Not long ago, I had a three book deal with a traditional publisher. Even though sales for the first book were great, they didn’t do anything to promote my second book and I decided to get out of my contract with them.

In the months since I launched A Long Thaw on my own, I’ve wondered whether that was the smartest way to go. Some writers I knew told me I was crazy to walk away and I wasn’t sure if they weren’t right. Other people encouraged me to “go with my gut” or “follow my heart”. I might have rolled my eyes at the platitude but ultimately, that’s what I did and I’ve been second guessing myself ever since. I wanted control over how my work was marketed but I didn’t really know if I could do it by myself. Back in March, I proclaimed to my blog audience that I was going to: “rerelease the book my publisher didn’t promote and see if I can do a better job.”

I’ve spent these months working. I got book reviews and beefed up my Amazon page and did guest blogs and ran twitter contests and facebook promotions and deals on kindle. I was never sure if any of it was working. But I just counted up my sales and the reports are in: I’ve already sold more books in the past four months than the publisher managed to sell in an entire year. I guess I’m done wondering if I made the right decision. This is turning me into someone who gives the annoying “follow your heart” advice. It can be hard, but sometimes it’s all you have to go by.

If you’d like to take a look at my debut, Monsoon Season, it’s being sold by Hachette. My next book, Finding Charlie, will be out in the coming months.