so little time, so much to do – post-publication thoughts

It’s been a crazy few months since my last post, where I first announced LAND OF SAND AND SONG’s release date, and it’s been almost a month since the book’s been out. And my, what a whirlwind it has been since.

Turns out, writing the book (and even getting the book published) is the easy part. What comes after is a whole different ball game. You start worrying about marketing and publicity and sales and things you’ve never had to consider, and hoo boy, it is stressful. Your book, that thing you lovingly (and sometimes not-so-lovingly) worked on for months and years, becomes a sales product you need to convince others to buy and show your publisher that signing you on was the right decision. You become a BRAND, a personality. You have to think about the commercial aspect of publishing instead of just blithely bobbing around in your writing bubble.

In the past three months, I’ve been learning about book marketing (what your publisher can do for you versus what you should do on your own), making new author friends, engaging with readers on social media, working on new books, doing interviews, designing and creating swag (little goodies that go with the books), learning how to do giveaways, reaching out to book reviewers, tracking stats on Goodreads, constantly thinking of ways to get the word out on the streets, anxiously waiting for updates from my publisher on distribution and release dates and publicity plans…

Oh, and on top of that, my dad and I got infected with Covid. My dad’s better now, but my body’s still fighting it as I type this. It’s been a week of runny nose, headaches, loss of smell/taste, the occasional low-grade fever, body aches and general fatigue (and a sore throat on Day 1). Not fun at all.

(Disclaimer: my dad and I are fully vaxxed and fully masked every time we go out, and I don’t even go out that much. I got it from my dad, whose company made him return to the office daily for reasons I still don’t understand or support but let’s not go there.)

So life has been eventful, to say the least. Still, I feel like I’m not doing enough, like I should be doing more to give my book the best fighting chance, to be more available for people, to do a better job of every task. I find myself wishing, more often than usual, that I had more than 24 hours a day to do everything I want to do.

I want to write more books, I want to engage with more readers, I want to engage with each of them more deeply, I want to blog more, I want to write short stories again (speaking of which, Meredith wrote a kickass one this month and you should check it out). I want to spend more time with my dad (us getting infected and living in separate abodes made me realise how precious our time is together and how I’d taken that for granted – cherish your loved ones while you still have time, folks), I want to learn how to make fun TikTok videos (but it’s so time-consuming and I can’t help but think, while I’m figuring out to add effects and sequences, that I could be spending all this time on my manuscripts instead), I want to embark on more projects, do more interview and IG lives with writer friends, maybe start a podcast, I want to meet more people, read more books (my TBR stack is tall enough to murder me in my sleep – I do not kid), and lastly I want to do well at my day job so I get to keep it. Oh, and stay hydrated and get enough sleep.

But this is just a classic case of “so little time, so much to do”. (I’m a Sagittarius moon – I want to do EVERYTHING. But I’m also a Libra sun, which means I get so debilitated by my to-do list I end up not doing anything.) This writing career is a marathon, as they say, not a sprint. We have to pace ourselves and not burn out in two months. Work on the next thing. Take breaks. Celebrate the small wins as they come. Stay grateful. Etc.

Would I trade this experience for the quieter life, though? Nope. I’m immensely grateful for this experience, everything I’ve received (except Covid, of course because ugh), and everyone I’ve met. I’ve had a quiet life all my life, and this – the author life, or whatever you call it – is what I’ve always wanted. It may not be 100% what I expected, but it’s an experience nonetheless and I will take what comes my way as it is without preconceived expectations (trust me, it’s best not to have too many expectations of how things should be – in publishing and generally in life).

If you’re new here, welcome and thank you for being on board. I don’t blog very much, though I wish I could do it as often as I used to (we only have a finite number of hours a day and there’s just too much to do), but I share daily updates on my life, writing, latest obsessions and more on Instagram (mostly in my stories) so follow me there if you’d like. In the meantime, I’m going to get cracking on that never-ending to-do list!

Have you read LAND OF SAND AND SONG yet? If so, let me know what you think (comment below, send me an email, slide into my DMs, drop me a meme, what have you)! If not (and if you want to), you can get it from here, here, or here. If you liked it enough, please consider rating it on Goodreads and/or writing a review! Much appreciated. ❤️