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Friday, March 21, 2014

That Indie Adventure...

Memories in a Box ... the blog to categorize, journal and record my adventures as an Indie Author. When I started this journey in 2011 I did not have any clue as to what an Indie Author was. I knew what a vanity press was and traditional print. But the whole concept if Self-Publishing alluded me.

Now, three years later, I couldn't imagine this journey any other way.

Some of you know that I started writing Blood Purple when I lost my job, like so many fellow Americans, in 2011. I had four weeks of nothing and I put an idea to paper. The first three chapters were extremely hard. And then when one person (who shall remain nameless) told me it wasn't any good I stopped. But then I let a friend read the ten thousand words and convince me there was more to this story and that I needed to finish it.

And I did.

Now fast forward to November 2012 and NaNoWriMo. I was determined this year to finish the challenge. Plus, Blood Purple had taken me like, forever to finish, I wanted to challenge myself. It was off to the races I went writing as fast as my fingers would take me. In the end, thanks to the lovely weather changes and getting sick, I finished in seven weeks. Still a record breaking time frame for me.

Now I was faced with the challenge -- Send it to the publisher I was with, send it to a different publisher, or try to strike out on my own...

I pulled on my big girl panties, pulled out my economist hat and decided the latter was the path for me. This was a very scary feeling for me. I didn't know if I would succeed or fail. I didn't know if I was going to end up ruining the short career I had started. And I didn't know if I was going to be able to make all of the things necessary to be worth it.

There are a few choices as an adult I can look back and say, "This was a defining moment of my life and I made the right choice."
--My first day of College
--My last day of College
--My Wedding Day
--The day I published Maverick Touch The Cat.

This last year, and I can't believe it has only been a year, has been a whirlwind of insanity. There has been so many different things going on that I cannot believe so much was able to be achieved.

So now I am looking at the launch of the second Maverick Touch Series book at the anniversary of most important day in my author career and I am just all smiles. I feel like I've lived a whole lifetime and yet I am still such a babe in the age of experience.

I hope that in the future the stigma of 'Indie Authors' vanishes. Like any revolutionary individuals there will be a lot of fire poured on them. The strong survive and rise to the top and that is where I will be.

And, almost most importantly, I'd like to announce my new covers. The whole new face of "Ashley Nemer." I think they give the perfect image of what I want my career to be about. Professionalism and Quality.

I just love how when you look across the books you see uniformity and crisp clean images. I love the colors and the fonts. Front or back, either side, you never doubt that what you have is a well thought out product.

As this concludes the "Ashley Random" of the day I want to say a special thanks to Stacy. Without her, this year would have been non-existent.

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