I’d like to Share these Hats I Wear

Someday, very soon I hope, I may just do whatever it takes to hire a personal assistant.  When you’re a mom, working full time, running a side business and doing your best to keep up with all the daily distractions life in general tends to throw at you, there are days when you wish you could just clone yourself.

While cloning myself sounds like a brilliant idea, I’m pretty certain it would end in chaos as it did for Michael Keaton in Multiplicity. 

So why this sudden (really, it’s not so sudden) idea for the need to hire a personal assistant?   

I’m at a point with my writing when I feel a constant tug between the creative side and the business side of writing.  I’ve finished the second book in the Jorja Matthews Mystery series and am currently working on editing the manuscript but I am also in the midst of continuously promoting the first book as well.  With another book signing scheduled the end of this month and potentially two months from now, as well as a very large event for both books this summer (details to come soon), there is much to be done.

The need to complete all tasks can become tricky as you attempt to find the time to complete those tasks.  Hence, the desire for help.

When I made the choice to become an Indie Author rather than spend all my spare time trying to acquire an agent and a contract with a traditional publishing house, I knew I was in for some hard work but it was hard work I knew would move me forward rather than leave me feeling immobile.  I had also read enough by other authors about self publishing to know I would be wearing many more hats than ever before. 

And it is definitely a large number of hats!

I believe I am fortunate to have run my own private investigative agency for over a decade before becoming a writer.  Had I attempted to write and publish books before I was a business owner and still working for someone else, I would have likely treated writing as a hobby.  It is the knowledge I have learned from running my own company that has allowed me to treat my writing as it should be…a business.

But a business owner can wear many hats and a writer is certainly no exception.  Writing is the enjoyable part of this business but the serious side of writing is what helps sell what you’ve created.  Marketing, sales, social networking, accounting, distribution…many tasks involved with each also make a writer learn how to manage multiple projects at any given time.

However, there are those days when there is only so much one person can do.  As I move forward towards my goals with regard to writing and publication, I will keep an eye on the prize which will surely be marked by the ability to acquire the assistance I need so that I might finally share some of these hats I wear.