Guest Post: Jill Edmondson, Author, Sasha Jackson Mysteries

My thanks to Jill for such an awesome blog post, what a treat to have her back on Living a Life of Writing.

Being an Author Means Being on
Duty 24-7

Being an author is a twenty-four
hour a day job, and I say this from two points of view: the sales &
promo side, and the creative side.

On the creative side, everything you
see and hear has to potential to become a snippet of dialogue or plot
twist in your next book. The woman sitting across from you on the
bus just may inspire a new character. The witty one-liner you hear
at a party may be just the thing for your protagonist to say at the
end of chapter three.

On the sales side (and I believe
this may be truer in the early days than once you’re established),
you can’t help but talk up your book any time you get the chance to
do so. You almost automatically promote your recent release, in
person and online. New review? Share it on Facebook and Twitter.
Friend is hosting a charity event? Sure, I’ll donate some books as
a door prize. Meet with a book club? Yup. Speak at a library?
Check. Attend author events, book launches, seminars. Yes,
because maybe then they’ll come to my events.

A third point to mention is that
your friends will tell others when they introduce you: “Hey
Suzy, this is my friend Jill, and she just published a book.”
Believe it or not, there are (rare) instances when I don’t want to
chat about my books, but obviously I can’t say that, so I smile and
go with the flow. What often follows from such introductions is:
“Suzy wants to be a writer.” About three minutes after
the introduction, Suzy will ask you how to get published. About nine
minutes after the introduction, Suzy will ask you for writing tips.
About eight minutes after that, Suzy will ask you to read her
manuscript. Yikes.

Obviously, you can’t be ungracious
(and you really don’t want to be ungracious because you did all
these things too when you were starting out!), so you say yes.
And then another person hears you did this, so they also ask you to
take a look at their stuff, to give them tips on writing and
publishing. Before you know it, you just might become an unpaid
writing/publishing consultant, yikes! It’s important to give back,
obviously, but don’t overextend yourself, and don’t let things
like this distract you from your real goal: Writing.

At some point, you’ll have to stop
doing ALL of these things, because if you don’t, then when are you
going to begin working on the next manuscript? Shut down all the
supplemental stuff and get busy writing the next book. Make it the
best book you can, and the sales and marketing will take care of
itself.

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