The Book Biz is in Fact a Business #authorlife

Please note: The following post is both my personal opinions and feelings.

My relationship is falling apart.

I’m considering a formal separation for the first time…in ever.

The Indie Book World and myself have been in a committed, loving relationship since 2014. Now, my affections are wavering.

There’s so much strife, talking behind EVERYONE’S back, and conflict, you would never believe we are all readers and writers involved in the pursuit of the HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER.

A field of predominantly women, we were/are/continue to be pioneers of new territory, yet we can’t get along or support one another to save our last breath.

Of course, there are pockets of authors who support one another, but mention one to the other, and you will get a whiff of how divided the industry is.

Bottom line: Authors pen stories. They’re the byproduct of hours, days, months and sometimes years behind a laptop. Countless eyeballs help with beta reading, proofreading, and editing. Investments—both financial and time—are made toward covers, swag, promotion, marketing, etc.

Readers/bloggers/reviewers either love or hate them. They don’t want the book to end or they feel they could have written it better. We hang on to the top of the cliff by one hand while waiting for the reviews.

They trickle in or come in a windfall. We read them even though we say we don’t or can’t or won’t. They make us feel good or horrible. It doesn’t really matter—this is our business, our livelihood, and we must go on.

We send early copies to fellow authors and big-name bloggers in a hope someone, anyone, or just one damn fucking person will read our book. We vaguebook when they don’t. We shout from the rooftops when they do. We gush, and oooh-and-aaah, and make everyone else feel bad (not intentionally – it’s just happens). *If you deny ever feeling upset over this sort of thing, you’re lying. I’ve felt it. It’s a deep sadness like none other.

Fifteen years ago, I lost a baby half-way through a pregnancy and no matter where I turned a pregnant woman turned up. It was a constant reminder of what I couldn’t have. During the time, my husband and I were shopping for bicycle carriers for our toddler. They only sold the trailer with two seats—the possibility of being able to carry a second child to term was extinct in my mind. I cried, raged, and stomped out of the bicycle store in a hormonal fit, demanding a seat for one child or no seat at all.

Point being, each and every week, books on top of books are released. EVERYONE is literally releasing books. Our colleagues are almost always releasing alongside us—sometimes you’re the one to hit it big, other times, you’re not. This has happened to me more times than I can count on one hand. I eat a cookie or five, put on my smile and thinking cap, and try to understand what I can do differently on the business end.

I say I’m not going to read reviews, but I do and eat more cookies.

It’s fine. I wake up, run a few miles, and begin brainstorming. There is the creative side and the business side. My story needs to come to me, simmer and fester in my brain. The business stuff is less complicated.

At least it should be.

So why is everyone fighting?

AND you know they are. Marketing budgets, are they in KU?, Such-and-such blurbed them, or they must know the algorithm become major points of discussion (to name a few).

AND why? Reality is: Authors have different marketing budgets. Take your local bakery and Dunkin Donuts—do they have the same advertising budget? No. They can’t possibly. But maybe the local yokels think strategically, place ads smartly and involve influencers, so they can expand to two stores or three——> grow their business IN BABY STEPS.

I firmly believe at the base of all this fighting is this: Somewhere along the line we forgot this wasn’t just for fun but it’s business.

Take for example this email I received the other day.

(Editor’s Note: In my other life, I freelance write and blog for various media outlets and companies).

A particular company wanted me to cover something. It was a product/services in return for coverage, something I don’t often do but this one I’m considering.

They asked me this:

YouTube Link:

YouTube Subscribers:

Monthly Unique Visitors:

Average # Comments:

How long you've had the blog:

Purpose/main topic of your blog:

Instagram Username:

# Instagram Followers?   Send Link:

Instagram Username:

# Twitter Followers?   Send Link:

Twitter Handle: Send Link:

# of Facebook Fans/Likes?   Send Link:

Any other Social Media stats you would like to share:

Chew on the above for a minute and what it means.

Yes, I know for a while, there was some discrimination in handing out Advanced Copies to bloggers, which of course led to arguing. Smaller bloggers were being ignored (***wrongly, because it’s an engagement issue – number of unique visitors/comments/likes combined type stuff).

What it means is much larger. This is business people. BUSINESS. And if done right, feelings are left out of it. Even the ones we feel when we read bad reviews!

Business based on a creative product isn’t easy.

BUT the business side is not founded in creative blah-blah. IT’s founded in numbers, stats, budgets, reach, frequency, click thru ratio, etc. IT’s based in reality.

So, when we fight, we make ourselves look like we don’t take publishing seriously. When we bash, vaguebook over stupid shit, and go after one another, we take away from the hard work our industry demands.

Being an indie author is like leading a double life. We have a creative side to us, but in order for anyone to actually read our creative stuff, we need to put on our business hat.

Donut Making Time: #authorlife commentary part ONE

This is the first installment in a new series, I've affectionately titled, "Donut Making Time."

YES, I know Donut is really spelled Doughnut.

