Hello, friends.
This post was supposed to be:
How I celebrate finishing a book
It’s a writing prompt I submitted for myself some time ago, believing that by the time I got around to writing this one, I would have surely celebrated by then, right?
But as I continued to write this post, it went from talking about my (paltry) celebrations, to talking about the book releases in general.
So, past Danielle, take it away!
What we’ve done wrong, and how we’re fixing it
I have not thrown a party, or done a launch blast, or any of that, when I finish a novel.
Part of that is my abysmal track record of “marketing,” or outreach as in—what even is it, really? Do we do it? Nope. Not a bit.
Not until now.
Part of it is that I don’t know how to celebrate myself, or achievements in general. A lot of that is ingrained trauma from childhood, and a lot is getting worked on right now. More on that ahead.
I will also mention that the majority of my books came out right at the beginning of or soon after/in the pandemic, so having a launch party in-person or any kind of in-person celebration was kind of off-limits there for a bit.
I’m midway through my manuscript for Edge of Night, Dark Wings: Book One. I’m anticipating that I will want to have this manuscript done and polished, and the next well on its way to first draft status, before I hit publish on book one. Because I want to be sure Book Two, which I am HOPING is the only sequel, is well on its way and therefore not too far behind. Maybe by 6-12 months.
I want to publish closer together. I owe it to you all. I owe it to myself. I would like to see 1-2 books a year, at least, but we’ll see how we do.
I am Autistic and ADHD (AuDHD) and I do have to give myself certain levels of accommodations in order to ensure I don’t burn out on any of this. I want to be here. I want to keep writing and keep reaching out to all of you and making content, but I do not want to burn out. I am doing a lot of work on the Self in order to avoid that fate, including incorporating a new modality of therapy in EMDR (highly recommend for my fellows). All this is leading me to here, to being able to do this.
I cannot adequately describe the monumental amount of Fear that is associated with outreach, talking to all of you, and—in my mind, at least in part—exposing myself. I know that being authentic and exposure are not the same thing, but gods they feel damned similar.
So I will moderate expectations. I apologize profusely for the confusion and the missed deadlines of the past. That is something I deeply wish to avoid moving forward.
There have been plenty of mistakes I’ve made on my self-publishing and Indie Author road, but I’m learning. I’ve been taking in a lot of books on the subject, and understanding how I need to proceed.
In the past, we fucked up this Book Business by:
- Trusting the wrong people
- Saying we’ll have a book out when it was not near enough ready to make that announcement
- Making abrupt and fiscally irresponsible cross-state moves
- Not investing in the right things (tools that help with AuDHD especially)
- Not prioritizing our creative writing
Currently we are:
- Making an Actual Business Plan & investing in our business and ourselves
- Setting daily word count creative writing goals that we are meeting or surpassing regularly
- In a trustworthy and stable environment
- Holding onto our announcements until we have a tangible product
This has been a difficult shift, as well, because I have decided to follow my therapists advice and strategies, in putting certain people “on the ceiling,” as it were. Allowing that people are going to say things. Certain people are going to suddenly reappear in my life. But I will endure, because I have to, and because I mean to do this For Good.
I’m tired of working paycheck-to-paycheck, at dead end jobs, in places that could give a shit less about the individual. I want to make a difference, and write stories, and create art, and entertain the fuck out of all of you as much as I can.
To that end, soon there should be announcements along the lines of:
- Future audiobooks
- Future in-person events
Subscribe to the newsletter to keep as up-to-date as possible.
Stay safe out there, my friends. Drink your water, and take your meds. 💕
Cheers,
Danielle Berggren
Comments