Sometimes, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the selling of our work rather than what’s more important—the production of it. In this entry, I’ll give you a reasonable ratio as it relates to both.
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Excerpted from my Raymond Waites Morning Pages journal on April 26, 2017
How is it that I long to be a writer without longing to actually write? Morning Pages all but abandoned, behind on my own deadlines, having ideas but never committing to them. I feel more uninspired than I do inspired. I just finished catching up on my devotionals and was slapped in the face with April 23rd and 25th’s entries1 about “Work Worship” and being instant out of season (aka when you don’t feel like doing the work).
Why must I feel the need to be inspired all the time anyway? I’m spoiled by such wishful, fantastical thinking. I must learn to generate my own inspiration! Otherwise, I’ll starve my creative self to nothing and waste away.
Part of this paralysis is the fear of having to do everything at once. It’s an overwhelming master. Why must I feel everything must be done simultaneously? What nonsense and naïveté; ’tis detrimental to one’s overall health.
I must learn to generate my own inspiration!
I read a good suggestion on Kboards yesterday that said that 75% of your time should be spent writing, while 25% should be devoted to marketing. That translates this way: For every hour spent writing, I should only be concerned with promotion for fifteen minutes of that hour, making my total writing time a whopping forty-five minutes! That’s enough time to get in a flow state and only have to manage a post or two on just one social networking site—not all of them, mind you!
And that doesn’t mean my “marketing” should constantly be a mindset of “Sell, sell, sell!” Marketing is as much—or more so—about engaging with others and building relationships as it is about selling my products and services.
Think about how you run your guitar lesson business. [Talking to myself here.] You provide a high-quality service, talk to your students and their parents, build relationships with them, and they not only keep coming back for more but tell others about it! Why don’t you have this same attitude toward marketing your books?
Marketing is as much—or more so—about engaging with others and building relationships as it is about selling products and services.
Here are two words to get you started in becoming a better marketer: Be helpful! And two more as a bonus: Solve problems. That’s it. That’s all you need to do. Don’t be concerned with everything else. Even Jesus said to focus on one thing—seeking first God’s righteousness—then everything else would take care of itself! Now, go out there and do it…whether you “feel” like it or not!
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These entries haven’t been recorded here since there wasn’t much substance to them.
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