S.C. Green's Blog, page 8

5 tips for a successful book Kickstarter (and 5 things we’ll do differently next time)

I don’t know if you heard, but recently I ran a successful Kickstarter campaign.

That was sarcasm, BTW, because I haven’t been talking about anything else since.

My kids book, Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones – about a little grim reaper who gets bullied – will soon be out in the world. My lovely friend and incredible illustrator Bree Roldan is hard at work finishing off the cover and spreads, and I’m working on getting book pre-orders happening and few other important admin details for the project.

I learned so much from this book’s success. I think the concept really spoke to people – especially now, in this age of #metoo and 13 Reasons Why – and Bree’s wonderful illustrations make this crazy idea of mine actually WORK.

For all the other creatives out there, I thought I’d take the time to outline some of the things I think worked really well on our project, and what we learned that we can apply to future projects:

1. You gotta get the word out

Kickstarter is a great platform to manage your campaign. You may even find a few new fans from the platform. But unless your campaign goes viral or you get featured by Kickstarter (which is not something you can buy/guarantee), the majority of your backers will come from your network or your own marketing networks.

You can probably count on your parents and a few awesome friends to back your project. If you have a project that. Bree and I had wonderful support from our networks of friends and acquaintances I think because we focused a lot on the gift aspect of the books.

In order to reach your goal, you need to find backers outside your current circle of influence. You do this by figuring out who will back your project (not who will read your book – those two things are sometimes different) and how to reach them.

For Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones, I identified three key audiences:

Goths and alternative people who’d like the little Death aspect.
People in the book / arts community who like to support creative projects.
Parents and people who need to give kids gifts.

I reached out to the alternative community through Facebook groups and blogs. For the arts community, I asked to write blog posts on book blogs and community pages. For parents, we looked at parenting magazines and groups. I had pre-existing contacts in some places because of all my previous projects, and I took advantage of them as much as possible.

We also hired an amazing publicist, Elizabeth Heritage, to help us get the word out about the book. She was able to help us reach big media outlets like Stuff.co.nz and Radio NZ. We incorporated her fee into our book budget.

A note about media: The further a platform is from Kickstarter, the harder it is to get backers. For example, my Radio NZ interview only resulted in 3 pledges coming directly from the Radio NZ website. We believe this is because getting people who are listening to go to their computer and type in an address is harder than getting people who are already online to click on a link.

However, the value of this media can’t be measured in the dollar value of backers. They help build your profile so that more people know who you are, and they can present you with other opportunities. (As you’ll soon find out, because we have a big announcement to make any day now!)

2. Be involved in the Kickstarter community

I’ve been supporting Kickstarter campaigns for years before we launched Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones. A lot of the projects I’ve backed have been in the children’s book category or other weird books. One of the best things I did in the middle of the campaign – when things were lagging a bit – was contact all the creators of the book projects I’d backed, told them how much I loved their work, and showed them my project. Four of them graciously shared my project with their backers, and this resulted in $890 for our book.

During my campaign, I also received a lot of similar requests from other writers to share their book with my audience. None of these people had backed my project, and for some of them, the quality just wasn’t there. I think if you’re going to do this, you need to at the very least already be a fan/backer of the person you’re asking for a favour. I would happily share projects from fans who have work that my audience would love, but I’m less inclined to share the work of random strangers. I’m sure other creators feel the same way.

3. Engage your backers

This part seems kind of obvious, but you won’t believe how often people forget to simply ask their backers to help spread the word.

Your backers already support you. They’re already excited about the project and engaged in the creative process. Every time you post an update, remind backers to share the project.

Our backers also got the Kickstarter page in front of people, such as passing it around their office and posting it on parenting FB groups. Backers would message me in excitement – “I just got my boss to back the book!” “Two people said they backed you today!” They are the best cheerleaders you could ask for.

