I'm getting a little anxious - well very anxious.
I have two months left before the baby is supposed to arrive (assuming we're actually following the schedule, which I honestly can't know with any kind of certainty). I still have six books to publish to get to my bare minimum goal of seven books self-published this summer. I still have a bunch of marketing work to do. I still have research and all manner of things to get done.
I'm wondering if I'm approaching this the wrong way.
The formatting only takes a few days (if we're looking at print, which I'd like to do despite the small cost to me). That's not a problem.
Most of the writing is done. So that's not the issue.
The main issue is the rewriting and editing which has stalled me. My "beta readers" haven't been particularly helpful at this point because I haven't gotten the feedback I need in order to move forward to rewrite. I'm annoyed. I'm frustrated. I'm stressed. I'm hot (we're experiencing a heatwave which has put a damper on my progress as well - thanks climate change!).
I'm not sure what to do.
While marketing is CLEARLY important (based on the hobby level of sales I made before more intensive efforts) I feel like I can do that off and on without too much pain (i.e. in between the newborn's naps). I'm not so sure about the writing/rewriting part. That takes concentration and large blocks of time devoted to the craft. Editing and proofing always takes me several solid days, and I may have to go back and do that several times before I feel like I have things right.
On the other hand, I could just be getting overwhelmed by things and wanting to procrastinate working on several projects that I find less sexy. For example, I kind of hate one of the non-fiction projects I started. I'm not passionate about it. I don't care about it enough to really get behind the marketing portion. It just seems more work and doesn't dovetail on anything else I'm doing. That said, I came up with a few other ideas for quick writing books that could combine several of my interests without too much research, or pain on my part. That sounds a lot better.
Besides, I don't want to get too far afield in my focus. Branching out into non-fiction is fine, but I want to keep my non-fiction sort of contained to certain areas. I don't want to get too far from the content of my blogs. That means my non-fiction work needs to clearly be related to pregnancy/parenting, religion, writing, or self-development. I could even combine areas (which I intend to do and will discuss in more detail if I can actually get this one non-fiction writing project off the ground).
It makes me wonder about the art curriculum book and whether or not I should pursue it. I guess I could connect it to the self-development angle if I framed it correctly, but I don't know. The same could be said for the buying local book, but that's the one I feel less commitment towards (and almost zero passion). I feel like I need to let them sit, which may mean they need to sit for longer than my challenge is supposed to last. If that's so, then I have eliminated two potential books. That will mean I'll need to figure out two substitutes and quickly.
My immediate thoughts have to do with pregnancy which is something I enjoy writing about and comes easily (considering I'm in the middle of it). Plus, my pregnancy blog is doing exceptionally well for something I just launched a few weeks ago. My second thought has to do with poetry. It's not something I've worked on recently, but it is something I have a lot of and I've always wanted to publish a little chapbook of my own. I wouldn't expect it to make a lot of money, or garner much attention, but it would bring me closer to my summer goal and satisfy a long held dream (two birds with one stone!). My final thought is another long held dream/wish to create an interfaith devotional which would touch on my religion blog (as well as highlight my one definite non-fiction project). I think having at least 2 books of each kind/topic would be helpful because they could feed readers into one another.
What do you think I should do for these books I need to have in order to complete my summer goal? What is the best route - similar topics or quick and dirty completion? Or maybe some combination of the two? Leave your suggestion below!
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