Category: About Heather

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On “Going Commercial” – And Loving It.

I’ve just been invited by Amazon Canada to be an Amazon Influencer. This means that I get my own website at Amazon.ca to display all of my books (finally!) and I can recommend products to you there as well. As one reader put it, “You’re going commercial?”

You bet I am, but I’m not doing anything differently with my online presence than I have been for many years. It’s just that a large corporation finally noticed that what I have to say (of my own volition) to my followers may be useful to them. If that’s what some call “going commercial,” I say bring it on, bring it big or go home broke. I’m not doing anything I’m not proud of; in fact, I’m really excited about this, because I’d already been plugging books and products in my Instagram/ on Twitter and YouTube for two years without even realizing it. Now I’ll just be earning a small percentage per purchase when I point readers to books and products that I already use and love.

I’ve always been a writer for the love of writing, and if I can find ways to do what I’m passionate about every day, stick to my morals, and still make a decent living in the 21st century as an author? Then “going commercial” is something I’m darn proud of.

The best part is, this is one more way that I can prove to those of you who aspire to become authors that, yes, Virginia, we CAN be wealthy writers! Very few can make a living that will sustain a whole family simply by writing books (especially if you don’t have over ten published books out yet). We can, however, make a decent salary for ourselves as writers if we think outside the box and do more than just write books. We have to consider selling those books as ebooks, paperbacks, audiobooks; selling the rights to adapt those books into films; speak about our lives as writers and get paid for that, and use social media to gain more interested readers, which gives us leverage in making business deals with corporations and organizations that we respect.

I started out as a poet, first published at age five, and decided to become a writer then and there. At the time, I didn’t realize I was headed into a profession that would pay me very little (even as a trained journalist) for coming up with fresh ideas and stories out of thin air. It didn’t make sense to me: why are writers so undervalued, when people who catch footballs and run with them earn $5-20M a year?

Reality sunk in quite quickly in my twenties when I began sending out story ideas to magazines and learned I’d be paid two to forty cents a word for my work ($1/word for the top magazines) and that the average author in Canada makes $6,000 a year. For some crazy reason, though, I kept on writing. I think the reason is called passion.

I’ve since made it my mission to be transparent with followers who tell me that they want to be authors, too. I try to remind you that it’s going to be challenging, but not impossible, to make a living doing this. I only started making a good profit at writing fiction two years ago. It started out as what I called “skate money” to buy my daughter skates, but soon my earnings became “vacation money,” and I was able to buy a $500 daybed for our backyard, several lovely vacations for our family and I paid many bills (or as my husband Bill likes to joke about it, “Pay Bill.”). While my book income continues to grow, I wouldn’t be able to handle the mortgage payments on my own, plus saving for University for our daughter, plus all of our yearly expenses, without the help of my spouse’s income. I can’t sustain my family in 2018 on my author earnings. Yet.

And that’s why I’m going commercial. Plus, I love online shopping. I love avoiding traffic and crowds and shopping in my luxurious grey robe. Now, when I’m not writing my next novel or working on getting the last one adapted into a movie, I get to buy dresses, purses and shoes and tell you what I think about them? Yes, please!

Check out my new Amazon Influencer Link and please use it whenever you want to buy one of my books or audio books. It will be much appreciated.

Thanks for taking this journey with me,
Heather

Heather Grace Stewart
Shopping online is my second favourite way of doing it. I most love shopping at outdoor markets, buying flowers and hand-crafted decorations for our home.
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No Room for Excuses.

I reached 10,000 words in my WIP today, guys! I’m so excited. It’s going well, and that’s all I can say about that. Since I had a repetitive strain injury from too much typing in July, I am thankful that my wrists and back feel great, and that it’s going so well.
I’m also thankful that both Kindle and paperback sales have been up since early August, and that so many people worldwide are beginning to discover my poetry books, as well as my romance books. Thanks for reading.
We (or should I be honest and say, HE, my fabulous husband, who has been working at this around the clock since late August) are painting the house, and there are plastic drop sheets everywhere and items where they don’t belong, which drives me kinda crazy. This morning, before my coffee, I was looking around and I thought, ‘there’s no way I can write with the state this house is in,” but then I remembered my mantra for the next few months: No excuses regarding getting writing done each day, and no excuses when it comes to exercise. A little bit every day except weekends. That’s the plan, and so far, since Sept. 1, I’ve been good!
I’ve been enjoying many cups of hot tea again while writing (can’t believe it’s already too cool for iced tea), especially my favourite Buddha’s Blend. Tomorrow night is splurge night: Friday nights mean dessert and a glass of wine! I’m looking forward to going out with some girlfriends to celebrate a long-awaited birthday.
I also have news for my friend and reader Susan Bailey: your signed books for your event are on the way! I’m shipping them tomorrow. And for reader Jasmin Lewis in the UK, I’ve made bookplates to sign and ship for the four books you bought. I’ll add in some The Ticket bookmarks and possibly another small surprise. I’m going to use the remaining bookplates for other readers who request signed books.
Don’t forget to join my Readers Club at http://atomic-temporary-2589064.wpcomstaging.com/ (just click on the red Yes! Sign Me Up! button on the front page) so that you can be entered in my monthly $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD DRAW, get my first ebook free, and learn about various ebook bundle giveaways.
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Have a wonderful weekend!
xox Heather
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Celebrating Nine Blogging Years!

This weekend, WordPress informed me that my blog is now nine years old.

I look back over the years, and realize that I owe so much to this blog, this space, this WordPress, and to you readers. I remember the day I decided to start a blog. A friend I’d met on one of the first social media groups, Yuwie, had suddenly died. Yuwie was buzzing with people discussing my friend’s death. It was like my Facebook newsfeed today, when a celebrity dies, only, it mattered more. I’d corresponded with this guy. Spent time laughing about life with him. I went inline skating, trying to shake off my grief.

