Do the Thing: Knowing when to stop

Doves (Love in Los Angeles, Book 2) comes out on January 21, which is…16 days away, and I kind of wish I hadn’t counted that out just now. Our blog tour is also starting soon, and it’s going to be bigger and more extensive than our tour for Starling was. And while that means good things in terms of our marketing, it also means much more work for us. We kind of both just want to take a nap already.

But, even with as much marketing as we do, I always wonder if we should do more. After all, every new blog post on another site hits another potential audience, right?

Which is probably true. But there’s a cost/benefit thing going on, which is basically that the more time I spend marketing, the less I have for other things. Like actually writing. And sleeping. And while a lot of times that tradeoff is worth it, to an extent (our rule of thumb is an hour of marketing every day, for each of us) there is a point of negative returns. Like this morning when I emailed Racheline with a new list of blogs to possibly add to our tour, and she replied with, in essence, “Staaaaaaahhhp.”

Because as much as we want to talk about the book in all the places, we do have to keep writing new projects. And sleeping. And paying attention to our partners and our cats. And not overextending ourselves to the extent that we can’t actually deliver on what we need to.

There are never enough hours in the day to do everything I want to. I’m still learning how best to prioritize the time that I do have. And it’s hard, to let things that I want to do and that would benefit me, go,and put some things to bed so I have the time and the brain to do other things. But it’s also completely necessary, so I don’t get a heart attack and don’t miss deadlines.

So what hard choices are you making this week, between all the things you want to do? Leave a note in the comments, and we’ll be encouraging, offer whatever advice we can, and always give you a high-five for doing the best you can to make the hard choices.