Many writers ask me how long I've been writing and how I managed to sell books when they couldn't sell any.
I have to tell them, I'm no Amanda Hocking. I'm Ami Blackwelder. A Paranormal/SciFi/Historical Romance novelist.
I love to write about passion, love stories in the past and future, in the wake of the supernatural. Forbidden romance is one of my specialities.
But how long have I been writing? Since before I could pick up a pencil. I've always had a wickedly wild imagination. My sentences would run on, and on. As a child I did not now the period existed (I say this in jest).
In Elementary school, my teachers would read my stories in front of the class and by young adulthood, I majored in English at the University of Central Florida.
I won Best Fiction of 1997, published in the on campus literary magazine: Cypress Dome, and got to the Semi-Finals in the Laurel Hemingway Short Story contest of '97.
In my twenties I wrote short stories and poetry and in my thirties I began with a succession of three spiritual books followed by what I currently write now: My novels.
I love the novel. I will be writing novels until I die. If you scroll to the bottom of my blog you will see my long list of stories waiting to come out of my head onto form readers can enjoy. I write because that is my passion, my calling, my first love. Not because I want money and fame, thought money wouldn't be too bad:)
But regardless of how much I make or even if only one person reads my books, I will write, because that is who I am to my very core -like a sure addiction.
How do I make sells? Well, My first year of selling online on my own was 2010. In 2009 I put some of my spiritual works onto Scribd and then found an epublisher who published one of my novels. I learned a lot during that time and by 2010 was ready to do it myself -like all the great Indie authors before me.
Sells were slow the first couple months, I'm talking 6 books there and 8 books here. But then sells began to increase each month more and more. I went from being ranked at 4,000,000 to being ranked in the 100,000 bracket and at times below the 100,000 bracket. Now, I have a lot of work to do before I find myself making thousands a month which would be nice:)
But how did I get to where I am now? Blog Reviews. Blog Guest posts. Local book events. Having my books in local libraries and schools. Social Networking. And now I am looking into forum activity with kindle, nook, and kindle sponsorships. I will also be more active in terms of written blogs on my main website amiblackwelder.com and my sister websites which are dedicated to specific books I've written. I will have a website for each book or series written.
I just finished http://shifterevolutions.blogspot.com (Shifter Evolutions saga)
http://historicalromancereaders.blogspot.com (The Day the Flowers Died)
http://booksforagesfivetoten.blogspot.com (Child books)
