It is one thing to be creative and spend time writing,
painting or whatever, it’s another to treat that creative endeavour like a
business.
There is so much non-creative work involved in being
successful. I read an article in the newspaper about a woman who took up
painting after she quit work and she made a supreme effort sending her work to
galleries, entering art shows and so on. And it paid off for her.
A different way of managing one’s work than anything I’ve
ever done. I have only entered the annual juried show in the local gallery, and
it’s a point of pride for me that my work was never declined. Most of my artwork
is packed away in a box, what I haven’t given away.
When I turned to writing I laughed because if I was going to
amass a collection of words, it was easier to store...a flash drive takes up so
much less room.
But I needed that ‘art show’ feeling of accomplishment and
turned to self publishing. I wrote a book, polished it through a series of
edits, got my talented brother to do the cover and published it on Amazon for
Kindle readers. There, a project completed from start to finish.
I now have four books written and put out there for Kindle
readers. It’s a risk, as anyone could leave a review, good or bad. But at this
stage in my life I need to feel productive. It was worth the risk.
But the business end, promoting the books, promoting myself
is difficult. I took the easy way out and in one day of seeing to the business
of writing, set up a schedule where I offered books for free. But I forgot to
note the dates on my calendar.
So it was with great surprise when I saw today that 68
copies of my book Left in Sorrow had been ordered during a free give away. The
free books are still available today and tomorrow, so here’s the link if you’re
interested.
It’s such a thrill, (am I naive or what?), to think that that
many people are reading my work. And all those copies out there with no effort
on my part. It’s exciting, but I did follow up with some notes on social media,
and the future give away dates are noted in my calendar.
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