Hey there,
So it’s been a minute since I sent out a newsletter.
Life has been lifing since February. The highlight reel includes an emergency trip to San Francisco, where I own a small rental property. There were water-damaged hardwood floors, a refrigerator that quit completely, and a dishwasher fix (thankfully simple, for once). All in a month.
Then, just as I got back to my routine in Austin and had cleared an entire day to return to this newsletter, I got a 2 am text from my tenants.
A pane of glass in a sliding door was shattering from the inside.
Apparently, glass does this. It can pop and crack for four to six hours before it’s done.
🫠 Nobody warns you about this when you become a landlord.
So I put the newsletter on pause.
Between client work, condo repairs, and the NLP training I’ve been investing in this year, something had to go.
When life feels overwhelming… simplify. Stop. Take a breath.
💡 Decide what actually matters right now, and put something else on pause.
That’s what I tell clients when their plate is too full. You don’t have to do it all.
So, pick one thing you can set aside.
Mine was, apparently, this newsletter. (Sorry. Not sorry. Okay, maybe a little sorry.) But I’m back, and honestly? I have a lot of ideas I’m excited about.
Which brings me to June 2nd & 3rd, when I went to the US Book Show in New York, a publishing industry conference hosted by Publishers Weekly.
I came home with a notebook full of ideas and the kind of energy you only get from being around people who care as much about books as you do.
One of the best parts of the trip had nothing to do with the content.
It was about the people I got to spend time and connect with, like Heidi Yarger (brand strategist at Spitfire Girl), Rose Conway (nonfiction consultant and literary agent), and Sally Ekus (cookbook agent and founder of The Ekus Group), all in the same place.
1. Your launch isn’t the end game. It’s the beginning.
People in publishing have been telling me this for months, and the conference confirmed it. Readers don’t want to constantly be sold to.
They want connection and belonging. If you’re already overwhelmed trying to write the book, promote it, and run the rest of your life, here’s some relief.
You don’t need a bigger launch plan. You need one or two ways to stay in touch with the people who already care, and you get to pick which ones. (If it’s Substack, let’s chat.)
2. Reading communities are having a moment. Event companies like Reading Rhymes (look up Ben Bradbury) are hosting hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people who just want to gather and read together.
The Analog Reading Room just opened here in Austin, doing the same thing, and I went to a reading night last week. So good for the soul.
A little wine, a small group of strangers, an hour of quiet reading, then more wine and actual conversation. People are hungry for this. 📖
3. Okay, but you still have to sell the book. I know. Nobody wants to talk about the actual selling part.
But here’s the good news. You have more direct access to readers than any author before you ever did.
→Kickstarter lets you crowdsource an audience before you even publish.
→TikTok hands you reader insight in your comments every single day.
→Substack lets you build your own small publishing operation, writing, video, audio, and a direct relationship that’s entirely yours.
As Karen Kang from TikTok put it, “Being in your comments is like getting a consumer research report delivered to your door every morning.”
Whether authors actually have the bandwidth to keep up with that much information is a separate question (and probably one for a future newsletter).
But if you’re thinking like an authorpreneur, ask yourself this… what kind of publisher do you want to be?
I’ve been asking myself the same question about this newsletter. So instead of guessing what you want next, I’m begging asking you now.
Funny enough, a reader questionnaire was the last thing I sent out before I hit pause back in February. So including it here feels like we’re picking up right where we left off.
I really want to know what’s truly useful to you, and what you want more of.
5 Minutes to Shape What's Next
Five minutes. Three Amazon gift cards will be raffled off.
Three annual Skillful Scribbler subscriptions, as well. Just for 5-7 minutes of questions.
(🧡 Bribery. The polite kind.)
My goal is 100 responses, and I’m not too proud to keep asking. So consider this your first nudge of many between now and July.
Until next week!
Keep writing,
P.S. What’s the one thing on your plate right now that you could pause to relieve some stress from your writing life?
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