TAKING THE NEXT BIG STEP IN MY WRITING CAREER!

The Indie World of Writers, no it’s not a real organization, at least I don’t think so, is about to take on a newbie. Moi!

Okay, I’ve been serious about writing for about four and a half years and I’ve had quite a number of books, novellas, and shorts published for about three and a half years and I never thought I'd be doing this when I submitted my first manuscript for publication. 

Imagine to my own surprise when I stepped out of my comfort zone and planned to self-publish! Only one book, but it’s a big deal.

A couple of weeks ago, I might have considered rethinking the endeavor. My husband and I are both writers and we’ve written two books and a short together. After our individual experiences with publishers, we decided we’d try our hand at publishing our own works and in particular our first one when we received our rights back. The decision wasn’t easy, but after talking with others who have gone indie, we thought okay we can do this and set about figuring out what to do. Through encouragement and perseverance, we moved forward.

After days of brainstorming, we came up with a name for our business, and then proceeded to file the appropriate documents to officially incorporate. With docs in hand, we got hooked up with an EIN from the Internal Revenue Service since that was needed to open a separate business account and get a business permit it turns out. You can't just go an open one. At this point I began to think what the heck have we gotten ourselves into? The long list of things to do looked insurmountable. All we wanted to do was self-publish a book or two. Maybe all this wasn’t necessary, but we wanted to do it right and not do anything inappropriate where taxes were concerned. Definitely didn't want the authorities coming after us with penalties and whatever that would keep me awake at night worrying. I started a business years ago, and when arranging everything this time, all those memories of starting out flashed before me. Yikes! How scary.

Fear is always the biggest obstacle to overcome, in my opinion. Fear of failure, fear of screwing something up along the way, and all those fears we as writers have anyway with our writing kept creeping back into my thoughts. I pushed forward and I’m about 90 percent finished with the website, waiting on a few more pieces of paperwork for the city permits, and plan to go open that business bank account next week!

I’m here today to say I tamped down those fears (I still have them lurking in the background) and with receiving the new cover art for the first book arriving today, I was sure we were doing the best thing for us. We still have a few more things to do and I may be pulling my hair out uploading the manuscript to the first on-line retailer, but I’ll get through the learning curve and know the future will be good.

We may not make a whole heck of money, but the freedom and control we’ll have over our intellectual property will be all worth the fear and mountains of paperwork going into it right now. I will say that I couldn’t have done this without great authors and other professionals like the ones here on RB4U and a few of the other social groups I belong to. I’ve met wonderful and talented people and value their counsel and friendship. I may not have said anything before, but I do value everyone’s opinions, friendship and support here on this great group. Thanks Marianne for creating Romance Books 4 Us, you’re awesome!

If anyone is thinking about venturing out on their own, feel free to contact me privately. I’m not sure how much I can offer at this point, but I want to pay it forward if I can.

Indulge me in a little promo for the upcoming self-published book and showoff the cover for Top Dog.

Ebook Cover By Sessha Batto

Print Wrap Cover Art by Sessha Batto

Until next month…oops! Take that back...tomorrow I interviewed Kerrelyn Sparks! Check out her interview.

Cynthia Arsuaga

Erotic Romance Author

Blog: http://romanticwordsbycynthia.blogspot.com

Website: http://cynthiaarsuaga.weebly.com

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