Doing Better Than I Thought--Walking in Tall Cotton

This is from an article in Publisher's Weekly. Granted, I'm sure they want Indie Publishing to die.

A survey by Digital Book World found that hybrid authors earn the most money, with a median income between $7,500 and $9,999 a year, followed by traditionally published authors ($3,000–$4,999), and indie authors ($500–$999). The assumption that authors only use self-publishing until they can secure a traditional deal bears out less and less."

My problem is undoubtedly my own perception. The truth is many of my friends and acquaintances are making very good money with their writing--making me feel not so great about my 18 books making not so much. Still, if I remind myself that this never was, or will be, about the money, and that it's actually really cool that last month I sold hundreds of books in INDIA! And that my books sell in countries all over the world. And sometimes I get really cool letters like this one:

Kristy,

Thank you. I have copies of all of your books listed on Amazon.  I will await your next one.

It's more than okay if my friends and acquaintances are making more than me. In fact, it's probably a good thing. Walking in tall cotton shows you just how a cotton seed can grow.

I've had more than one dream (the sort that comes in the night, not the sort that can be called fantasies. One was I floating mid-air above the parkway, wondering why I was going so slow. Some girls I knew came running by, passing me. I turned to a man in a car idly at a streetlight beside me. "Why are runners passing me when I'm driving this fast car?" I asked him. He pointed out that I didn't have a car. I was just floating, and the fact that I was floating was actually pretty remarkable. I realized I needed to actually do some work if I wanted to move very far or fast. 

Another was of me and two other women from my writing group. We were seated at a white table and throwing colorful glass balls into the air. The goal was to make the balls stay afloat. My two friends' balls both took flight before mine, but eventually, mine took flight. In the next scene, I'm riding a bike through a forest of spun glass balls that tower around me like sky-scrapers. 

Maybe the glass ball I'm tossing in the air will never take flight. Or maybe it already has. I guess what's really important is whether or not I enjoy making glass balls.