Every time I start writing a new book, I forget about all the other things I need to be doing for my publishing business. Like marketing a new release, doing final proofreads, blogging here, and a bunch of other little things. I just get so engrossed in the world I’m writing that everything else seems to take a back seat.

I’m not sure that this is a good thing, as I really need to be doing those little things to keep my business running day-to-day. Every author will tell you that not marketing you and your books is a little bit like death to the business.

That’s probably true, and it’s probably where I fail the most. I like to do the fun things, like writing and making covers, and doing the artwork for a book. Submitting books for ads, or setting up Facebook ads… I don’t like those tasks. But they’re hailed as necessary evils.

But are they? I know the market is so saturated by authors these days. Making a living writing stories alone is next to impossible. And I’ve learned from my previous runs that I’m not willing to sacrifice my quality of life or my quality of my work to release a book every month. It’s just not feasible and I think it’s a majorly short-sighted tactic to a growing problem. There’s just so many books out there. Why would I want to add just another book to the ocean?

So I decided when I started trying to publish again, that I would be me. I wouldn’t compare myself to other authors. I wouldn’t try to compete with them. I would write at my own pace. Release at my own pace. And while I’m not making six figures on writing, I’m actually happier and doing better than I thought I would.

The thing is, I tend to hermitize when I write. I forget about posting to social media, I forget about sending out newsletters, and while I could probably hire someone to do that for me, I like doing those things myself. Makes me feel more… authentic.

One of my author friends told me about China Lit, where they take published works from a couple of decades ago, change the names, the genders of the characters, ect… and pay a native English speaking author to go over those books, changing at least one word per sentence so that it doesn’t trip the plagiarism filters.

Seeing that happening made me glad that I am who I am. That I don’t pay anyone to post to social media as me. That even if I suck at the “social media game” and that’s why my accounts don’t grow like others… I’m still authentically me.

But I’m veering off from where I started this post. I’m writing a fantasy right now, which has been kind of a fun, get back to my roots sort of project. I love romantic suspense and military romance, and there’s no way I’m going to stop writing those. But I’m really enjoying being true to myself and allowing myself to play in a genre I forgot I loved before I discovered romance.

I’m thinking about sharing the entire process on my Patreon page every week, so the folks there can watch it happen and get to see things no one else gets to see. I don’t know if there are enough people who are interested in such things, but I’ve always loved diving into processes of my favorite authors and artists. So…. hopefully, it’ll be something fun to do and it’ll be a nice way to keep me accountable and keep me motivated. If that’s something you might be interested in seeing, let me know. I’ll see if I can figure out how to share it in some discernible form.

For now though, I’m going to go sit down and work on this fantasy for a bit and see how things go.