I love writing books. I hate the business of selling books.
Yeah, I know. Sounds like I'm whining, but it's true. I love story telling, and creating characters and worlds and life and death situations and romance and everything involved in this art. I even like editing! Truly! Few things are as satisfying as deleting whole paragraphs and pages only to rewrite better ones.
Even after several years, the business side has always been grunt work for me. But, selling books is part of the independent author life I chose, so I must do what I must. So right now I am making changes to email marketing, my website, social media, promos, X, Y ...
You get the picture.
With family vacations and summertime, I haven't written a real genuinely NEW piece since... I can't even remember. Not writing these past few months has me pacing and losing sleep.
So last month I decided to force myself into writing a short. I wrote a piece for WEP October 2022 challenge and I am sooooo out of sorts that when I finished it and went searching for the post to link it on the WEP, I had not realized I was a whole month early. When I didn't find the post, I wondered if something happened to my browser updates (again), or was I not looking at the right site/post, or maybe I missed the cutoff date, or maybe something changed on the WEP site since I last checked a few months ago...
A whole month early!! That is how out-of-whack I am!
Hopefully, I will be lightening the "business" side of things in the next week or so to be able to handle a sprint for November and work in my new standalone novel. That is, if my sanity hasn't completely taken a hike.
~ ~ ~
The selling end is a pain and throws off my writer's groove, too. I still haven't figured out how writers are supposed to be marketers and business gurus...seems ridiculous. But here's to finding your writing flow soon!
ReplyDeleteIt totally throws me off my grove. And, for me, it's still a big learning curve.
DeleteMay the Force be with you as you pick up the pen again -
ReplyDeleteThanks PJ! :-D
DeleteI relate to being out-of-sorts when not writing! Best of luck getting back to it soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Yvonne! I hope to get back to it soon.
DeleteI don’t like the bits about writing which are not actually writing either. My book has just been accepted by a hybrid publisher so I know I’m going to have to work hard on publicity from now on.
ReplyDeleteIt is a part of the indie life. Thanks for commenting Rosemary!
DeleteI feel you! The business side sucks all the life out of me. I'm afraid I'll never be good at it because I tend to avoid it when I need to write. And I always need to write. :D Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAlas, I am "the business side". There is no avoiding it. Or as Yoda would say, "Avoid it you must not."
DeleteOn the plus side, you have a whole month to polish it!
ReplyDeleteThe business side is rough.
It might take more than just 1 month, but the month will be a kick in the butt to get me going.
DeleteMy life has been packed the last month, too, and finding time (let alone brain power) to write has been nigh impossible. I hope you find the time and energy to create soon!
ReplyDeleteBrain power is vital. We all need to feed that writing muscle.
DeleteI agree. The marketing side is just energy sucking. Hope you find your writing groove soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks AJ. Writing short stories are gonna have to kickstart this groove, hopefully in time for November's sprint.
DeleteHang in there. It least you wrote something. hehehe
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
I read the following lines "I love writing books. I hate the business of selling books." and sighed, thinking to myself, "Same sister, same!" XD
ReplyDeleteYou're not alone!
DeleteCongrats on completing a new story! I also struggle with the business end. It requires a whole different set of skills that take time to develop and nurture--time away from, you know, actually writing.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I akin it to doing pushups to stay fit and strong. The goal is to stay fit and strong to do other things easily and without effort. No one actually LIKES doing pushups.
DeleteHi Tanya - I can understand the 'chore' of the admin after writing a book and when it's published. I'm not sure if you published your WEP story this month - but I couldn't find it - cheers Hilary
ReplyDelete