Refocusing, Resetting and Re-centering
A pretty good rule of thumb when you’re publishing your first novella is to have a robust marketing plan. Have a ton of resources ready to go, be ready to talk about your book until your voice is raw and scratchy and champion your new work on every social media platform imaginable. It is not a time to disappear from the face of the earth, make major life changes or re-evaluate a huge component of your identity.
But who am I to do things the right way?
Two weeks before the official release of The Light Keeper I made a huge life change that upended something I had been working towards since college. It was a necessary change for my happiness and well-being, but it was not a decision made at the most opportune time. I had The Light Keeper was weeks from release, I was trying to launch my own business and build a client base on nights and weekends. I needed consistency and a plan and the energy and direction to focus on taking my first baby steps down this new path. Instead, I found myself in the midst of grief as I stepped away from a journey that had defined my identity for a long time.
As a person whose therapy sessions drill down to letting go of perfectionist tendencies 90% of the time, the realization that my book release was going to be done poorly was tough to stomach. I scraped together the absolute basics and then made the conscious decision to let it go. I told myself that life happens, and I needed to do my best and trust the process. Then I sort of just went numb to the entire ordeal. I occasionally tracked book sales, I gave away the physical copies that I had ordered, if I talked to someone who’d read the novella and liked it I shamelessly begged for a review. It wasn’t enough, and I knew that, but it was the best that I could do.
For the last few weeks things have calmed down somewhat. I’m re-evaluating what I am considering achievable goals so that I can create sustainable creative growth without crashing into uselessness. Most importantly, I’m finding the time and desire to write again. My characters are starting to call out to me- they want me to come back, to finish the first leg of their story and start digging into the edits so they can breathe with more life.
Realistically, things are no more calm than they were six months ago. The chaos of life has a tendency to expand to fill the room that you leave for it. Even so, I’m so close to finishing the first draft of Book One. My hope is to have the first draft finished by next month and to start on edits shortly thereafter. I’m pushing the expected series release to Fall 2023. In the meantime, I have another finished novel that needs edits, and I’m hoping to build support for my work and the community of small businesses that have been such a joy to work with the last few months. The road might not be entirely smooth, but I think it’ll be a fun journey all the same. I hope you buckle up and come along for the ride.
If you’d like to check out The Light Keeper for yourself, it’s free on Amazon Kindle from 3/3-3/7! It’s also free on Kindle Unlimited. If you’d like to get access to early announcements for upcoming projects, sign up for my newsletter!
Want to read more? Check out my other blog posts: Am I a Writer? And Why I Write LGBT+ Fiction.
Image by Joann Mark Kuznietsov from Unsplash