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Since September’s theme is stretching out of our comfort zones, today’s episode is about the advice you’d give to another writer that you aren’t doing yourself.
Think about it for a bit. I bet there’s something. It’s probably something you know would help you but looks like a bit of work. Something you’ve meant to do, but you’ve been putting it off.
In my case, it’s library and bookstore distribution.
I know, I know. I used to be a library employee. Not a good look.
But there’s a number of ways that library and bookstore distribution pulls me out of my comfort zone. Not only do I have to make room for admin tasks I just haven’t penciled in, like getting some of my books up in Ingram Spark when they’ve up to now been Amazon only, but also making decisions I don’t’ like to make–those KU pages read, it stinks to lose that income, but I have to go wide with a book in order to get the ebook into libraries.
Finally, it pushes me to ask for my books to be in bookstores and libraries and to ask my readers to request them at their local stores and libraries. And I know that no matter how professionally and carefully I go about the asking process, no matter how much time I put into it, sometimes the answer will be no. Sometimes it might be a form letter type no. Sometimes it might be a rather rude no.
And, even though I’ve been at this for a while, that rejection coming from a bookstore or a library, places very close to my heart. That is going to hurt.
But I know it needs to be done. It’s not the right choice for every book or every author. Many authors make a wonderful income with no bookstore or library placement at all, and there’s no guarantee this amount of effort is going to pay off monetarily—at least directly.
For me it has the benefit of looking very professional. I’ll be able to list physical places that carry one or more of my books. But it has an emotional component as well, and, frankly, one of my series is about a library bookmobile driver. It feels right that those books make it onto library shelves someday.
It’s also extra important to me because I’m currently working on publishing a picture book with my sister. Placement in physical stores, in libraries, in schools, is much more effective and important for children’s books.
And for the first time, it’s not just about me. It’s someone else’s book too.
That’s the crucial factor in stretching myself to take my own advice, to do that thing I’ve been putting off even though it is important to me.
And that’s the first thing I’d tell any other writer with that kind of put-off task, the thing they know they should do, but it scares them. If you can’t actually do it for someone else, pretend like you are doing it for someone else. We authors who are authoring onward, we often want to reach back and help others…and we tend to take more care of them than we do of ourselves.
The next step: set a date to begin. It’s easy to put these things off until someday. And then someday never happens. It’s what we’ve been doing thus far. I’m setting my date to start the process on Monday October 4th. That gives me enough time to do the next step…
Research. Learn about the process of doing whatever the scary thing is for you. For me, knowledge makes me far less scared. If I’m worried about something, my first instinct is to read and listen to and watch everything I can about it. It’s been a while since I interviewed Darcy Pattison about how she set up her children’s self publishing business for success in reaching the school and library market specifically, and I know she shared a lot of great information that will help me in setting up my children’s publishing imprint. Time for a relisten.
And then more research after that, but not too much. It’s easy to get stuck in this stage. That’s why I have a start date.
Finally, do the steps in a manageable way. The way I’m making this manageable is by focusing first on the picture book. I have nine books out. The picture book will be #10. In fact, if you count the dated and undated versions of the planner separately, it’ll make eleven. That’s a lot of books to put through the process at once. Best to start with one and then make decisions and take steps from there.
So what have you been putting off on either the writing or the business side of things? What advice would you give to another writer that you’ve not taken yourself? I’d love to know.
And, if you need editing or coaching, get in touch by Sept 17 to take advantage of my sale prices.
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