Try to not do all the things all by yourself.
There are so many steps in creating a novel and even more in a series. Without fail, some of these steps make my head hurt. The hard parts for me are, and continue to be:
Cover creation (imagery + typography) and unbiased editing.
In recent years, I’ve met some amazing people. And a lot of those amazing people have super awesome talents and skills.
Skills that would lift the burden of certain steps of the publishing journey off my shoulders! There’s just one thing….
I have a tight budget, so I had to ask myself how much my sanity is worth. I isolated the steps that caused me the most stress…and I hired out. Even if I had to save up.
It was even more stressful at first—spending money before seeing any kind of return. But saving for those services was worth it—it alleviated the stress of creating a wraparound, doing the typography, and trying to be the editor of my own words.
I write this because an hour ago, I was agonizing over creating a wraparound for my first series, the last step of an extensive facelift.
This time I only agonized for five minutes. Then I laughed at myself and reached out to an awesome person who nails typography and wraparounds. I asked about availability, gathered the files, sent them over, and made the payment.
And you know what? I’m not stressed anymore!
I sat down and wrote this to clarify it in my own mind and a friend pointed out that as advice goes, this was up there, and I had to share it for the good of mankind[1].
It’s taken me a long time to reach this point. I’ve gained a lot more confidence in myself as a writer and more importantly, who I am as an individual, and especially through learning I don’t have to be all the things.
I can focus on being the things that make me happy and get better at those, because now I have the energy.
I started by handing off the biggest headache and budgeted for the others as I could. And I am so incredibly relieved!
Did I spend money I wouldn’t have a guaranteed return on? Yes.
Am I getting better results for my books? Much.
Am I happier? Unequivocally, yes.
So… what’s your sanity worth?
[1] Inserted by said friend after Kalene finished the post.
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