Indie Insights: Intro and Hard Work.

We're gonna do a new series on the blog that follows me and my journey as an indie author. Things I do right and I'm excited about. Things I do not so right, the work involved, the ups and downs, what I would do differently next time--ALL OF IT.

And if you have a question or something you'd like me address, please let me know! Here, @NazareaAndrews or nazareanandrews (at) gmail (dot) com

Okay, so let's talk about the work. I knew before I decided to do this--and for those of you wondering, I've been toying with this decision since last May. I told Liz and Auzy in August. This is not a spur of the moment idea.

But what I was saying--I knew it would be hard. I knew a lot of work would be involved--and not just writing and editing, but in promotion, setting up a website, formatting, hiring people to edit and do cover art, and learning what the hell I'm doing.

I had no clue how hard I'd be working. Guys, to put it into perspective--I get up at 7:20 and get my kids to school. Go back to sleep from 8:30 to 9:30/10 am. When I wake up, I make coffee and go through the few dozen emails I get while sleeping. Spend an hour responding to emails/twitter and updating social media--important because dude, they're fun!! And also, you have to be there for people to know you have a book they should read.

After picking kids up from school, playing housewife, I work. My to-do list rarely has less than 12 items a day, a lot of which takes several hours to do. Most days, I work until 1 or 2 am. Yes, some of that is for my position as an editorial assistant. Some of it is housework/mommy stuff.

A huge chunk of it is related to my writing. It took a solid week to organize the upcoming blog tour (which I am so excited about!!).

Here's the thing: I am working harder than I ever have in my life. And this is coming from the girl who worked two jobs and took a full course load her senior year of high school. And I LOVE it!! I'm working with one of my best friends on a story we both believe in and I can't wait to get it in the hands of readers--your hands--and I'm having a blast doing it. There is always something to do, a question I hadn't thought of that needs to be answered, a decision to be made about something.

But, if your wondering if you should self-publish, and your thinking it's not that hard...yeah. No. It is. And one of the hardest parts is self-doubt. Which, lovelies, we will talk about next time.

N~