#IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?

#IWSG FIRST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH!

IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?

Insecure Writer’s Support Group—A database resource site and support group for writers and authors. Featuring weekly guests and tips, a monthly blogfest gathering, a Facebook group, a book club, and thousands of links–all to benefit writers! #IWSG Website / Facebook Group / Twitter / Book Club Reedsy Discount / Past Issues Fast Five Free Gift–Mobi / Epub / Pdf Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer help and guidance. It’s a safe-haven for insecure writers of all kinds! Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer—aim for a dozen new people each time—and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog!  Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

 You ready?
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?
IWSG Co-hosts

Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie!

IWSG SWAG

From the newsletter–Show off your writer insecurities!
Buy some IWSG swag and wear/use it with pride! Buy Here! 

IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?

SEPTEMBER 1ST OPTIONAL QUESTION
How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

MY ANSWER:

It is surviving (making a living) with income streams from writing or in the industry. I am so grateful because as of May 2020, when I started building my income streams; I am doing just that. Now my goal is to have a full series published and working on my next series.

I am co-owner of Stormdance Publications which is still a work in progress since 2018, but we have 4 themed-anthologies published, one to be published TBA (one more in wait), and one call for submission, Grumpy Old Fairy Tales, and getting ready to put out a second call for submission, Grumpy Old Pandemic Gods.

As of May 2021, I work full time for Ninja Writers LLC. Today is last day Sept 1st, but you can get Ninja Writers Guild for a month for $10 today Sept 1st, and after that $50 a month. The Guild is a place you can find classes to help you figure out how to build income streams, and that fits you personally. It is for the more serious writer looking for a way to earn income, publish their first novel, memoir, or start writing articles. (Note: The Guild includes all that is in the Club too.)

Or if you are a less focus writer or just not ready to jump in, The Aspiring Writer, there is the Ninja Writers Club, which you can get for two weeks free and then $25 a month, which includes access to Shaunta Grimes course, A Novel Idea, on how to write a novel and structure a novel with a lot of other insights. I highly recommend this course, as that is what inspired me to join the Ninja Writers Club back in 2015. I have never looked back.

Or if not ready to commit to yet you can try Ninja Writers Club free courses on How To Test & Develop a Story Idea and The Plotting Workshop at ninjawriters.org. Ninja Writers have a lot of live calls for club and the guild both, and a few frees from time to time. Shaunta is currently doing the $10 Workshop calls every Monday, which means if you don’t want to join but want to own that call and come to live, you can.

Another income stream for me is that I started my service page in May 2020 with one-on-one service via zoom. My page contains testimonials from my clients and list of services.

I write on Medium. I joined the Medium Partnership Program in 2018, which means I make a few pennies there too.

I also have seven books, 6 anthologies and one short collection on my Amazon Page.

What I am currently working on:
I am currently writing an Origin Story novella or novel connected to the short collection, plus my first novel in my Space Opera Trilogy, Ghost Pirate.

Looking forward—I plan to develop a couple of email courses. This is still in the idea stage, but I am always adding to my income stream list as my schedule allows and what I can handle and manage. I am in this writing thing for the long haul. It is a curvy road. I build and change as I go. There is always something else to learn or to adapt to with every step. Getting closer to the dream, don’t believe me, read my bio. Or maybe I am already living shades of it.
“Stuffs just getting better every day.” ~Movie The Postman starring Kevin Costner.

IWSG Book Club Upgrade!
The IWSG is getting an overhaul. We’re so excited about the changes, so let me just stop here and turn the explaining over to the fabulous Toi! (Toi’s msg taken from club newsletter.)

A MESSAGE FROM TOI

Hi there, I’m Toi.

Perhaps you’ve seen me around the IWSG community. I’m number 36 on the blogging list, and I’m kind of a ghost in the Facebook group, but I do pop in and out from time to time. I’ve been very active in the IWSG Book Club on Goodreads and have recently been asked to take it over. Fortunately, my wonderful co-mods (Juneta Key and Ronel Janse van Vurren) will be there for support the whole way.

We are so excited to announce the new direction the book club will be taking and hope that you will join us. Before we kick off our new traditions, we’ll have our final discussions about the craft of writing, featuring the titles: Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine and They Called Us Enemy by George Takei and Justin Eisinger. These final discussions, on August 25, 2021, are simply fun poll questions you can answer and then, if you so choose, share your thoughts and or review of the last books we read. Click here and here to join in.  

Starting in September, the book club will now serve as a spotlight of member talent. That’s right. We will be reading, sharing, and supporting the works of IWSG members and hope you will join in the fun. While spotlighting writers, we hope to take the book club in a direction that appeals to readers as well. Even if you don’t have time to read the books we choose to spotlight, you can still participate and spread the love. And just remember, your turn will eventually come around.

We have decided to honor the IWSG and its members in the month of September by featuring two of the group’s anthologies: Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime and Parallels: Felix Was Here. These anthologies are themselves a showcase of the talent present within the IWSG community. Since many members of the community are only published in the anthologies, this gives those members a chance to be featured.

Each month, we will feature two books from IWSG members, and whether a long-time veteran or a newcomer, your time to shine will come. The co-mods and I will be picking titles from members based on the blogging list. We’ve divided the list into three parts: 1-50, 51-100, and 100+. We will alternate each month which part we choose from, that way we’re not just showing attention to members in one portion of the list.

As the new admin of the book club, each month I will share tips on ways for members to help their books become more searchable, increasing their odds of being featured. The co-mods and I have also come up with some fun ways for the IWSG community to get involved, even if they are not ready to join the Goodreads book club. After the spotlighted books are announced in the IWSG newsletter, we encourage interested members to share which of the books they are excited to try out, the first Wednesday of the month, in their IWSG day post.

The second Thursday of the month will be when we post our group polls. We are even taking suggestions from members about poll topics to feature. The third Thursday of the month will be our #iwsgbookclub check-in, where we head to social media to share which book(s) we are reading and our thoughts at the moment. Finally, the fourth Thursday of the month will be our discussion day. We’ve decided to help connect readers with the IWSG authors by hosting micro discussions- 3 questions dedicated to each book featured; plus, I’ll be sharing additional questions on social media to indulge the avid readers. Even if you don’t have a chance to read the books, we encourage you to join the discussions. We all know how much writers thrive on feedback.

Wow. There are so many new and exciting things coming your way from the book club and I hope you’ll join the current book club members on this new journey. Personally, I am excited to be part of a community that provides so much support and so many opportunities. I can’t wait to see the IWSG Book Club on Goodreads thrive even more as we continue in the spirit of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

See you on post day.

Thanks, Toi Thomas
Author at #thetoiboxofwords etoithomas.com
Founder of Lit Carnivale. For more info, click here.

IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?

Do You Believe In Magic? — Smoak is Magic.

I am a Fae spirit entity. My element is fire. My name is Smoak. I’ve been mistaken for an angel. As a spirit entity, I have many forms — I shape-shift, but my core form is Dragon.

I am a master at using shadow magic for illusion, but I can’t live alone. To survive, spirit entities must bond with another whose element is the same as theirs.

Elemental fire magic connected me to Remi at her birth. But, our magic was never used.

To keep her safe, her mother suppressed Remi’s magic at age three to hide them from the monster that chased them. On Remi’s sixteenth birthday, the spell will break and reunite us.

Let’s hope everything doesn’t burn down around us.

Want to follow Smoak?

PROGRESS METER: Coming December 2021

You can view this brief story on Medium too. I wrote it as short form fiction–150 words or fewer for a friend’s Short Form Publication on Medium The Daily Cuppa.

IWSG September: What Is Your Idea Of A Successful Writer?