I will survive by Jennifer Kacey

I need to get a few things off my chest. Figure this is the best place to do that so that maybe it can do some good for anybody else struggling with the same things....

The last royalties paid to me by EC I actually received paid through July 2015. That's right 2015. So they are now 11 months late paying me royalties. I don't know about the rest of you but I actually like to get paid for the work I put my blood sweat and tears into. It's kind of a thing.

Author Equation
Work hard for months on a project you love - time with family + hours of editing + a shit ton of money for marketing and tours and stock = a paycheck.
This is the equation all authors work under.

Lately I've seen a rash of people talking about giving up their dream of writing because they've been kicked when they're down over and over again. One too many times unbalances the equation above and the good no longer outweighs all the bad. How incredibly sad.

By bad I mean the publishers who refuse to pay us royalties based off of our contract AND refuse to give us our book rights back and we can do nothing but sit around and bitch or find money from somewhere else to sue them. 
By other publishers who send out emails with absolutes in them and then a few days or weeks or months (or all of the above) later do the opposite and we find ourselves in some kind of land of no answers where we flounder around for a direction that is tenuous at best.
Or by readers who buy our books and then return them. Not just one book because there was some kind of mistake. No I'm talking our FULL catalogs, one book at a time, because they've figured out how to game the system and get all the books they want and then just return it for whatever bullshit reason they've come up with that day.
Then there are the pirates out there. Assholes who steal our hard earned work and then put it out on the internet so everyone can reap the benefits of our hard work for nothing.
Then you have the douche bags who download our books for free with claims they can't afford our work because we don't give it away for free (How dare we!) but they still want to read. Go try that shit at Target or a Michael Kors store or a farmers market down the street or ANYWHERE ELSE. It's called stealing for a reason because it's STEALING!!!

So when authors say "the easy part is writing the book"? It's true. For all the business and professional reasons of editing and marketing and trying to find our audience and keep it and continue to put out better and better work because we're learning and growing. And for all the reasons listed above and so many more it makes me tired just thinking about them.

But do you know what?
We find little things and big things to make all the bullshit worth it.
What kinds of things?? Well let me share some of it!

The other day I was mentioned in a tweet along with JR Ward and Jasmine Haynes which are two authors I adore!! This alone was enough to make my day. But do you know what was even better?? They both liked the tweet! Yes I did take a screen shot so I could remember it! They took a couple seconds out of their day and totally made mine.

A day before that I'd received several fan emails for Her Creed one of my latest books, and one that is VERY special for me. These women took time out of their day when they could have been doing ANYTHING else to tell me how much the book touched them. Touched them in a "heeeyyyyyy" kind of way and in an "OMG I've never thought of things like that" kind of way. And they took the time to tell me. Even thinking it is awesome but they could have closed the book, put it on a shelf and then moved on, but they didn't. I am so incredibly thankful for the amazing fans I have that keep me going.

And today, right before writing this blog post, I created a new FB banner. I added a few new book covers to my colorful banner of awesome. Here it is......

Isn't it rainbowtastic!?!? And I wrote all of them. My words, my characters, my emotions on all of those pages. Along with a few amazeballs other authors on the Elite series! Hundreds of thousands of words make up my rainbow of stories and seeing them all in one place made me incredibly happy.

These things tell me all I need to know. So in the immortal words of Diana Ross....
I WILL SURVIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not because I have to keep doing this but because I want to. I'll wade through the piles of bullshit people keep shoveling in our path because all the disappointment and heartache can't extinguish my passion for writing smutty books with dominant men and delicious females they love and protect.

So to all the readers out there - take that couple minutes and tell an author you love how much their words mean to you. You may not know how much they need to hear it.
And to all the writers out there struggling - you're not alone. We are all struggling sometimes and I'm giving each and everyone of you a HUGE squeezy (((((((HUG)))))))) to get you through the tough times.

Now.....to get back to writing. Hmmm. Kink, Elite, wolves, step brothers or kink? Yes, yes I think I will..................................

Decadently Yours,
Jennifer Kacey

Jennifer Kacey is a writer, mother, and business owner living with her miniman in Texas. She sings in the shower, plays piano in her dreams, and has to have a different color of nail polish every week. The best advice she’s ever been given? Find the real you and never settle for anything less.

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