As of today, it’s been exactly 10 years since I published Adamant, first in the world-hopping fantasy Alliance series, and kicked off my self-publishing career.
So much has changed since then. When I hit that publish button, I had no idea that just over a year later, my life was going to be upended in the best way possible when Faerie Blood took off and I was able to start writing full-time.
Nearly a decade later, I’m still hanging on - by my fingertips, sometimes - and I’m aware of how lucky I am that I’ve lasted this long. Not many authors do, and it’s no surprise it feels like I’ve been in the business far longer than a decade. Since 2015, the publishing industry has been through a lot of changes. I’ve had to switch genres. Had to give up on dream projects. Had my heart broken a thousand times. Even after making the impossible happen, I’ve had far, far more failures than successes. That’s just the nature of the business.
The upside? The writing part is still just as fun as it was a decade ago. I haven’t lost the joy of creating a story, moulding it into the shape of a book, and releasing it into the world.
I hope I never will.
This is why I’m still in publishing. Yes, I’m stubborn, driven to persist far past the point when most sane people would have long given up, but I still love the craft. I still love the art of creation. And that, in the end, is everything.