Most of us probably attended preschool, but can’t necessarily recall all of the truly valuable lessons we learned while there. I can help! I’ve meditated on this for about five minutes and am feeling pretty confident that I can come up with at least 10 things we all learned that’ll help us in the self-publishing world.
Here goes!
- Share, even when you don’t want to. Share what? Your knowledge, your experience, your sense of humor. Writing is a relatively introverted activity. Publishing isn’t.
- Be nice. You aren’t going to like everyone. That’s okay. Be nice anyway. Name-calling, back-stabbing, rumor-generating behavior is going to propel you in the direction you don’t want to go.
- Speak kindly. Were you about to trash someone’s book? Better think twice about that. What goes ’round, comes ’round. Maybe their book could be better, but are you the person to tell them that? If you are, then send her a private message and see if she wants your input. Otherwise, find something kind or constructive to say or to write.
- Eat healthy snacks. You aren’t going to survive a book launch or long-term marketing effort if you don’t eat well.
- Rest. See #4.
- Drink plenty of water. See #4 and #5.
- Reading time is mandatory. There are only two ways to become a better writer. Reading is one of them. Read a variety of topics and genres. You never know where a good idea is going to come from, or how some topic might shed light on what you’re currently doing.
- Organization is important. There’s a place for everything and everything has its place.
- Get messy. Sometimes the paint is going to get all over the place. Embrace that. The time to clean things up will come.
- Make new friends. (I have a Girl Scout song running through my head right now.) Being an indie author can be a lonely existence, but it doesn’t have to be. There are TONS of us out there. You’re bound to click with a few. Just be sure to:
BONUS:
BONUS #2:
