Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
I’ve had a great July. I focused on writing the first draft of the next novel in my Dancing through Life Series. The only problem is that in order to do that, I had to neglect other aspects of writing and life. You might say, I’ve been robbing Peter to pay Paul. Now I’m playing catch-up, while trying to revise what I wrote in July.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
I haven’t been good about blogging or marketing my books. No updates to my website. No ebook promotions, no guest blogging. My husband has not been kept stocked in his favorite home-made cookies and the house has remained a cluttered disaster area with stacks of books and papers everywhere. And as for all my plans to work on setting up a studio to record audiobooks . . . not happening.
I robbed time from marketing my books in order to focus on writing. So now I have to pay back Peter by borrowing from Paul.
Writing as a Business
One of the realities of making it as an author in this market is you have to look at your writing as a business requiring all of the time and effort necessary to start and maintain a business. It isn’t enough to write good content and publish it. You also have to be marketing this content, constantly, lest you be lost amidst the millions of books published each day. I’d much rather do the writing and publishing than the marketing. But all are required unless you are content to remain in relative obscurity, hoping your writing will be discovered by future generations after your death, like Emily Dickinson. I’m no Emily Dickinson and I would like to reap some fruit from all of my efforts in my lifetime. Therefore I have to deal with marketing.
So now it’s time for me to look at expanding my reach by publishing more of my ebooks on Smashwords and look at Ingram Sparks for wider distribution of my print copies. It’s time for me to get busy setting up the first book of my Dancing through Life Series as a free ebook for people who sign up for my newsletter, researching the best way to do this and then doing it. And maybe I can look at cleaning out that closet and spare room and experiment with audiobooks. And just maybe I will get some of this done over the next month or two . . . or not.
Is It Worth It?
Was it worth it, neglecting all of the above in order to focus on writing? You bet! I will do it again. Maybe someday I will be able to hire someone to take care of all of the stuff I dislike doing. Until then, I continue robbing Peter to pay Paul.
How do you balance time spent in writing with time spent on marketing and other business aspects of making it as a writer? I would love to hear your suggestions!
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