On the last week of our project, I noticed another Kickstarter I was backing reminded their backers that they could change their pledge level if they wanted to. I decided to try this with our backers. I let them know that they could change their pledge if they decided they wanted an extra book or a t-shirt or one of the other cool rewards. Overnight, eight backers upped their pledges to higher reward tiers, resulting in nearly $300 of extra funding.

At the end of your campaign, think of something really awesome you can give your backers to say “thanks for supporting my crazy idea.” We made a PDF colouring page of characters from the book, so people can print it out and colour it in. I’ve heard from a few backers the colouring pages are pinned up in offices and on fridges. How cool is that?

4. Make a video

I really, REALLY didn’t want to do a video. I get nervous because of how my eyes look on camera, and I don’t really like my voice. However, every article about successful Kickstarters said “By Odin’s beard, make a video!” so we did.

People clicked on our video 547 times, and 37.4% of those clicks resulted in a full watch of the video. Many backers commented on the video. I fully believe the video played a vital role in getting us to our goal.

5. Have something to talk about

Even though we had some pages already complete at the beginning of the project to promote on the Kickstarter page (and you should absolutely do this because backers need to see the quality/style) we wanted to have surprises to reveal throughout the campaign. We knew this would help keep their interest and give them something they could share with their friends and family.

Bree worked hard to produce four new pieces of artwork (plus our thank you gift) throughout the campaign. We also shared our media mentions and other news with our backers, and when we hit important campaign milestones.

Those are five things I believe contributed to our success, although I believe a HUGE part of it was down to Bree’s amazing illustrations. She really brought Little Death to life!

Here are five things I learned that I’ll be factoring in next time we do a campaign:

1. Utilize Facebook

Facebook was the top referrer for our campaign, sending us $2891 of our total funding. This was a combination of two ads I ran ($18 cost), me sharing on my personal and writing profiles, and friends sharing the post with their friends.

Literally, every time I shared the link on Facebook, someone new went along and pledged. I thought I’d annoy the hell out of everyone I love, but instead they commented and shared and helped push the message even further.

Next time, I’d set aside a bigger budget for Facebook ads and experiment with that as a channel.

2. Set a lower goal

Although we reached our goal (yay!) and we should have covered our costs for production and shipping (cross fingers!) we didn’t get close enough to hit our first stretch goal. I think to hit at least one of the stretch goals might have helped drive interest in the project and maybe enable us to raise more overall.

I think if I did it again, I would knock $1-2k off the goal so we’d hit it sooner and push toward the stretch goals.

3. Make more digital rewards

Even with only three physical rewards to make (the book, the t-shirt, the art prints), we still have a huge headache ahead of us when it comes to production and shipping. I live in New Zealand, Bree lives in London and our backers are spread far and wide across the world. We chose mostly digital rewards for our stretch goals so everyone could enjoy them, which I do think was a good idea, but for a future project, I might look at including more digital bonus content reward tiers to cut down on the shipping nightmares.

4. Have pre-orders ready as soon as the campaign ends

I’ve had messages from people who want a copy of the book but didn’t hear about the Kickstarter in time. We’re working on a way to manage book pre-orders, but it’s taking a bit longer than I’d hoped because reasons. In future, I’d have this on lock so we could point people on the Kickstarter page directly to a pre-order page.

5. Look for international press

Because of the high shipping costs of getting our book out to overseas backers, I focused our marketing efforts on New Zealand. However, I was surprised by just how many overseas backers we had. Well over half the backers for physical rewards have chosen overseas shipping (I’ll have a more exact idea once I’ve sent out the surveys). I did not expect this, but I guess it makes sense. I back Kickstarter projects all the time even if the shipping is CRAZY because the idea is too cool.

In a future campaign, I’d look at approaching more international publications and blogs for PR.

There you have it! If you’re thinking of running a book-related Kickstarter campaign (or any crowdfunding campaign), I hope you find this advice useful and experience all the joy of seeing your project become reality!

Stay tuned for some exciting news about Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones.

