Harvest Year (Inside the Cover)
As we welcome the last quarter of the year, I paused to reflect on the wild ride 2018 has been so far.
Many years of hard work has manifested into wonderful opportunities for both my husband and me this year.We've been featured in articles, joined new organizations and committees, we've done video promo work, been invited to speak at different engagements, book tour, and several other wonderful happenings.While we've been good about sharing the exciting announcements, we haven't necessarily shared the struggle. This article is about the sacrifice inside the cover (see what I did there ?) of my author life and how it has impacted the dynamic in our home.
I've been very honest in answering that it took me 7 years to publish my book. I admit that over the 7 year time frame, there were months that I didn't open up my word document to write. I did other things in between my writing sessions.
I read, researched, outlined, brainstormed, dreamed, thought of new ideas and character development. I processed what it would be like to publish, came up with a plan, wrote, re-wrote, processed. I rode the waves of emotional rides that my writing took me through, proofread, queried, queried some more.It took me 7 years from the moment I hit “Save as” for the very first time until I had a book in hand with the cover I loved. While it used to be a little embarrassing to admit the length of this project, I no longer feel that way at all. My book cost me money, sleep, time away from my husband, time away from my family and my friends. It has cost me personal grief. I wear the 7 years with pride for sticking with it through it all.
Since publishing, it's been a different kind of labor. It’s ongoing marketing, research, begging people for reviews, promoting, and not necessarily all work that generates into more book sales.
It’s calling, emailing, or driving to book stores in new areas to convince them to host you and telling them that you can get a group of people to show up for your event while crossing your fingers that you actually can.It’s a lot of lonely work. It’s emailing people you may never hear back from. It’s researching promo. It’s following up with people who owe you money. It’s tax prep work, spreadsheets, dry erase board planning, and wearing a lot of hats as one person who only started doing it for the art of writing.It’s learning how to build a website and learning about widgets, plug- ins and random website functions. It’s watching Youtube videos and googling a lot about stuff I didn’t go to school for.It’s asking friends for help to come along with you to events because you need help hauling things and taking pictures.It’s googling- "can I afford a virtual assistant?" Maybe one day....It’s thinking about content and what in the world to post because you have to stay active on social media or you are non- existent.
It’s troubleshooting mailchimp because why would it all work seamlessly when you most need it to?!? ?It’s saying “go have fun without me” to your husband because you have a deadline. It's thinking about how you would much rather be sipping a glass of chardonnay next to him while enjoying an outdoor concert than cleaning up your instagram and analyzing your subscribers.It’s reviewing your insights. Who is your market? How do you target to that market?
It’s sharing events, networking with other authors, and learning and lunching with each other for interchanging of ideas and support.It’s on going work, planning, prioritizing re-prioritizing, and lots of list making.Making the time to do all of these things is a challenge on top of the other things going on in our lives (full time work, school, launching a new business). A shift in focus had to occur. I embraced my "hustle year" but something had to give so that I could feel sane, happy, and healthy.
While I knew I purposefully took on a lot this year, I constantly check in with my husband, and with myself. That translated into literally scheduling time in the calendar to spend time together with my husband. We eat dinner together every night. We schedule which events we'll attend together vs. those we'll have to do on our own. We got really well at turning a work night into a date night. We schedule massages together and coming up soon- a big vacation. Our time is scheduled and very intentional.We recently got some extra help around the house. We use a meal prep service for healthy balanced meals and groceries that get delivered to our home. We've been using the tools and support available to us to maximize our time on our businesses and ourselves.Becoming a published author has led me to grow in new ways I used to only dream of! My phone has rung and emails have come in from people who I haven't had to pursue. I've been invited to speak at some amazing events coming up. I have my first book signing at Barnes & Nobles, and continued book tour stops coming up in the new year. At the end of events, I've been invited to other conferences and opportunities. It's wild and crazy and sometimes I want to pinch myself to see if this is all true.
I look forward to continuing to share this beautiful journey with you and thank you for your love and support along the way.