Author: Dana Leipold
Publisher: Booktrope
Publication Date: June 2015
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Familiar abuse or an uncertain future? Which would you choose? This is Laurel Lee Page’s dilemma when she is faced with an unplanned pregnancy at nineteen. Born into a broken family, guilt and shame are all she has ever known. No matter what she does or whom she meets, Laurel appears to be living a condemned life.
However, she is determined to find independence and freedom in spite of her family’s legacy of hatred and self-contempt. Set in Southern California during the tumultuous 1960’s, Burnt Edges is a contemporary novel based on true events that prove strength can emerge in the most horrific of circumstances.
Title: Show Me the Money
Do the work, make it as perfect as you possibly can, and the money will come.
by Dana Leipold
Work hard and you’ll be successful, right? Well, that’s what everybody says but one thing they don’t mention is exactly how hard you have to work nor do they really define what “successful” means. That’s because it means something different to each one of us.
For me, I was hoping to say good-bye to my day job and become a full-time author. I naively thought I could accomplish that after publishing my first novel. See the word “naive” there? Well, that was me. Now I know better.
The money did not come…and I had to go back to a desk job with my tail between my legs. As I sit in my cubicle licking my wounds I wonder, what did I do wrong? Why didn’t my book sell better? There are probably 1,001 reasons…one of which was the content I chose to write about. Abuse, incest, and family dysfunction is not exactly an uplifting read so my market was very small. But this was a story that I HAD to write, not one I wanted to write.
I’m also an unknown entity since I’m a self-published, debut author. The stigma about self-published books is waning but it’s still there. Most people will not take a chance on a book by an unknown author–especially an indie author–unless someone they know and trust tells them about it. I’m also learning that reviews do not sell the book as much as I originally thought. What sells books is the cover, the blurb, and the sample…but you still have to get the book in front of people.
What also sells a book is…more books. One won’t do it. That means I’ve got to get writing, and writing, and writing. It’s going to be tough because now I’ve got the job but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. But here’s how it really is:
It’s easy to tell yourself that you have all these challenges in life or that you can’t ever get started because you get side-tracked by kids, bills, a day job, the twit in your head, or whatever but that’s just a bunch of bullshit!
You are avoiding the truth: you aren’t sure if you can do the hard work to get where you want to be.
You’ve worked hard in the past and you’ve done some amazing things so just stop all this crap and get to it! The hardest part is getting over that initial “block” that you think is there. Once you get your mind set and you start working, it’s just a matter of momentum.
Once again, you are falling into that rut. You start off with lots of energy and excitement and things look great. You get signals and signs that you are on the right path but then, like always, the universe wants to know if you’re really serious and it asks you to do the work…then you lose your steam, you start to poop out. THIS is the very moment when you need to pull all your strength, your energy, and your determination and just keep going. Don’t stop and have a pity party. You are on the verge of creating what you are meant to create in this life.
Do the work, make it as perfect as you possibly can, and the money will come.
AUTHOR BIO:
Dana Leipold is an author and member of the Association of Independent Authors. Her debut novel, Burnt Edges, depicts the unwavering resilience of a young woman in the face of family violence and abuse.
She has self-published two other books: a collection of limericks in Dr. Seuss-style for adults entitled, Stupid Poetry: The Ultimate Collection of Sublime and Ridiculous Poems, and a non-fiction book entitled, The Power of Writing Well: Write Well. Change the World.
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