The Name is Reinvention

I am obsessed with female pop artists. The ones who have been through tremendous changes. I’m talking Madonna, Cher, and Britney Spears. These female icons inspire my little gay heart to stay strong when I feel my worst.

Speaking of gay men honouring iconic women, season 10 of RuPaul’s Drag Race produced ‘Cher: The Unauthorised Rusical’, and during the episode, Miz Cracker said the line “I invented reinvention.” The line struck a chord with me. It reminded me it’s ok to change course.

I am a freelance ESL (English as a second language) teacher, and I write fiction on Amazon Kindle. I have done since August 2012. I’ve written in all different genres. I’m no stranger to reinventing myself, but I’ve not found the right opportunity to grow as a writer—until now.

My 2020

Let’s keep this brief. My 2020 was a series of unfortunate events.

• Moved back to England in the last week of 2019.

• Last stages of moving to China to teach English.

• Second lockdown made my mental health dive.

• Felt lost and depressed.

• I started writing again.

• Won my first Vocal challenge in October.

• Found my voice. Found hope.

The year started off with hope. That dipped with each lockdown, including the current one. The year ended with a spike of hope. A spike I’m clinging to.

My clean slate

In October, something happened that changed everything. I started submitting to Vocal+ challenges. I wrote under a partial pseudonym, but it was the outlet I needed. Then I won $1,000. I screamed. It sparked a fire beneath me.

That was my clean slate. My opportunity to grow. In the infamous words of Moira Rose, "a new day has dawned."

I took the name and ran with it. I’ve always wanted to write gay romance; I knew some of my family would feel uncomfortable around the genre. That’s why I gave myself a clean slate, a new social media.

A fresh start can happen at any time. You don’t need to wait for a new month or new year. I didn’t. It happened organically for me.

My 2021 resolutions

My main resolution for 2021 is to make more money doing what I love. All roads lead to Rome, or in this case, all resolutions lead me to my career goal.

Resolution 1: publish more books

As Joe Satoria, I write contemporary gay romance. It started with two novellas in December. This is when I found my voice and received an uptick in hope. I released two 50k-word novels in January. And that’s when my plan came together.

The aim of this resolution is to open more revenue streams. I do this through having more books available for purchase or read on Kindle Unlimited. I publish exclusively with Amazon Kindle; this gives me access to their Kindle Unlimited readers.

Without being too technical, the more I home in on my genre niche, the easier it is for Amazon’s algorithm to point my books to readers who might also enjoy them. Amazon is a selling machine. They have all this user information on what you buy, so it makes sense to work in favour of their algorithm.

Resolution 2: commit to change

As mentioned, I got my fresh start in December when I created all new social media accounts. We’re in the social media age, and currently, with lockdown, there’s no better way to connect with people than through social media.

I needed the change. I’ve been publishing for a long time. I couldn’t continue to use accounts I’ve had since 2008. I was 15, I’m now 27. My life has changed completely.

I’m into numerology; looking into the occult significance of numbers. And I love the concept of the seven-year cycle. That’s the idea our bodies and minds change every seven years—it’s not seven years on the dot, but a gradual change and shift from who you were.

I will be 28 this year, I’m reaching the start of a new seven-year cycle. That idea alone has filled my 2021 with hope for my personal and professional growth. Expressed perfectly by Kelli from Insecure.

When people say, ‘New Year, new me’, I took it literally. Starting fresh on social media has allowed me to create a network of authors and readers who support my first resolution and my main goal.

Resolution 3: physically leave

I hate being stuck. I’m a Gemini; an air sign. I like to be on the move.

Under current lockdown conditions, I cannot travel further than my city. And if you know anything about the haunted city I’m in, it’s the cold spot on the map of Britain.

The plan is simple, and here’s how I’ll do it.

Once lockdown is lifted, I’ll board a flight back to Madrid. The end.

That's a simple view of the third resolution, but there's more. I split the income from book sales and teaching between reinvesting, savings, and living expenses.

Currently, the UK is talking about allowing travel from April. Spain is talking about keeping tourists out of the country until after summer. Technically, I wouldn’t be a tourist as I have some Spanish papers, and I’m going there to live.

My current relocation costs are looking to be around $1,500/£1,100. Working from the assumption I’ll be travelling in April, this figure is going to be easy to hit, and I’ll even be able to save a little extra for any unexpected costs.

I am fortunate for the position I'm in, and I'm overwhelmed with positivity for my resolutions in the current year.

Conclusion

My resolutions allow me to grow, develop, and move forward organically. There's no trick to success, but knowing what you want and making a plan of attack; that's half the battle.

The first step for me is to keep writing. The more I write, the more hope I have of hitting my main goal and becoming a full-time author. There's always an ounce of luck to these things too.

The world needs more luck right now. And I heard, if you don't give up, good luck will find you.