Suspense/Thriller
Date Published:September 1, 2014
Why would a woman who has it all throw her life away? Morgan has the perfect life. She married the man of her dreams. Daniel is smart, gorgeous and successful. Everything she has always wanted in a husband and the father of her children. But he’s also domineering, overprotective and jealous. Is living with him enough to drive Morgan over the edge? Or does something more treacherous lurk beneath the façade?
Guest Post
Why I self-publish?
A lot of people
think it’s crazy to self-publish and they’re not exactly wrong. It’s
überdifficult to make it as a self-published author. There are at least 235,000
books self-published per year in the U.S. alone. It’s not surprising then that
the median annual income of an indie writer is $5,000 and 20% of indie writers
make nothing. That’s right – zip, nada, no denaro.
That’s it folks.
That’s why I do it.
D.E. Haggerty was born and raised in Wisconsin but thinks she’s a European. After spending her senior year of high school in Germany, she developed a bad case of wanderlust that is yet to be cured. After high school she returned to the U.S. to go to college ending up with a Bachelor’s degree in History at the tender age of 20 while still managing to spend time bouncing back and forth to Europe during her vacations. Unable to find a job after college and still suffering from wanderlust, she joined the U.S. Army as a Military Policewoman for 5 years. While stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, she met her future husband, a flying Dutchman. After being given her freedom from the Army, she went off to law school. She finished law school and moved to the Netherlands with her husband and became a commercial lawyer for more than a decade. During a six month break from the lawyering world, she wrote her first book, Unforeseen Consequences. Although she finished the book, she went back to the law until she could no longer take it and upped stakes and moved to Germany to start a B&B. Three years after starting the B&B, she got the itch and decided to pull the manuscript for Unforeseen Consequences out of the attic and get it published as an e-book. Deciding that she may have indeed finally found what she wanted to do with her life, she went on to write Buried Appearances. After moving to Istanbul, she started on Life: Discarded , her third book. Between tennis, running, traveling, singing off tune and reading books like they are going out of style, she writes articles for a local expat magazine and various websites, reviews other indie authors’ books, writes a blog about whatever comes to mind and is working on her fourth book.
Suspense/Thriller
Date Published:September 1, 2014
Why would a woman who has it all throw her life away? Morgan has the perfect life. She married the man of her dreams. Daniel is smart, gorgeous and successful. Everything she has always wanted in a husband and the father of her children. But he’s also domineering, overprotective and jealous. Is living with him enough to drive Morgan over the edge? Or does something more treacherous lurk beneath the façade?
Guest Post
Why I self-publish?
A lot of people
think it’s crazy to self-publish and they’re not exactly wrong. It’s
überdifficult to make it as a self-published author. There are at least 235,000
books self-published per year in the U.S. alone. It’s not surprising then that
the median annual income of an indie writer is $5,000 and 20% of indie writers
make nothing. That’s right – zip, nada, no denaro.
If that’s not
enough bad news for you, let’s add the reputation of indie authors. Many established
authors bash indie authors saying that if
you were good enough, you could have found an agent and traditional publisher.
The publishing industry adds insult to injury claiming that self-published
authors are RUINING the publishing industry. That’s right – it’s all our fault
that the industry is tanking. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the
publishing industry’s failure to modernize.
This leaves us with
one question: Why in the world would
anyone self-publish? Here’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I
tried to go the traditional publishing house route. Even though the idea of
doing anything the traditional way makes my teeth hurt, I did try – just not
very hard. I sent out some query letters. The vast majority of which remain unanswered
more than a decade later. I had a bit of interest from a literary agent that
sent my first book off to Miramax thinking it was more suitable for a movie
than a book (I’m not sure if I’m flattered or pissed off about that.). After
several months of waiting on tender hooks for a reply, I gave up and went back
to my ‘real life’ of being a lawyer.
When I finally
decided that I was indeed going to pursue this writing thing, I didn’t even
consider going the traditional publishing route anymore. Why? Well, in all
honesty, I was simply fascinated by self-publishing and what it is possible for
a writer to do on her own. I was also incredibly naïve. I didn’t realize all
the challenges (and, let’s face it, bullshit) involved. I’m not going to say I
expected to sell thousands of copies by merely putting my e-book up for grabs
on Amazon and Smashwords. I will say, however, that I did expect to sell
hundreds of copies.
Why do I stay with
self-publishing if it’s such hard work and I am not making much money? First of all, it’s not about the money. I am in the
incredibly luxurious position of not needing to make money (at least not right
now). I also enjoy the freedom that self-publishing brings me. I decide the
title of the book, the cover of the book, when I’m going to publish, etc. And
the lawyer in me loves the fact that I’m not sharing (my absolutely piddly)
royalties with anyone else.
Last but not least,
I’m having fun. Even though I treat writing like a normal job. I get up in the
morning and sit behind my laptop or tablet for four hours before heading off to
the gym. After lunch, I spend the afternoon reading novels for other indie
authors or working on marketing. Okay, maybe the marketing bit isn’t too much
fun, but I love the challenge of trying to figure out what works – what will
get more books sold.
That’s it folks.
That’s why I do it.
Posts
1 Comments
Thanks for hosting my blog tour today and featuring my guest post. Without bloggers we indie writers would be lost
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