I’d been posting lots of poems to Yuwie, and had gained a loyal following, but I’d heard about “blogs” and wanted to try one. I wanted to be at the forefront of social media (and now I’m scared to try SnapChat – but that’s another story ;D ) Something kept nagging at me as I skated – my own voice? a ghost? – to this day, I don’t know. The voice said, “Start a blog.”

When I hear voices, and trust me, it’s not a rare occurrence, I listen. I skated home and started a blog. I titled it Where the Butterflies Go, after one of my early poems. I wrote many more poems over many months, and in the spring of 2008, my first poetry collection was born, mostly out of poems first published on this blog.

355 blog posts, four more poetry collections, a children’s book of poems illustrated by our daughter Kayla, then 5, a screenplay written because Aaron Sorkin visited and signed this blog, and I joined his online discussion group with the most remarkable people, who inspired me to write it; a name change to HeatherGraceStewart.com, three romantic comedy novels, and a fifth poetry collection later…that’s nine years enjoying the sheer joy and excitement that is Bloggyland.

But what means more than realizing all of those posts and publications is YOU taking the time to sign in and comment, to let me know that you’re reading and enjoying. YOU encouraging me. YOU telling me you wanted a sequel to my first novel, and asking me to go back to my poetry for at least one more collection. YOU sharing my poetry and telling others about this blog and my books. YOU reminding me what my roots are, why I started writing in the first place, and how grateful I am to still be here, with you.

Thanks for being here.

Love, Heather

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Home Again, Naturally.

I’m happy to be back home with one of my best furry feline friends, Sam, 171/2. This photo was taken late last night after a long day flying home. My arms are sore 😉
Today, I’ve been writing down my main goals for the year, and at this point, I have some (potentially?) bad news. Not one of them is a new book. I always listen to my gut, and I just don’t feel that I have anything important to say in book form right now. I’ve been writing and plotting but nothing feels “just right” to move forward with yet.
I’ve said all that matters to me for now in CAGED, and in my three romantic comedy novels, and earlier, in my four poetry collections.
That said, I think that by now, you know I often surprise myself. I didn’t think I’d be publishing one book in 2016, let alone two!
This year, I want to focus on learning to market the works that I do have out, with the help of an indie publishing guru, Mark Dawson, with whom I’ve been training thanks to his Self Publishing Genius course – I highly recommend this course!
My novels are selling very well, but I wish more people knew about my poetry. I’m going to focus on improving my marketing skills this year, become a yoga practicing intermediate, and above all, spend more time with/writing to the old fashioned way! family and good friends.
Will I write? Of course I will. I just can’t set a timeline for when the sequel to The Ticket will be out – or even if there will be one.
It’s a blessing and a curse that I always write what I want – not what’s in demand 😉 I hope those of you who have been following me for a while will stick around and check in on me every now and then.
I do know something good is just around the corner. I’ll keep you posted.
Have a wonderful start to 2017! Be good to one another.

Love, Heather
xox

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It Never Goes Away.

I’ve been so excited this past week, I can barely eat, sleep, or —now this isn’t normal for me —write!  I know it’s because I’m artistically exhausted. I just completed the long and arduous task of putting together an anthology of poems titled Caged: New and Selected Poems.

Don’t get me wrong – the task was not without joy! It’s a unique arrangement of photographs and new and selected poems published over the last 25 years of my career, and it was created with the help of an amazing team, including editor Jennifer Bogart and book and cover designer Jo Clendening. Writing, taking the photos and even putting this anthology together—that was the fun part. Now comes the challenging part: getting it out there into the hands and hearts of poetry readers around the world.

It never goes away: that nervousness in the pit of your stomach the week before a book release. Will anyone want to read it? What if the reviews are horrible? And this one – this one will be familiar to many aspiring and long-time authors – What if this is the last good thing I ever write?

Experience has taught me that people do indeed want to read my works, and that sometimes some of the reviews are indeed horrible. I’ve learned not to pay much attention to those if they don’t offer me solid advice on becoming a better writer. I won’t let trolls or nastiness stop me from allowing my creative juices to flow. Creativity makes my life more colorful and meaningful. Besides, there have been many great reviews, and even a couple bestselling novels. I try to focus on those positive achievements, while still giving myself room to improve and grow as an artist. Tantrums happen with setbacks and frustrations (come on, I’m an artist!) but I finish those as fast as I can, and move along. Wayne Dyer once wrote “no one is going to ruin this Christmas, especially not me,” and I try to live my writing career like that. It’s a privilege to get to do what I do. I try to remember that every day.

I’ve also learned that as soon as I launch one book, if I take some time to chill and relax into all that’s creative within and around me, something new and beautiful always starts brewing. So far, each new project has been quite different. I like to think I’ll still be writing and taking photos at 88, but we’ll have to wait and see. The official count stays at 12 books and a digital screenplay —for now!

You can check out CAGED: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS on Kindle and on Amazon worldwide and Bn.com It’s available in three different formats, and ready to pre-order at a reduced price on Kindle until Nov. 10!  You can also pre-order the color hardback copy (it has already charted as the #3 Most Gifted Canadian Poetry Book on Amazon.ca! Wow! Thanks, lovely readers!)

The official launch date for the book is November 10, and that evening, you’ll find me on my Facebook Author page, doing a live video to say hello, raise a glass, and thank you for reading. Let’s say 830 EST. I may do an earlier one for my overseas pals if time permits that afternoon.

Copies of the color hardback edition of Caged arrived at our home this afternoon. And guess what? The goosebumps and elation you feel when you hold one of your publications in your hands for the first time? That never goes away, either.

Maybe, now, I can finally sleep.

love,

Heather