, but the number of times you get back up and as long as you keep doing that, you're going to come out on top. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  24. farawayeyesOctober 6, 2016 at 6:09 PM

    I love your post. It really inspired me. And, now I'm off to check out your story. How could I not?

    Thanks this is just what I needed to hear today.

    ReplyDelete
  25. AndreaOctober 6, 2016 at 7:57 PM

    Wow! Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  26. J.H. MoncrieffOctober 6, 2016 at 10:44 PM

    Good for you, Heather! I noticed the story first thing when I came to your blog. Great cover.

    You should be proud.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Olga GodimOctober 7, 2016 at 8:34 PM

    Way to go, Heather. I'm thinking of following your lead with some of my stories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heather M. GardnerOctober 10, 2016 at 8:52 AM

      It was way less scary then I thought! Good luck!
      Heather

      Delete

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