Business as Usual

Being a writer is fun. You can share your stories, no stress if anyone reads them or not. Being an author is a different beast all together. There is business to writing for an author (an author is, by definition, someone who has published work). I have email to respond to, fans to interact with on social media, and a business to run. If I don't spend time working on the business of writing, no one finds my novels. No one reads about Stephanie, Arthur, or Antonia. No one cares who Anne Schlea is.

I started having "office hours" a year ago. Time set aside specifically to work on books, marketing, answering email, whatever needed to be done. Like the article at the bottom of the newsletter, keeping a schedule is key. The first few weeks had a lot of doodling and what felt like wasted hours. But as I kept at it, I got better at focus and getting tasks done. Now I can accomplish a lot in a few hours, making my time much more productive.