Nearly one year ago my life was completely and entirely different. I was a wife, a puppy-parent, I worked 50 hours a week … and those things haven’t changed. I’m still a wife, I still have my wild pack of Chihuahuas running my house and I still work 50 hours a week. But now, in addition to all of those really fortunate things, I’m a published author — and that is a huge, really mind-bending accomplishment.
I spent yesterday reflecting on the changes the past 360-some-odd days have seen. Everything from shedding self-doubt, to starting this blog, to really learning the flesh and bone nature of publishing. In sum, I guess the only conclusion I can draw is that this has been a wild year. One I’m thankful for beyond words … because this was a dream.
I’ll admit, this whole process looks very little like how I thought it would. If you had told at the start of this I would be self published, I would have laughed. Not because I think there is anything remotely wrong about with going it alone — but rather because it felt, in beginning, insurmountable. Genuinely, I thought I’d have an agent, a contract, that The Milestone Tapes would hit store shelves far, far in the future. But I can’t say I regret things working out like they did … actually, just the opposite. I know so much more about this industry than I would have learned had things worked out differently. And with that comes a sense of pride and faith — that I never need the agent or the publisher, that I can make own way with things and do it all in my own terms.
One of my favorite moments: This book that no one believed in — that every agent and every publisher turned away because it was a hard sale made the top 40 most requested books on Goodreads.
I want to thank you all, so much, for taking this journey with me … this, right now, is where it was always going. The moment when The Milestone Tapes would be available on Amazon and Nook and a few bookstores … where I could say “okay, I did it … and now I’m ready for what comes next.”
Seriously … the followers of my blog, the comment contributors, have really made a difference. I know I don’t say it enough … but your time and consistency have mattered to me more than you’ll ever really understand.
This has been a wild ride, but I can promise you it’s only beginning … I have more stories in me and I can’t wait to tell them.
Sincerely & With Love & Gratitude,
Ashley
