Spring is here finally in Wyoming. After so many years living in the Midwest I had forgotten how much longer the snow and cold holds on in the mountains. The month sees the anniversary of the release of The Scent of Lemon & Rosemary. This fall will see the release of The Natural Home Wheel of the Year. This puts me at a book published every two years since 2019. That’s not a bad streak.
We’re coming up on one year here in Wyoming. It’s been a year of ups and downs, hard work and getting used to small town living. Overall, however, it has been a good year. We are happy with our new lives. Being only a fifteen minute drive from the mountains helps.
It’s also been a year of contemplation and rethinking what I am doing. Writing has always been my passion, even during those years when I was so busy trying to keep our family afloat by sewing. It is what I was always meant to do. But it is very difficult to support oneself through writing. The publishing industry went through several shakeups in the 90s and early 2000s that has made it near impossible to make a living solely through writing. I know a lot of writers and I know only one who lives off of his writing income.
That reality was brought into focus this month when I received a royalty check that was about $1500 less than previous checks. Book sales have dropped sharply and though both my books have earned out at this point, if the sales continue at the rate they’re going I’ll likely only get around five hundred a year going forward.
I need to increase my profile, to reach out to those witchy crafters who might not know about me and my books. I have always had this desire to be a witchy Martha Stewart, a goal I haven’t devoted enough time or energy to over the last year due to moving and settling in. Now that spring has come I feel reinvigorated and ready to dedicate myself to growing my platform.
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