What's more important is this will be a series of posts dedicated to the craft of writing. The business side along with the creative side. It will feature my opinions and experience with a decent helping of positivity and sarcasm, so take it or leave it. 

Don’t turn a hobby into a jobby.

It’s one of my favorite quotes/sayings, and I have to be one hundred percent transparent: I forget where I heard it. If this saying belongs to you, raise your hand high so I can give credit where credit is due!

Over the last decade, I’ve built a number of entrepreneurial ventures from a self-sufficient, reputable, moneymaking blog to licensing a product and being awarded a U.S. Patent to publishing seven independent titles.

“You’re a creative,” I hear often. I don’t consider myself to be one, but I guess I am. That being said, I consider myself a businesswoman.

Business strategy is the common thread with everything I’ve done.

Yes, I love to write. Lifestyle columns, fiction, and opinionated prose: I love it all.

I spent years prototyping and “crafting” as I liked to call it when creating my product.

And blogging is an art in and of itself. It’s crafting a message in a way that’s authentic, personal, and PROFESSIONAL.

Except, none of the above would have happened without strategy and forethought.

Maybe I make it look easy (I don’t know, people say that, but to me…it’s all hard work). This is not a new thing, but lots and lots of people want to be bloggers and writers and both. They want free items (doesn’t happen so easily) and they want to top the chart over at the BIG ‘Zon (even less likely).

BUT here’s the thing…it’s very rare when this happens without deep marketing (elbow grease + budget) and exceptional planning.

Who is going to find your blog? How will they find it? Why should they read it?

The same can be said of your book. Not to mention, is your blurb intriguing? How do you plan to reach new readers? How about your cover? Is it inviting? Appealing?

You want free stuff? What are your blog’s numbers? Unique Visitors? Commenters? Engaged readers? Do you know?

Oh, you want a publishing deal? ^^ See above. Same stuff.

Point being, there is a lot of hard work behind the scenes to turn a passion into a bona-fide business. I strongly feel you should love what you’re doing. But in order to do what you love, you may have to do a lot of shit you don’t love.

This post brought to you by being called “inspirational” on Twitter this morning. HA!

Well, I would say painfully truthful, yet inspirational (and sarcastic).

Small Accolades Mean More Hard Work...

This morning, I woke up, checked my email and opened the Post Gazette online to find my book was reviewed in the Arts & Entertainment section. It was a glowing review—one that spoke to my willingness in taking chances with my characters and tropes. For an author, this is golden. We all receive our fair share of negative reviews, so when someone “gets” my story, it’s better than winning the lottery.

HERE’s the thing though.

It may look like getting a write-up in the PG or any other small achievements I’ve made are EASY.

Listen to me: they’re not.

Most days, I still hear no or that idea won't work or do it again.

In this day and age of everyone wanting to be an Internet celebrity, we are beginning (have begun?) to see a rash of craziness. The need to be a celeb is rampant. To want it quickly is even more rampant. Hideous shootings, people scaling buildings, and sex tapes to name a few.

Then, there is a monsoon of people wanting to be bloggers, influencers, writers or what have you…

So everyone is setting up shop in some way, seeking their five minutes of fame and somewhere in all this shtick, the amount of work needed to do anything is lost.

My grandmother would call it elbow grease. She worked for several decades as a secretary and office manager. My “bubbie,” as I called her, worked hard, and I will never forget the retirement party her staff held for at the end of her term. As a young girl, my bubbie’s work ethic made an indelible impression. As a secretary (which is what it was coined back then), she was an intrapreneur. She tried to be the best she could be, moving her agency and department forward, inserting her best effort and hard work into every action.

I’ve been at this writing thing since 2010. For close to seven years, I’ve been typing and trolling the ‘nets, attempting to carve out my own corner. There have always been and always will be, better, bigger and badder fish than me. BUT, I like my space and I’m proud of it. Back when I first penned my first blog, my mom was my only reader. Gradually, I reached a broader audience, but not without lots and lots of work.

AND education. Conferences, online courses, workshops, and research.

What makes it all more complicated is the ever-changing landscape of the Internet. Several hours per week, sometimes per day, are often focused on best practice in self-publishing, self-promotion, marketing, and social media verticals.

Back in 2012, I spoke at Spark and Hustle with @ToryJohnson, and I was asked, “How do you get close to someone like Tory?”

I mean the golden egg is to “know” a celebrity, Right? Have a celeb endorse you on your path to fame ---

I forget my exact words, but they were something to the effect of networking on the web is like in real life. IT can’t be ME, ME, ME. In other words, don’t ask too much but give more than you take.

In any given week, I hear from a lot of people. They want to be bloggers or authors. They want something instantaneous and fast.

It happens for a small percentage of people, and when it does...it takes a lot of hard work to HOLD ONTO IT!

So even when you have a day like today where something so amazing happens, one would believe, I put my feet up and made myself a mimosa.

Actually, I hit my desk (on a Sunday) and put in a little work.