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So, for those who subscribe and read my newsletter, last month was a biggie.
I was able to announce that my Author Your Ambition rebrand was live. Yay! (M.K. Williams Pen Name)
I also got to tell you that my first short story was accepted to a literary magazine! (Mary Kate Williams Pen Name)
And that my latest book landed a deal and will be out next summer! (Kate Williams Pen Name).

Big, exciting things are happening in all three of my pen names. All at once. It was exciting. May through July has been a constant dopamine high. Just big hit big hit big hit. Then after I sent my newsletter, I did a sale for Nailbiters and it TOOK OFF!

So I have been posting a lot about my gratitude for these successes. And for once, my life is mostly matching the positive items I get to share on social media. I’m still hoping to get the all clear that my autoimmune disease is in remission. So if that happens, I’ll share that too.

Life and my career are in a good spot right now. And someone asked how I’m juggling it all. How I’m doing so much right now. And the real answer is that all the seeds I’ve planted have FINALLY just started to sprout.

I sent my very first query in 2010 for my first novel ever, which will go unread for eternity. While I started querying Heifer in late Jan 2023 and got signed by April 2023, it took 13 years from that first try to get an agent

I posted videos on this channel every week for three years before I made a dime. With algorithm changes, advertiser pullbacks, and now AI interference on the platform, I make the same few hundred dollars a month that I’ve been making for years.

My short stories, I’ve been writing and working on before my first book was ever self-published. When I’m between projects, I’m still writing and tweaking and meticulously fine-tuning my short fiction. never got responses until I learned how to find more than just the top 3 lit mags in the country. I will have a whole video on it.

Nailbiters, at almost a decade since publication, just peaked at #17 on the Amazon charts for the first time ever in July. Because I ran a sale, but also I’ve reworked the description and log line, I’ve gotten better at updating my comps. When I started, I had no clue how to market this book. And now all the efforts I’ve been putting in for years have finally produced fruit.

The AYA rebrand, I’ve had these assets for years; they needed an update. I did all that work while I was in deep deep denial that my book on submission would ever get picked up. I channeled all my energy there because I needed a distraction from feeling like I was failing spectacularly with everyone watching.

I’ve spent years shouting into the void and being disappointed it never called back. Turns out it was a decade delayed echo. I’m finally seeing some movement, and utterly daunted by how much more I have to do to make any more progress.

I know the dopamine drip is going to stop. Know there will be bad news eventually or things that just don’t work. Or Instagram is limiting all my stories to only 20 views, so I have to find new and more ways to get updates to people.

So, no big message or learning today. Just sharing this feeling because I know some of you feel it too, and maybe it feels better to not be alone. Or to know that yes, it takes years to get here.

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