Steff Loves: Jane Heidersdorf – illustrator of the feral and fantastical

I saw this banshee illustration online a few days ago and through it would be the most perfect thing to hang in my new ensuite. I love the gentleness of the lines and how it’s creepy and serene at the same time.

Banshee

The artist is Jane Heidersdorf, and the rest of her work shares this serene, fae-like beauty. She calls herself an illustrator of the ‘feral and fantastical’, which is perfect. Jane lives and works in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Rosemary’s Baby poster, original for <> Gallery.

In surreal, moody mixed media compositions her work explores everything lurking in the dark and unseen, may it be creatures, thoughts or fairytales.

One of 7 illustrations of the Brothers Grimm tale, 7 Ravens. Jane made these into a print book you can buy from her Etsy shop.

Jane has a patreon where she’s creating 100 pieces of haunting, ethereal mermaid art for a scientific mermaid encyclopedia. Seriously, check this out because it looks AMAZING.

Cover artwork for the metal band Xanthochroid.

When she’s not drawing or crafting you can find her dabbling in writing, photography and animation, or stalking the local squirrel population.

You can see more of Jane’s work on her website and buy pretty things in her etsy shop (books) and Society6 shop (prints and objects). 

Gothic tales, predator cities, and the moon blows up: books I’m reading in July.

Winter has settled over New Zealand like a wet wool blanket, cold and scratchy and damp all the way through. We’ve had the fire cranking in the Great Hall most nights, and since we are trying to cut back on the amount of TV we’re watching, I’ve been reading a bit in the evenings instead.

You can see from my list below that the wintery nights are giving me a lust for the literary gothic in all its forms. My reading tastes are quite diverse – gothic horror, YA, fantasy, dystopian, mysteries, memoir, hard science fiction, I love them all. Here are some of the books I’ve been devouring over the last month.

The Folcroft Ghosts, Darcy Coates

Darcy Coates is an amazing writer who proves how well you can do when you take one thing you’re good at and just do it again and again. Darcy writes haunted house horror with a gothic style and a distinct flair of her own. She excels at creating suspense and creating characters you care about deeply who are far from stupid. The Folcroft Ghosts was Darcy at her finest. Fifteen-year-old Tara and her brother Kyle have to go live with their estranged grandparents in a remote mountain house after their mother ends up in a coma. Of course, their new home has some other inhabitants…

Read now

A Line in the Dark, Malinda Yo

A YA psychological thriller about friendship, love, obsession, and rumors. Has a weird POV shift in the middle. I see why it was done now that I’ve finished the book, but it’s quite jarring. What I LOVED about this book is that this is an LGBT book that’s not about coming out, which is too common I think for books in this genre. A lot of the characters aren’t 100% likable, but they feel very real. I also loved the Asian-American cultural aspects portrayed with subtlety and grace and without feeling like lip-service. The twist at the end was very twisty. The main character writes a comic that I really wish was real because it sounds awesome. A bit of fun, and I would read more by the author.

Read now

Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve

The Cantankerous Drummer Husband picked up a battered copy of Mortal Engines from a secondhand bookshop in Salisbury ten years ago, intrigued by the concept of ‘Municipal Darwinism.’ He then proceeded to read most of it aloud to me because I couldn’t wait for him to finish it to find out what happened.

With the movie coming out at the end of this year, I had to pick this up off my bookshelf to remind myself what happened. This is actually the first print book I’ve read in a couple of years, apart from some research books I’ve read chapters of. It’s just as awesome as I remember. Stunning concept, captivating characters, beautiful story.

Read now

Educated, Tara Westover

Tara Westover grew up preparing for the End of Days, watching for the sun to darken, for the moon to drip as if with blood. She spent her summers bottling peaches and her winters rotating emergency supplies, hoping that when the World of Men failed, her family would continue on, unaffected.

She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in doctors or hospitals. According to the state and federal government, she didn’t exist.

