Do It Yourself

These days, writers are expected to do everything themselves: create video trailers, write back cover copy, run contests, suggest cover art scenarios, maintain social networks, offer newsletters to readers, update their websites, even publish their own books. What happened to simply writing the story? Is it any wonder that our production levels may have decreased due to these other demands on our time? When you decided upon fiction writing as a career choice, were you aware of what you were signing up for?

On the other hand, we have so many new things to learn that it can keep our brains active until we can no longer stand on our own feet. E-books! Royalty-free images! Movie making software! Smashwords! iPads and iPhones and Kindles and Nooks! Enriched e-book content! Digital autographs! Virtual book tours!

Where does it end? 

I've recently spent hours of my time formatting a backlist title for the Kindle, consulting with the cover artist, then doing the upload myself. Now it's time to tackle Smashwords.

Do It Myself, or hire someone to format the work for me? Sure, I could probably learn how, after hours of trial and error. But is that time well spent just to save a few bucks, or is it better to work on the next project instead?

Readers want more books by their favorite authors. They don't care if we've done our own book trailer or figured out how to upload the work to Kindle. It's the results that matter.

In the days of advances, this would be an easy decision. Hire somebody. But nowadays, when we get no money up front and have to spend every dime out of our own pocket, it's not such a swift decision. We can save a considerable amount of money by Doing It Ourselves. The main cost is to our productivity and creative energy.

So how do YOU balance your time between learning new techie tricks and writing the next book?