Start with the Socks: Writer's Edition

Being an Indie Author is stressful.

True, submitting to agents and presses is awful. You hit send on an email and then feel nauseous every time you check your email until you get rejected. If you get rejected. A lot of times it feels like you’re screaming into the publishing void, begging someone to tell you they hate your book just so you’ll know there are real live humans on the other end of those emails.

But being an Indie is almost worse, because your entire fate rests in your hands.

Bad edits? Your fault.

Your release crashes? Your fault.

Bad covers? Your fault.

No sales? Your fault.

It’s overwhelming.

The beautiful thing about being an author is that someone on the other side of the world could be buying your book as you sleep. The scary thing is people are looking at your book while you sleep. Or seeing ads for other books.

I nearly cried over the concept of having to figure out how to run ads on Amazon, Facebook, and BookBub. I’m not a marketing expert. I don’t know which kind of ads would work best for my books.

But then I remembered how bad I was at cleaning my room when I was little. I would stare at my mess and cry. I didn’t know how to make the whole room clean.

So my mother would tell me to start with the socks. First, pick up all the socks and put them in the basket. Then get all the dolls. Then work on the books. Keep moving on, one thing at a time, and eventually the room will be clean.

Start with the socks.

I’ve started playing with my first set Amazon ads this week. I’m learning as I go, and who knows how much good it will do me? But this is the first step, and task-by-task, I’ll make it through.