how do I measure me, let me count the ways

So many. I mean, there's counting the miles I've run. And how fast. And then there's counting the number of words written, hours worked, dollars earned and spent. And of course, we can't forget the nagging question: How many glasses of wine did I drink? (or cookies did I eat? or pounds did I gain?)

And now, with my new goal of measuring my progress as an Indie author, it's just gotten worse. How many books sold? / blog hits tallied? / stars awarded?

The saddest part of all of this? I've been trying to be LESS goal-oriented.

So I'm going to let go of something. It might seem small, but to me it's big. I'm going to stop worrying about how fast I'm running. In fact, I'm going to run my upcoming half marathon this Sunday without a watch. (Gasp!)

It's terrifying, I know. But don't worry. I'll survive.

Meanwhile, I'm making progress on getting ideas for how to fill in the self-judgement void I'm pretending to create. For example, I found a great QueryTracker post about how to ask people to review your book (and have more of them say yes!). The short answer? Research.

Know your market and new releases in it, then figure out whose hands your book should be in to give it the greatest positive exposure, says blogger and novelist Mary Lindsey.

I think the idea of working to cultivate reviews is a great investment. First, reviewers are readers and I always love to hear what readers have to say. Second, it's important to know your space, and what better way than to read books with great reviews? Especially if it gets your book into the hands of people who might like it.

The key, I think, is to not look at all of this as work. I read (count 'em) 4 young adult books in the last 2 weeks in an effort to get a better handle on the voice for my next book. The books, which I will soon be reviewing on GoodReads, were fantastic and fun to read.

So, reading books similar to The Blind Pig should also be fun to read.

And what better way to spend these frighteningly hot spring days than reading? Hmm. Let me count the pages…