As she grew older, her father became more radical, and her brother, more violent. At sixteen Tara decided to educate herself. Her struggle for knowledge would take her far from her Idaho mountains, over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. This book is about the power of learning, and about how education can separate us. It was absolutely stunning, uncomfortable and sometimes viscerally terrifying at times (the father is a health and safety nightmare), and an amazing story of resilience and self-determination.

I LOVED Educated. If you want a good memoir, I thoroughly recommend it.

Read now

Seveneves, Neal Stephenson

This might be the best science fiction book I’ve ever read.

“The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.”

That’s the first line. It only gets better. In two years bits of the moon will rain down on earth, destroying all life. What do humans do? They launch as many spacecraft into orbit as possible and attach them to the International Space Station, so a small population can ride out the Hard Rain and continue the human race.

But humans, of course, are humans – capable of both bountiful intelligence and unimaginable stupidity, impossible kindness and unfathomable cruelty. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say that everyone makes the EXACT mistakes they’d make in reality, and we end up with the same human race we’ve always had.

Seveneves is long. I’ve been reading it since March, 10 minutes at a time. I find it hard to binge-read long books because I always feel like I’m making no progress, and so nothing that happens in the next fifty pages could be that big a deal in the scheme of things since there’s so much to go.

If you dug The Martian and anything Heinlein wrote, you will love this.

Read now

Consort of Pain, Eva Chase

The third book in the Witch’s Consorts Series, which gives a classic gothic setup a reverse harem spin. A little like my Briarwood series, book 3 sees Rose and her boys on the run away from her home. We got a lot of answers to lingering questions about what’s been going on in the witching world in this book, and learn why Rose’s father wants to bind her magic so he can control it. There’s an uneasy truce, but it means Rose is going to have to battle something even more powerful than the Witching Council if she wants a future with her boys. Eva’s books are always a pleasure.

Read now

The Silent Companions, Laura Purcell

Some doors are locked for a reason…

I get a lot of book recommendations from the Haute Macabre Stacked column – those ladies have a similar taste for the stylishly bleak and literary gothic. The Silent Companions was a recommendation for May, and I immediately one-clicked it onto my Kindle. I’m 50% through and not disappointed, although it is tense reading for just before bed. Unreliable narrators, madness, a bleak house in the English countryside shunned by superstitious villagers, and creepy children… what’s not to love?

Read now

What are you reading right now? Recommend me some awesome stuff. I’m particularly keen to dive into some really interesting non-fiction, memoir, and biography.

You could totally read my books. They’re great. Start with The Castle of Earth and Embers or The Sunken.

Hide your father away – priest holes in the 16th Century

The priest hole at Harvington House.

If you’ve read The Castle of Fire and Fable, you discover that Corbin’s library at Briarwood holds a secret – a priest hole used for concealing Catholic priests who were persecuted following harsh laws during Elizabeth I’s reign.

Like many of the details in my books, priest holes were a real detail present in many castles and stately homes across England. Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, following the death of the Catholic Bloody Mary. Elizabeth needed to restore order and demonstrate her father’s Church of England would take no shit, so she made it illegal to practice the Catholic faith, and clergy found performing Catholic service could be charged with high treason.

Much of the nobility were old Catholic families (Anglicanism only having been made the state religion by Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII). They wished to continue to take the sacrament and attend Catholic mass, so they would hold secret mass in their homes. A whole network of safe houses sprung up across England – like a great sacred underground railroad – marked by secret symbols like wax discs bearing a cross and a lamb (Lamb of God – and no, not the band). Priests were smuggled into the country as visiting teachers or family members, and these “recusants” continued to perform the sacrament in secret.

But no one messes with Bessy and her anti-Catholic decrees. The crown established a force of “priest-hunters” (pursuivants) to ferret out these traitorous priests. They could conduct surprise raids on homes suspected of harboring a priest. The charge for hiding a priest was also high treason, and families could be tortured and punished accordingly. As for the priest, they could expect to spend some time in the state torture chamber before execution.

