Hello Loves,

In 2013 I published my first novel. Within days Jack & Diane had sold hundreds of copies and reached number one on Amazon Kindle’s Multicultural and Interracial Romance and African-American Literature lists. I received an unsolicited from Grammarly offering to sponsor a blog post. I even received an email and talked to an editor from Harlequin Books. There were offers to guest blog and even appear at conferences.  It was a very exciting time.

I should have been on these opportunities like white on rice, but I wasn’t. I never responded to Grammarly. It took me years to ever contact that editor again. Success came so easily the first time out of the gate and I was so green that I thought it would always be that way. I published my second novel, Someone to Love, in 2014. It was successful too, it took longer, but it did eventually reach number one. There were no offers or emails.

In 2015 I published my third novel. The Nearness of  You has yet to reach number one. In fact, it’s barely sold. Perhaps if I’d answered when opportunity knocked, it would have. Maybe if I’d blogged more regularly, or sent out newsletters on a more regular basis I’d have a fan base that would be excited when I published and would have catapulted the book to number one as well. If I’d published the three books more closely together, perhaps they would have all been successful.

It wasn’t just hubris, but I was also spread thin. I wasn’t just overwhelmed because I’m a working mother with a full-time job. See, when I set out on my journey as an author, I also set out to be a publisher. I was publishing other authors works as well as my own. It didn’t help that multiple books had the same publication date. All the details of publishing a book were multiplied by two or three. Granted, I had a business partner, but because I'm adequate at many things (such as graphic design and website building), my portion of responsibilities as a publisher pushed my responsibilities as an author to the sidelines.

My lifelong dream has always been to write, not to publish. If I had it to do all over again, I would have just been an author. If I had, perhaps I’d be a full-time author now. But I’m not one to live in what if land. I’m still writing because it’s what I love. I’ve learned from my past mistakes so I hopefully won’t repeat them. I’m due to release my first novel in three years in the next couple of months. This will be the first time I’ll solely have the hat of author on.

The first time around success came too easy and I didn’t fully appreciate how blessed I was. If Whiskey Kisses, my first novel in three years, is as successful as either of my first two novels, I’ll cherish it because I’ll have worked harder for it. This time around, I’ll be waiting at the door to answer when opportunity knocks.

Love,

Lena