Stevie Szabad, Author

Ok, reasons#1 and #2 explained the rush, the pleasure of writing and sharing a story. The writing for writing’s sake. Reasons #3 are more selfish : Money and Fame. Yes. I have achieved some Money and Fame lately.

Back up. I am an independent – “indie” – author of the book Camp Follower One Army Brat’s Story. I paid for all my own publishing costs : editing, layout, printing, artwork. I paid for all expenses incurred in writing a book: software, travel, advertising, office supplies. And as a retired IT consultant, I tracked and recorded all such expenses. (I admit I did not “charge” for the time actually writing – it was for reasons #1 and #2 that I did that anyway 😉 ) So I do really know how much it cost to produce and distribute my book.

Now the greedy part, the reaping-what-I’ve-sown part : Money and Fame.

The Money part is easy : I recently broke even. Now I’m into Profit territory. (I did mention I do the writing part for free, right?)

So Fame. I recently went on a road-trip vacation, and dropped into a couple of places to promote and sell my book, such has my life become, in a local shop in my father’s town, and at an army brat reunion. Not only did the local shop pick up some books for consignment, they offered me an on-the-spot signing, at which I did sell some books. Plus, walking around the little town, people stopped me in the street to ask if I was that “visiting author” they saw on the shop’s Facebook page! Fame? A taste. Delicious. Then, at the drop-in reunion, not only did I sell more books, but a few people mentioned they had already seen it online and had already bought it! We took selfies. Wow. More Fame.

I keep finding more reasons to love writing. Stay tuned.