Families started installing ‘priest holes’ to conceal both the priests and their vestments and other sacred objects if their homes were searched by priest hunters. Priest holes might be hidden in attics, in hinged stairs under staircases (as in this picture in Harvington Hall), behind chimneys, in water closets, or behind panelling or bookshelves. One large stately home – Hinlip Hall – had as many as 12 holes scattered throughout the house.

Most priest holes were small – barely large enough to fit a man inside. Some were larger, hiding spaces used as churches or meeting places for Catholics. Sometimes, priests would have to hide inside the holes for days as the priest hunters’ searches grew more thorough. There are stories of priests asphyxiating or starving to death inside their hidey holes.

Priest hole at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk

The architect of priest holes

A Jesuit dude named Nicholas Oren went around the country installing these priest holes in castles and halls from the 1580s. He was known for designing holes that confounded the priest hunters. He designed and installed thousands of priest holes, and is also believed to have masterminded the famous escape of Father John Gerard from the Tower of London in 1597.

He kept the secrets of these families even when he was captured, tortured, and killed on the rack in the Tower of London. It’s believed many of his priest holes are still undiscovered.

Owen was sainted by Pope Paul in 1970, and is now known as the patron saint of illusionists.

More info

Here’s a Pinterest board of Priest Holes

Daily Mail article about the priest holes at Sawston Hall in Cambridgeshire

National Trust list of some of the best-preserved priest holes.

Some decent pictures of priest holes here.

Historians used 3D mapping to discover this priest hole at Coughton Court.

The Castle of Water and Woe is (finally) here! And check out this amazing fan art!

Severed hands, moving paintings and an erotic encounter in a priest hole, just another typical day for Maeve Crawford at Briarwood Castle.

With Maeve’s sister Kelly on her way from America and the fae threat looming ever closer, things at Briarwood are more desperate than ever. When the coven discover an old portrait of Maeve’s mother might hold a valuable clue to help them defeat the fae host, they travel to London to uncover its secrets.

Under the bright city lights. Maeve discovers more about the mysterious origins of her powers, and one by one her guys open up about the dark parts of themselves they’ve kept hidden. In this most desperate of times, every member of the Briarwood coven must confront their own demons in order to unleash the full potential of their magic.

The Castle of Water and Woe is the third in a brand new steamy reverse harem romance series by USA Today bestselling author Steffanie Holmes. This full-length book glitters with love, heartache, hope, grief, dark magic, fairy trickery, steamy scenes, British slang, meat pies, second chances, and the healing powers of a good cup of tea. Read on only if you believe one just isn’t enough.

Note: This book contains characters who struggle with issues that may be sensitive to some readers, including self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, and unsafe drug use.

***

I’m really proud of this book. It’s the third in the Briarwood Reverse Harem series, and it’s full of action and revelation and OMG THE FEELS. Amazon messing up the release has been gutting, because it’s meant the book hasn’t got to as many people as it might otherwise. But we do what we can with what’s been given to us – I’m just glad it’s out now with the right book inside. (If you still have the wrong book, then email me on steffgreen@gmail.com and I’ll sort you out).

The Castle of Water and Woe is available on Amazon on Kindle and paperback, and is enrolled in KU.

(If you haven’t read this series, check out book 1, The Castle of Earth and Embers).

Briarwood fan art

The utterly amazing Caitlin sent through this charcoal portrait of Maeve. Isn’t it stunning? You’re amazing. Thank you so much, Caitlin!

(If you do any fan art from any of my books, let me know and I’ll happily share it).

Article on Self Publishing and smut panel at the National Writers’ Forum

I’m huddled in the writing cave right now, trying to break the back of The Castle of Wind and Whispers. 25k in, around 45k to go. I’m poking my head out to give you a few bits of news, then back I go.

The Kickstarter officially closed with $8740, or 109% funded! We’re pretty amazed. Bree is currently on a train heading across Russia, frantically drawing the next spread. The next couple of months we’ll just be sharing a lot of artwork, and once the book is finished (October) we move into printing and shipping all the rewards.

