March 5th, 2025 will mark the one year anniversary of me becoming a published author. How did it go by so fast?
Honestly, it doesn’t feel like a full year yet, but at the same time it feels like it’s been decades. So much has happened in that one year, and so many lessons have been learned.
The first thing I learned, was that the moment that the sale page was live I had to start introducing myself differently. When meeting new people who would ask what I do, my go to answer used to be ‘My name is Chelsea, and I’m a stay at home mom of 3.’ I’ll be honest here and admit, even one year later, I still struggle to say ‘My name is Chelsea and I’m an author, as well as a stay at home mom of 3.’ Because, who gave me the right, am I right?
A year into this new career and I still feel like I snuck in to a room I wasn’t invited in to. But that’s not true at all, is it? I have written books (yes, bookS, not just a book. Wild, right?). I have written books, I have published books (3 to be exact), and I am in the works of writing and publishing more.
You can go to pretty much any e-book site and find my novels. I have reviews on them on Goodreads and Amazon, amongst other places. I am an author, and while it isn’t very much, I am a PAID author. Now, I’m nowhere near making a decent amount, or livable wage, off of my books. That’s not the point here. The point is that there are people out there, family/friends/strangers, who have given me their hard earned money in exchange for a book. I am a paid author.
I set a goal last year for myself. Sell 100 books before the end of December 2024. There were slow months, dead months, and months where I sold more than expected. Some months I spent a lot of time marketing, and some months I simply didn’t have the time. And yet, after all that, I ended the 2024 year with 103 books sold. Can you believe that?! Me! In my first year of independently publishing my own books, I sold over 100. It wasn’t even a full year, my book didn’t come out until March!
Just think of what I can accomplish in 2025 having two extra months to work from! The ability to apply myself even more, and maybe a few extra sprinkles of courage, and this year the only thing holding me back will be, well, me.
Speaking of lessons, I learned that there will be people that rave about your book, and moments later there will be people that have nothing but criticisms about it. There is nothing you can do about reviews. They are there for the readers (doesn’t take the full sting out of them, but know they will be all over the place sometimes).
What all did I accomplish in 2024? I published Awakening Fate in March, and then I followed that up by publishing Poppy Curses and Emerald Skies in June, and Discovering Fate in January.
I also managed to get my books into my local library, I sold a few at a town wide garage sale for full price ( I had doubters, but I did it!), and I rented a table at a Christmas market, where I finally reached my goal of selling 100 books ( I also sold 10 others that day, bringing me to 103 sold total).
I did all of that without any prior experience, and nothing but the shear determination of someone who was tired of doubting herself (where had that gotten me in life?). Instead, I turned doubt into believe in myself, and I accomplished life long goals.
This year? There will still be doubt (heck all of February was doubt), but I know now that I can push that doubt aside, invest in myself, and the sky is the limit.
So, March 5th I will be celebrating my one year author anniversary. I will take a moment to admire how far I’ve come, and then I will kick my own butt back to work, because I have characters waiting for me to guide them through new adventures.
I am an author. I write books. I believe in myself. Time to see how far I can fly this year.
Thanks for coming along for the journey. Below is the link to my linktree, the best place to find everything to do with me and my books!
Chelsea
Author Chelsea Biddiscombe 