Very excited about it, and I had a revelation today about marketing. I am an independent author, meaning I do everything.
[00:00:21] I edit, I market, I publish. Of course, I have a team helping me, and I am wishing I could do so much more for the marketing of my book, but in fact, I could only do what I can do.
That was my realization. I had this huge long to do list in my head -- I've been teaching book marketing and doing book marketing for a long time, but really the reality ... was the to-do list felt like this huge thing I was carrying like a big backpack on my back.
I can only really take out a little bit and take care of that little bit at a time.
And I know all the steps. And instead of expecting myself to be able to do it all, I realized I just need to do one thing.
[00:01:07] In fact, I'm planning to do blog tours. I was beating myself up around how I should be doing that. I should get started and all this negative self talk.
And I realized, well, I am getting started.
Usually I give my clients four to six weeks lead time to get ready for a blog tour.
[00:01:28] There's a lot of pieces about getting ready. I know what they are, and that's where I'm at.
I've decided I'm going to launch the print edition in about a month, and that's when I'm going to do my big launch events.
So that means that's when I'm going to start my blog tour, and that means I can do what's first.
[00:01:46] I can do the first piece of prep.
For me that's putting together a little press kit that I'm going to put into Google drive, that I will be eventually able to give a link to bloggers and they can get the images and the ARC copies of the book and the About The Book and an excerpt and the Q & A and all the little pieces and some fun graphics and the bio and the headshot and all of that.
[00:02:09] I know what goes into all of this. I just need to take it step by step.
So how about you?
What is that thing that feels so big and enormous and Oh my God, but actually you really just today need to focus on what is the next step?
If you're not sure about all the steps, go ahead and write them out and then just focus on what's happening today.
[00:02:34] What's the one thing you can do today -- in 20 minutes, 15 minutes?
That is actually how I get through everything, including editing the next book in the series.
Oh my goodness, I have a deadline for that. That can feel overwhelming, but today I only need to do one thing.
I need to do the thing that is next.
[00:02:54] Deep breath. Everyone. You can do this.
You can break the big hulking project that feels so overwhelming into tiny, tiny, tiny bite-size pieces that you can handle the one piece today.
That's all you need to focus on -- is: What is the one thing that you need to do today?
All right, everyone. That is my creativity check in and tip for this week.
[00:03:20] I hope you have a marvelous creative, juicy week. I'll see you next time.
