I’ve got some good stuff to share.

So anyway the past couple of weeks I’ve been in a bit of a funk. A little depressed, a little overwhelmed. Lots of factors really but part of it is that I’ve been doing a lot of work without seeing much in the way of rewards.

And I knew it would be like this for awhile, but it’s still very overwhelming, I had to sit back and take stock and figure out where I’m going and what I’m doing. So here is what’s going on:

On the blog front I’m just going to blog when I feel compelled to share something. No more schedule. It’s too much stress and let’s face it, I’m not pulling the numbers I want here. I’m not sure what my “unique visitors” number is so far for this month, but lets just say I’m almost positive that my indie website has already surpassed it and I’ve only been building that (very slowly) since November.

For a long time I’ve been fascinated with the “multiple profit center” (henceforth called MPC) way of making money. Most people are conditioned to think in terms of one career. (Unless life circumstances force them to take more than one job.) One career or one business, just ONE. Or one at a time. It’s the serial monogamy of work.

But I’ve long felt there was wisdom in diversifying your income portfolio. Some things you do more for passion than for money (though let’s face it, money is a drive or you wouldn’t put it out in the world for sale.) Some things you have an equal amount of passion and drive for the money.

At this juncture I’ve probably settled on as many MPCs as I can handle at the moment. And it’s divided into three categories:

Fiction, Copywriting, and the Indie Website.

I’ve finally printed out Mated and am ready to start editing these last two novellas. I’ve got my game plan set and my cover artist picked and know where I’m going and how I’m getting there, now comes the hard part, getting the thing rewritten and edited.

So you can imagine I was thrilled to find the following review on Smashwords today:

Review by: Elizabeth Haltom on Mar. 11, 2009 : star star star star
There are a lot of books on here that are highly rated that would have benefited greatly from an editor’s pen – this isn’t one of them. Hopefully the site will get more content of this caliber – the writing is crisp, smart and highly entertaining. Bravo, Ms. Winters, and I hope we get to read more from you in the future.

This was definitely what I needed to hear at this moment. It was exactly the push I needed to keep pushing forward on the fiction. If I did it once with KEPT I can do it again with the other two and produce a fabulous book.

2. Indie Site: I’ve been working on an informational site for indie authors, and though I still have a lot of content pages to write, it’s time to start monetizing it. I’m doing several different things in that direction, one of them is consulting services. Basically doing the type of thing I did as a wedding coordinator but for indie authors and their books. Who knew wedding coordinating was going to come in so handy?

I’ve realized over the past few months that no matter how much information is readily available on how to self publish and market your work, either people just don’t read it, or they are too overwhelmed by it. Because there is a definite sector of indies who need hand-holding. And hey, I can do that so I will.

3. Copywriting: I had considered commercial copywriting a long time ago. While other people may think that product descriptions and company brochures and things of that nature aren’t “real writing,” I appreciate not having to do the same type of writing all the time and being able to get paid for my words. (Plus I find it bizarre that anyone would turn their nose up at commercial copywriting while working a full time job they hate and aren’t being paid enough for, but I digress) And commercial copywriting is the most lucrative form of writing out there. You can make healthy healthy money as a freelance copywriter.

I’d explored this option before, but considering the fact that I don’t live in a large city and I can’t do in person meetings (it’s hard for me to live on set schedules, and in person meetings…hello panic attacks.) So I figured I just couldn’t do it, even though I knew I could do the work involved.

Then I had a job literally fall into my lap. So now that I have my foot in the door with this first project I’m taking this much more seriously and am determined to find a way to make it work within my work limitations. My reasoning is…if I got that one job, over the internet, then I can get more, especially once I start delivering excellent work and getting referrals. So I got more books on copywriting and I’m getting my ducks in a row for that.

The way I see it, working consistently on all of these things will net me a healthy income within a few years. The bulk of it coming from the copywriting, next coming from the website, and third coming from the fiction. The fiction will grow over time, but it’s definitely the most slow build thing. But the fiction can only be improved by not being totally stressed out by “where is money coming from?”

Because while Tom pays the bills, it’s not easy living on one income in this economy. And it would be really fantastic if I could contribute financially and also have the safety net of knowing I could take care of myself if I ever had to.