The Big Idea just published an article I wrote called 7 Things You Need To Know About Self-Publishing. Yay, listicle! Some of the things are probably not what you’d expect, so check it out if you’re interested in writing.

I’m pleased to announce I’ll be appearing on a panel at the National Writers Forum (Auckland, 20-22 September) called Getting Hot and Bothered: writing sex and romance, alongside Catherine Robertson (chair) and Samoan writer Lani Wendt Young. Details are on my Appearances tab. I’m super excited about this, and I’ll be attending the rest of the conference as well, so if you see me do shout out!

That’s all the news I have! Back to the writing cave :)

WE DID IT! Kickstarter 107% funded with 24 hours to go, and an update on The Castle of Water and Woe

Thanks to all you amazing peeps, Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones is going to happen.

Bree and I are… wow. Just wow. Pretty speechless. Crying a little. Grinning a lot. Pouring myself a celebration whisky.

This book means a lot to both of us personally and to know it resonated with so many of you and we actually get to put it out in the world and maybe make a difference is just the most amazing thing.

I’ll post a bit of a proper de-brief with some interesting stats once I’ve stopped with the shaking and the crying and the grinning and the whisky. We’ve got a wee thank-you surprise for you, too :) Just you wait.

We still have 24 hours to go, so if you have any friends or family that still want to back, now’s their chance. If we hit $10k, we’re going to be able to give every backer a downloadable PDF colouring book.

Update on The Castle of Water and Woe

Yesterday was supposed to be the launch of The Castle of Water and Woe, book 3 in the Briarwood Reverse Harem series. I say “supposed to be” because Amazon have completely messed it up.

When the pre-order went live, instead of sending out the file for book 3, Amazon sent out the file for book 2.

THEN, when I tried to fix it with them, they’ve messed it up completely and stuck the book BACK on pre-order.

So now, according to the Amazon page, the book won’t go live until July 3. I am trying to get this fixed so the book will go live now, but because I can’t speak to Amazon over the phone, I have to wait until their customer service team can get to me. Who knows how long that will take?

I’m not going to lie, this is a huge setback and majorly upsetting. I was so excited for everyone to read this book. But at the worst, it’s only going to be a few more days until it’s live for real, and I think you’re going to love it!

Thank you so much for your support and patience. It means the absolute world to me.

90% funded and 3 days to go. Can we do it? I SAY HELL YEAH.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. We crossed the 90% mark on the Kickstarter this morning, and it’s all thanks to your amazing support for Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones. Bree and I are just insanely humbled and honoured that you’re supporting us so we can make this book happen :)

We’ve got less than 70 hours left to hit our final goal of $8k, and we need your help to make it happen. If you haven’t already, make a pledge or share this project with your friends and family and encourage them to become backers, too.

If you’re a backer, ou might also consider increasing your pledge amount so you can unlock some of the other cool backer rewards – extra copies of the book, t-shirts, art prints, a personalised dedication, and even a custom artwork from Bree herself.

New artwork!

Right now, Bree is on a sojourn in Russia. She’s done some amazing new art and she finally managed to get enough bandwidth to share it with me!

A personal essay on The Spinoff Parents

The Spinoff contacted me about writing a personal essay about my experiences with bullying and what encouraged me to write this story. Of all the press we’ve got so far, it’s probably my favourite piece, but it also makes me nervous because of how personal it is. Let me know what you think :)

You can read it here.

Once again, thank you from the bottom of our wee gothy hearts for your support. You rock! Let’s get Little Death over the line!

xxx Steff and Bree

Ten days to go! Press for ONLY FREAKS TURN THINGS INTO BONES

It’s been a crazy hectic month promoting our Kickstarter, but Bree and I are absolutely blown away by the support we’ve received! We are now two-thirds of our way to our goal, which with ten days to go is smack bang on target.

If you haven’t already backed the campaign for this gothic children’s book about a grim reaper who gets bullied, then check it out Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones on Kickstarter.

Isn’t Bree’s work amazing? Check out more on her website.

