Trying to do all the things

So here's a random Tuesday post for you with a bit of in your face honesty.

Self-publishing is hard, dudes. Like seriously hard. As in, there is a reason that people go the traditional route and hand over complete control of their baby to professionals who are strangers to them.

This is not really a one-person job. Publishers have many departments for a reason. There are a lot of jobs to do. But I don't have a team (not entirely true if you count my support team who is awesome). An assistant would be lovely, but those cost money and I'm so anal-retentive about all this, I'd probably spend more time deciding what to farm out than I would save from having an assistant.

What I could use is an intuitive robot. If you've got a lead on the intuitive robot market, I am definitely interested.

In the interest of honesty and sharing, here's what's on my plate right now:
- Drafting emails to bloggers who are closed to new books, but are open to spotlights, guest posts, etc.

- Creating the Google docs home base that will hold all the blog tour resources both for the participating bloggers and my sanity.
- Figuring out how Wattpad works without accidentally posting something.
- Trying to decide how soon I need to upload info to Amazon so it doesn't pre-empt my cover reveal while making sure I have a good lead for pre-sales.
- Getting a head start on the guest posts I've committed to so I don't get behind (December is not that far away).
- Making a contact list for local media and trying to remember who has told me they know who.
- Writing multiple press releases.
- Planning next newsletter copy


I'm sure I'm forgetting something (which is stressing me out more). Plus, all of this is on top of keeping up with my clients and agenting duties, and all my personal life business (like homeschooling my kiddos and making sure we all eat).

The truth is, I don't have to do any of this. I could (quite easily) upload the whole business tomorrow and be done with it all. And if I didn't care at all about getting this book into the hands of readers, that's what I'd do. But I do care, and so I will march down that to-do list and get it all done.

And I'll be happy about it. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and she asked how the book launch was going. I said a few things before she stopped me.

"You are a smiley person, you do it a lot, but that smile right there, the one you get when you talk about your book. That tells me just how passionate you are about this. And if you put even a part of that passion into your work, I know you'll be a success."

It's true. I might complain about how much there is to be done (soooo much), but I'm honestly having the time of my life. This is so much fun. And when I think of all the readers who will be able to read my words in just over a month...it makes my heart sing. I could melt an Icy Frozen Ana right now.

So, I'm going to try to keep things positive here. And that may lead some of you to think that this whole self-publishing business is a walk in the park. I don't want to dissuade anyone, but I also want to be completely honest. This is not easy. But if you love it, it's totally worth it.

Also, a note about timing. I really wanted all of my marketing updates to be real time so you guys could get a good sense of when I am doing things and how long they take. I now realize that would be completely unattainable. And that makes me sad, because I realize that timing is an important aspect of marketing. So, when all of this is said and done, I'll do a recap post that has the actual time frame for all of my marketing efforts. That way I keep my sanity and you get all the info you really need. Everybody wins!