Career uncertainty happens even with the old guard

I recently had a contemporary novella published with Dreamspinner. Drive Your Truck, if anyone is interested. I was so proud. I thought it was realistic instead of schmoopy, maybe a little gritty, but it really hearkened back to my early days in M/M before the paranormals, but with modern themes, and with all the attendant shit that happens in a modern gay relationship. I pulled back from erotic romance with it, too, as all of my DSP author friends said DSP was less about the sex. Now, I have no idea what the sales look like, but it was a bestseller on DSP for a few weeks. It was my first title on ARE not to hit the top 40 in maybe three years. The Goodreads folks HATED it. Grins.

I am not looking for sympathy. This is where I launch into career doubt and how it affects the writer.

Me to my wife BA: OMG do you think I made a huge mistake? I'm writing another contemporary, I have 18K already. What if they don't take it?

BA: Shut up. It did fine.

Me: But they hate it! What if it kills my sales on the next book and and and

BA: You have to write what you like. I wrote a YA lesbian softball story that no one but the publisher read

Me: But I wrote a historical menage femmedom as my next book. What's the market for that? Ahhhhh (much hair tearing and blinking commences)

BA: Shut up and write

Me: Gotcha

Now, I could go into branding, and how for the last few years I've been doing mostly paranormal and mostly 20K and under and how expectation for a known author like my 4 star reviewed Elemental Ops stuff versus a new audience like I have with DSP does impact sales and reviews, but I thought y'all might like to see what the thought process really looks like O.O

Even those of us who have been around since the time of the dinos wonder if we've totally lost our minds sometimes.

But we still have to keep on swimming

XXOO

Julia