I’ve been talking about this book non-stop since we launched. Check out some of our amazing press:

Yesterday I went on Radio New Zealand’s Nine Till Noon show with Kathryn Ryan to talk about bullying, writing, and why we chose a grim reaper as the main character. It was so much fun and I’ve been buzzing from the interview ever since. You can check out a recording on the RNZ website.

Blind and Bullied: Now a bestselling author, Steff Green’s next book is personal. Stuff.co.nz did a huge feature about the book and my story as a kid who was bullied.

I wrote a piece about learning to write for children on The Big Idea.

Attitude Live featured a write-up about the book, as did Arts Access Aotearoa.

And there’s still more to come!

Thanks so much to the amazing creators behind the Necronomnomnom, the Littlest Lovecraft books, and the Lil’ Eddie books, who’ve generously shared the campaign with their backers. Kickstarter is truly an amazing community!

We’re getting close, but there’s still a ways to go. Please, help us reach our goal by backing the campaign today. We’ve got some awesome rewards including copies of the book, art prints, and t-shirts. You know you want to. Dooooooooo it.

Do all the things

Image from MildArt, one of my favourite quotes from Jack London, who also wrote the poem I want on my gravestone.

Many people ask me, “how do you do all the things? I struggle to just do one thing. And you are over there throwing things around like Kanye in a Thing club.

Is that a topical reference? Do the kids still listen to Kanye?

I do love me some Thingliness. Bree and I had our Kickstarter campaign come out this month. (Check out Only Freaks Turn Things Into Bones and support us! We’re nearly halfway there). I’ve also got the next book in the Briarwood Reverse Harem series – The Castle of Water and Woe – out on the 29th. I applied for a grant/writers residency for a science fiction project. I have freelance projects to finish. I’m organizing a hiking trip and another big friend group event, AND our travel plans for next year. I’m doing media for the book. I’m writing on this blog. I’m snuggling cats and trying to be a half-decent wife and friend and still find time to watch The Handmaid’s Tale.

So here you go. Here is how I do all the things:

1. I don’t actually do all the things. From the outside it might look like I do all the things, but I really don’t. I have hundreds of things I have not yet done. I have many other things that I let slip in order to do these other things. I could blog more often. I could take lots of selfies and be better at social media. I could clean the house more (okay, a LOT more). I could do other creative projects and finish my cross stitch and paint the haunted house I’ve been trying to paint for the last three months and weed the garden and learn how to sew. I have not done those things because I am not superwoman.

2. I set my whole life up to facilitate the doing of the things. I knew I always wanted my life to look the way it does now, so I focused on getting it to look this way. I do not have kids. As of February, I haven’t had a day job. That’s a BIG thing. When I had a day job I was even more scatterbrained and did even less housework. I am totally and utterly driven toward doing the Things. Not everyone is like that and I’m not sure how to make that happen.

3. I subscribe to a low-information diet. I don’t pay much attention to day-to-day worldwide affairs. This includes news and events within my industry. Right now there is some INSANE controversy going on in the indie publishing world. Seriously, it’s nuts out there. I care, but not enough to read all the updates and social media buzz.

I believe it’s important to be informed, but seeing hourly updates and arguing back-and-forth on Twitter isn’t going to achieve anything. It doesn’t make me MORE informed. It doesn’t solve any problems. It won’t usually change anyone’s mind. It doesn’t make me feel good.

What does feel good is writing another book or doing another Thing.

Knowing isn’t always better. I also try not to be involved in things where I don’t believe I have the chance to make a difference. If I feel sad about something I see on the news, I try to donate to an organisation that’s trying to make a difference, and then I stop reading. My eyeballs don’t need to disseminate every single piece of news media. You may disagree with this. That’s totally cool. I 100% see the other side of this. However, a low-information diet works for me.

4. I have projects that pay the bills, and projects that I do for love. I always have a mix of projects going on – a book that’s for my core audience, freelance work that offers a guaranteed hourly rate, and projects like the Kickstarter that are more of a gamble. Multiple streams of revenue are good (I talk about this a bit here) and so is being able to switch from one project to another when you get tired.

