
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Copyright Cindy Carroll
Change isn’t easy for most people. If I surveyed my family and friends I’m sure 99% of them would say they dislike change. I would be one of those people who like things to stay the same, provided things are ticking along okay. No ripples. When things are bad I can’t wait for change. Almost every month last year I hoped for something to change. There are reasons people stay in jobs they hate. Neighbourhoods they’re tired of. Relationships that are dead. Change is hard. There’s comfort in the familiar eve if it drives you nuts. But change is a part of life. Why not embrace it?
There are different kinds of change. Good. Bad. Natural and unstoppable. Anything that makes my routine, my day to day life as I know it, different is welcome if it’s good. Winning money, a raise, unexpected praise from someone I admire. If the change is bad the universe can take it back. The hard times last year were decidedly unwelcome. But is there ever a silver lining when things are bad? I’ve looked into ways to deal better with change and part of that is saying yes when you really want to say no.
Can Bad Things Turn Good?
A cancer diagnosis in the family last year was bad. More bad news came on job fronts. Health issues came on pet fronts. None of that change was good. The only good that came out of it was me discovering my employer is hugely understanding. They let me work form home for three months while I attempted to not fall apart. The good part about working form home was at the end of my work day I was already home. I could start writing right away. No one hour commute.
If it weren’t for the sucktastic year that was 2015 I wouldn’t have started ghostwriting. I’m glad that I did but now I’ll have to deal with a whole can of tax worms I wouldn’t have had to deal with otherwise. On the other hand it has broadened my writing horizons and that will serve me well in the future.
I’d still prefer for those changes not to have happened.
Change For the Sake of Change
I hate this kind of change too. Businesses do this a lot. I know a company that changes its tagline and focus just about every year. They changed their cubicle structure to an open office set up because some of the big companies use that set up. Gotta jump on the trends!
One of the banks I deal with changed its online banking layout to make it easier for customers to find things. The layout is horrible. Everything is huge, forcing me to scroll to find things I could see right away before. They moved things that fell mid screen to the top of the page. To me it looks like a change for the sake of change. It’s a New Year we need to do an update!
Change for the Good
As much as I like routine, for things to stay the same, sometimes the same doesn’t work anymore. Sometimes change is needed for things to improve. I am so happy the publishing industry changed and that self publishing isn’t just feasible but authors can actually make a living publishing on their won. To embrace that though I had to think differently. Gradually, after hearing all the success stories, I decided I would change my publishing strategy.
When I first jumped in short erotica was selling like crazy. Readers would pay $2.99 for a short erotica story, leaving those authors pretty flush with cash. Then Amazon made changes (there’s that word again) and they were offering a borrowing experience. Authors still did well in Kindle Unlimited 1.0 because they were still getting an amount comparable to a royalty. But when Amazon changed the pay structure of KU to be less than a penny per page read a lot of erotica authors had to reevaluate.
This year I’ve decided to leave the secret erotica pen names behind (not for good, just for now) and focus on my books. I have New Adult dystopian stories to tell, urban fantasies to explore, serial killers that need to be caught. So other than the ghostwriting most writing this year will be to bring those stories to life. Novels sell better than short stories so it’s time I worked on full length books.
Of course since nothing in life stays the same I could be singing a different tune a few months from now.
How about you? Do you resist change or embrace it?
Until next time…
Cindy