Quitting the day job

Don't let me start this by whining, but I actually wrote this post (longhand) on Friday and then proceeded to get so sick with some strange stomach bug that I couldn't bring myself to type it until now.

So this is what I had to say on Friday:

I took a major positive step today: I quit the day job. While this move had little directly to do with BMGS, except in that very general way in which everything in our lives is interconnected, it will no doubt be good for BMGS. Here's what I wrote to my copywriting colleagues:

To all,

In late November I began work on a couple of new book projects about the Amazon Kindle, and as I completed chapters that seemed suitable I began making them available for sale as excerpted articles for the Kindle, under my pen name Stephen Windwalker. During the past week or so one of these articles has lodged itself firmly in the top 5 on the Amazon bestseller list for the "Kindle store," and two others are in the top 300 or so out of roughly 100,000 titles available for the Kindle.

All of this has been somewhat shocking, mind-boggling, etc., but none of it in a bad way except that as the overall project has become both lucrative and compelling it has taken me away from other work including what I have been doing with ISM. I am going to have to back away from my role here as a result. I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to work with all the incredibly talented, helpful and very, very nice people here -- especially the amazing Diane! -- and I wish all of you the very best!

Cheers!
Steve
IndieKindle.blogspot.com
WindwalkerBooks@gmail.com

They all say "Cheers" to each other all the time, so I guess I've picked it up. They wrote very nice things back, too.

Congratulations, Steve! We'll miss you!
Sarah

That's wonderful news for you, Steve. Sad new for us, though! You will be missed. Best of luck to you, and congratulations.
Diane

Wow, Steve, that's awesome! Congratulations!
Kate

That is so cool. Dug Stephen King's article about Kindles in the back of EW last week. I bet he plagiarized you! Darn him! I am working on one of your sites now and it rocks. We'll miss you.
Stacy

Congratulations and good luck!
Erica

Congratulations! That is some pretty exciting news. While I'm bummed to be losing you as an ISM writer, I'm thrilled about your success. Best of luck in the future!
Michelle

Super job! Happy to see your success! May it continue to blossom!
Robin

So what if they are all young enough to be my daughters. It's nice to get such sweet feedback. I haven't always left jobs on such nice terms.

This will be good for BMGS, as I said above. I remain committed to BMGS and I want to do a better job of posting, being accountable, and engaging what is important here, including my friends, than I have done so far in January. February will be a better month.

Although I have crowed a bit about my success in publishing material on the Amazon Kindle platform lately, I haven't gone into any real specific about what it means. I guess the main thing worth saying here is that as the number of Kindles in circulation soars, the meaning of being in the top 10 on the Kindle bestseller list has more than quintupled, in daily sales, in the past week. As a result, my Kindle royalties for the last 10 days of January alone are going to be greater than my copywriting income (that was the day job) for the entire month.

So it is really a no-brainer to quit the day job, because it will allow me to write more, market more, etc., etc., and it will also allow me to continue to put a priority on staying healthy -- or getting more healthy -- in all the ways that this blog helps me stay healthy.

That being said, there is still a 60-to-90-day lag in getting paid, but I will eke it out.

Ps … Okay, back to Sunday evening now, and 3 more things to add:

* As I mentioned, I was sick as a dog all weekend and since Friday I have had one meal that was not crackers or a muffin. But I will be back tomorrow with bells on. I am feeling a lot better even now than I was 3-4 hours ago.

* At some point this weekend I passed Stephen King and moved into second place in the Kindle Store top sellers list, behind the New York Times. Probably won't last, but it is nice to be earning an income when one is feeling so poorly otherwise.

* One of the little things I have done to help create some buzz about my titles on Amazon -- here's a shock -- has been to take advantage of the opportunity that "AmazonConnect" provides to authors to create a blog. Here is the link. Don't be jealous. BMGS will always be first in my heart. The Amazon blog is nothing too dazzling, but a friend of mine did take a half-way decent picture of me for it:

A better Wednesday soundtrack

.... Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, & Antoine "Fats" Domino

Well, I'm just sitting here banging away at a chapter/article aimed at helping zinester and newsy folk publish their work for the Kindle crowd, and it's not going badly, and along comes my pal Stewart Acuff and shares some music and video with me. Doesn't get much better than this, does it? I'll keep typing, but now my fingers will move a little faster. Thanks, Brother Acuff.

Wednesday Soundtrack

Have I mentioned that I am still waiting for a flippin' Kindle from Amazon? Think it's easy waiting for the postman? One of my pieces on the Kindle is #5 in the Kindle bookstore, but does that get me a flippin' Kindle? No, the promotional Kindle they promised me 7 weeks ago is still "in production," they say. At this rate I will be able to afford one before the freebie arrives! It isn't easy being me, I'll tell ya.

Monday soundtrack



Tuesday's Soundtrack



I'm not always down with Jimmy and Robert, and I certainly do understand the difference between vocational success and paradise, but I am feeling this song this morning.

Wednesday Soundtrack

TS Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

"Oh do not ask, 'What is it?'
Let us go and make our visit."



He wrote it when he was 21.

Thursday Soundtrack



John Lee Hooker and Van Morrison, "Gloria"

Thanks, Ned. And thanks to all of my amigos for your great emails. I owe some back. But lately I have been spending all my time crawling the web looking for tracks from the an old Milwaukee band, the Lovin Kind.....

Saturday Soundtrack

Low energy - still have been fighting off that bug. Working on another chapter in the Kindle book, and missing my blog and my bloggunity.



A little humor by Mitchell and Webb for me and all my fellow wordsmiths... from beyond the literary-industrial complex.

Sunday Soundtrack



I'm a little rusty on my Cherokee, but my best rough translation of the words here is: "Windwalker's energy is returning, Tom Brady's ankle is healed, and The Circle in the Forest is #1 with an arrowhead among bestsellers in 'Native American Studies' titles for the Amazon Kindle."

Forgive me, Great Spirits. I know that, even on my own blog, it should not be all about me.