5. I am always afraid. The fear is perpetual. It never goes away and the bigger you get and the more dramatic the project and the more personal the content, the more intense the terror. I am afraid that I’ll never be as successful as I am right now. I’m afraid that I’m actually terrible and people will figure it out and tell everyone in the world. I’m afraid that I’ve unwittingly created a character or story that hurts someone or contributes to a culture or belief system I disagree with. I’m afraid people will accuse me of copying them or doing something underhanded that I never did and will come after me with a smear campaign. I’m afraid that I’ve poured everything into a project and people will hate it and it will feel like they hate me.

Most of all, I’m afraid that I’ll have to crawl back to the tech-industry as a failure and get a normal job. That’s not the end of the world, but giving up is pretty much the end of MY world.

Fear can be paralysing, but it can also be a great motivator.

6. I don’t take rejection personally. Rejection at the beginning of the project (I didn’t get that grant. The publisher didn’t want my project) is easy to deal with. Rejection via reviews or critical comments after you’re put work out into the world is much harder. Often I just don’t read reviews.

7. I finish stuff. I reward myself for finishing one thing by starting another thing. You can’t ship what you don’t finish.

8. 95% is good enough. I get each project to a point where I think it’s perfect, then I get at least two other people with some expertise to look it over and give feedback / editing. Some stuff slips through. It’s usually not important stuff.

I could continue this process of refinement and editing for years to go from 95% to 100%. That final 5% usually takes as long as it took you to do the other 95%. But I could wait and refine and wait some more.

I wouldn’t be shipping. And I wouldn’t be eating. I like eating.

9. I need things to look forward to. I like to have lots of events and friend dates and travel and professional development to break up what is really quite a monotonous schedule (get up, feed cats, write, lunch, Gilmore Girls episode, write, dinner, read, bed). Anticipation is good vibes.

10. I compartmentalise my free time. I read for at least 30 minutes every single night. I try not to work on my computer or do anything else in front of TV or movies. If I’m at a party or having lunch with a friend, I pretty much won’t look at my phone at all. I don’t even have FB or anything on my phone. I do this because I’m on the internet 50 hours a week for my work. That’s enough. It’s really enough. I’m not gonna miss anything. But I WILL miss amazing moments with friends if I’ve got my face in my phone.

11. I cut the chaff. Periodically I take inventory of my life (usually if I notice I’m feeling extra stressed or if CDH or a friend notices I’m being extra scatter-brained) and cut the things that aren’t working. I do a LOT of things that haven’t Thinged in the way I wanted them to. There was my Corpsepaint Kitty web comic, and The Asocakalypse sock shop, and running content marketing courses for small businesses. There was the ‘Dummies Guide to Metal’ that went to a publisher and never came back, and the Gothic Wedding Planner AND the medieval craft book that went to another publisher and never came back. Many more things have ‘failed’ than have succeeded. Recently, I stopped my patreon because it wasn’t growing beyond the initial $50 a month I managed to hit when I launched it last year. I may readdress it in a year. I am also winding down as a wedding celebrant. Clearing out the things gives you more space for new things.

12. I am never ready. I just do it anyway.

There’s a quote from Steve Jobs that I admire:

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is — everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it.”

13. I apply for everything I want. There are lots of opportunities out there for grants, scholarships, prizes, residencies, etc for artists. If I think they sound cool, I apply, even if I think I haven’t got a chance in hell. Everything thinks they don’t have a chance, so they don’t apply. I once got a prestigious scholarship at University that I never imagined I’d be awarded. One of the organizers told me only three people applied for the scholarship. THREE. And I can’t help but think it’s because no one thought they had a chance.

14. I dream.

That is how I do the things. Some of it might be useful to you if you want to do the things. Maybe you have other ideas and methods that help you do the things. That’s awesome. Let’s all do the things!