September 12, 2022
If your book took off tomorrow with enormous worldwide interest and sales, are you prepared for all that entails?
We dream about it, amirite? One of our books skyrocketing into major success. NYT bestseller list, here we come. But are we ready?
I’m not. I just moved onto a new house in a new state and the new experience of being retired from my day job. Shoot, I only got my office pulled together last week. The concept of not having a daily schedule to follow has thrown me for a loop. But, slowly, I’m getting a handle on my changed life. Having it tossed off course so soon would stretch me in ways I’m not prepared to handle.
After all, I am a one-person show. There’s no one else to answer my emails, take phone calls, or keep up my social media pages. Sure, I could rope my husband into helping, but that would take a lot of coaching at first. When would I find time to write?
Then there’s the travel required. Once upon a time, I did a lot of travelling all over the US for my job (that was before I started writing fiction) but I haven’t been on a plane for several years. I could do interviews over the internet, but book signings would require in-person appearances.
I know an author or two who do personal assistant work to help support themselves, so as soon as money started coming in, I could hire them to help. (It takes 60-90 days to get what you’ve earned from Amazon.) There would be other business expenses to plan for, along with a separate bank account to handle them. And taxes. I’d have to restructure my financial setup to cover income taxes.
Could I make the changes needed? Not overnight. Truth is, while it’s a sweet dream, it’s nothing I expect to happen, so I don’t have to worry about it.
Some of the other authors on this hop have had more experience with writing success than me. Find out how they handled it by following the links below.
As always, until next time, please stay safe.
September 12, 2022
If your book took off tomorrow with enormous worldwide interest and sales, are you prepared for all that entails?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
A personal assistant would be great, they could do all the things I hate, all of the social media and other promo work. It might almost be worth making the money, just to have one.
I don’t think we could ever be ready for the challenges that being on the NYT bestseller list would bring. I’m not worrying about it for now, lol!
Same here!
The general thread here is that we all are a one man team not set to handle that. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be where Stephen King is right now, but I’d also need to be able to stop working and devote all of my time to writing.
Although I’m not a fan of Stephen King, I’ll give him credit for writing his own books. There are other authors who come up with an idea and let someone else write the books they put their name on.
And how is he still so prolific into his 70s? He still turns out a book or 2 a year!
A book a year is ‘easy’ if you have someone that handles even your basic editing, I suppose.
A personal assistant sounds lovely! @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
It does, doesn’t it? Sadly, my budget doesn’t cover one.
Don’t rush it. You will settle into retirement and then be too busy to do anything.
Tweeted.
Retirement, relocation one day, I suppose.. NY bestseller list? Our Sunday Times ? Think I could handle either/both after recent years !
(see below)
Aeons before pandemic, that cliche about for better or worse but not for lunch. Still commuting to WFH, in the same house – The office used to be out there, a working day ended.
Social media promotion ? Can’t do it. ID fraud and far too close encounters with the police ..? Took what there was down. Still recovering.
I worked from home many years ago, before it become a ‘thing’. The experience helped me learn how to segment my work time from my personal life. What i never got good at was segmenting my writing life from my personal life.