You Will Never Be Happy If You Live Someone Else’s Idea of Life — James Van Praagh

As soon as people know that I am an author, there imaginations run wild. So I decided to write a blog post about what a typical day looks like in the life of an author. With some nuggets of truths about the pay as well. All to dispel the notion that this is just a dream or a hobby. There are certainly authors out there who treat writing as a hobby. Its how I got started, but to make money, this is anything, but leisure. Its a lifetime career. Read below to get a glimpse into the life of a writer.

What If I fail? Oh, My Darling What If You Fly?

 

Google, I’m An Author, and you’ll find hundreds of memes like the one above. However, the one above is the only one that spoke to my writers life, and I’m going to give you a glimpse into why.

When I announced my new found career to my family, I was instantly compared to the next Toni Morrison. I was expected to produce the new bestseller that will rivet the world. Woah Nelly! I’m just Patricia Hoving and this writing journey just started.

What society thinks I do and what my partner thinks I do is one in the same. Depending on whose asking they either expect you to be a multimillionaire or they picture you sitting on your butt eating pizza at home. My partner is on this journey with me as my marketing director. So I get tons of support from him on this endeavor, but I have certainly heard spousal support horror stories, and rightfully so. Its a hard journey to undertake, especially in the beginning, when you have a family to support.

Every author thinks they have a bestseller on there hands. Rightfully so, you should be proud of the work you’re doing. But a healthy dose of reality never hurt anyone, and that means bestsellers largely depend on timing, writing to market, good book covers and a bunch of other things. However, you should still treat every book you write as a bestseller and make sure you have put your time and due diligence into it before you hit send.

At any given point I could look like the guy in the, what i really do section, and the only way to avoid those mini-meltdowns is to outline. However, even outlining doesn’t stop it sometimes. There will be moments of writers block. But I’ve developed a system to get me out of that so that 80% of the time I’m resting nicely in the, What I Want to Do, section.

Nugget of Truth: The old adage of the starving artist is true. There is times in this publishing journey when you wont be making any money at all. Glad when you find yourself breaking even, and ecstatic when you’re making $10,000 off one book. The difference between one side of the spectrum and another is how much effort you put into marketing and just the right timing. Unfortunately, being traditionally published does not give you away out of doing your own marketing.

Now, onto scheduling. Not everyone can devote full-time schedule to there writing as I have. There are authors out there who have made it work writing 15 minutes a day, 30 minutes, an hour. It really is what works for you and your family. Just as my schedule will change as circumstances in my life change. But here’s what it looks like now as of 2018:

3k WRITING ITINERARY:

9:30     Time With God (Prayer, Devotional, Scripture)

10:00   Clean the House

10:30   Eat Breakfast/Prep Dinner

10:47   Begin Writing. Goal 1,500 Words

1:00    Take A Break. Stop for Lunch. Check Email. Get Up and Stretch.

2:00    Begin Writing. Goal 1,500 More Words.

4:00    Done. Spell Check and Proofread.

5:00    Done. Stop wherever I am. There is always tomorrow.

This schedule is followed Monday-Friday. But in any entrepreneurship the owner usually has to do overtime and put in more work until the company is off the ground enough to be able to release the reigns to others. Which in my business looks a little different from others. However, the work put into it is the same. That means I work weekends. Quite frankly 2 hours is not enough time and I usually end up working more like 5. However, the schedule is more free to allow me some time to myself.

SATURDAY

10 – 12   Is Marketing (Social Media, Newsletter, Promos, Blog etc.)

It also helps if you give yourself a deadline. So typically I give myself 30 days to write a full novel. I’ll be searching for book covers during this process. Two weeks to get my novel to an editor, and a few days to make corrections. Just because I’m my own boss, doesn’t mean I don’t need to keep myself on track.

If you’re a writer and you try this schedule, feel free to leave a comment and share whether or not it was helpful to you. Otherwise, I hope to have given my fans a glimpse into the life of a writer.