Wasting Time - Day 10

I hate wasting time. The older I get the more I hate it. I’m far too aware that I just don’t have as much of it left as I used to. So to waste it - to not to make the most of each and every moment - to me that’s worse than wasting money on that very expensive hand painted tuxedo shirt I bought in Aspen one winter twenty odd years ago and wore only once. Money you can always figure out a way to make more of. But time. You can’t get that back.

As the author of a book on the subject, It Takes An Egg Timer, A Guide To Creating The Time For Your Life, you might think I never commit this crime. But I do. And when I think over the past five years I admit readily that I have most definitely wasted a bunch of time.

Like when I was waiting for The Book Deal. The one every writer dreams of - or at least used to dream of - back when you didn’t have to commit some obscenely outrageous act or become a reality star, to be deemed worthy of a coveted deal from a Big Six - I mean Big 5 Publisher.

I waited and waited. I was that sure it would happen. I just didn’t know where or when.

But as we know, it didn’t happen. When I knew I couldn’t waste one more minute waiting to get picked, I picked myself and self-published, The Secrets They Kept.

I think sometimes of how much further along I would have been if I had made that decision earlier. If I hadn’t been wasting time waiting for outside validation that I was a good enough writer to be read. 

But of course that is the biggest waste of time of all! 

The truth is alot of really great things happened because of that waiting. 

I would never have started to blog and learn about things like Twitter and Facebook. I wouldn't have self-published which really forced me to take a very deep dive into all things digital. I wouldn't have taken all those courses and attended conferences and discovered people like Seth Godin and David Meerman Scott who reminded me how much I love marketing and left me qualified to teach a class in digital marketing at NYU. I wouldn't be consulting and demystifying digital for individuals and organizations.

So I suppose I was never really wasting time at all. I was just getting prepared for what was next. I just didn't yet know what that was going to look like.


note: This is Day #10 of a 30 Day Experiment. Here are the details on how it all started.

50 Shades of Envy

I admit it. I am jealous, hexed, completely thrown off balance. Out of seemingly nowhere, an erotic trilogy surfaces that serves up a great big seven figure advance to the author. Seven figures! The fantasy number for any would be or already published writer out there. The one you think is only possible if your writing reaches to that high level of literary distinction that will allow your books and your name live into perpetuity, like Emily Bronte, or William Shakespeare.

At least that is the way things used to be. No more.

The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy is not that kind of writing. Nor is that of Amanda Hocking, another recipient of the seven figure prize. I doubt we'll find that in the memoir of Amanda Knox when that is published. Or in that of Andy Cohen, the 40 something  Bravo executive whose memoir also landed him a number with seven digits. And don't get me started on Sarah Palin's $1.25 million advance. But that is the way things work today. If a corporation thinks they can make a lot of money really, really quickly they'll advance. Good writing is secondary to the equation. ( Note that in the case of E.L. James and Amanda Hocking both were already selling books like crazy and Amazon bestsellers before a Big Six publisher even considered pulling out their checkbook to write a number with that many zeros. But that is the subject of another blog.)

Don't get me wrong. I liked Fifty Shades of Grey. Enough to read the second in the series, Fifty Shades Darker. Last night I dove into the third, Fifty Shades Freed. And I've recommended it to my friends. Do I think it is great writing? No. But for its genre it is very well done and rather addictive and I'd like to think that once Vintage Books, a division of Random House, gives it a real edit, it will read a bit smoother than it does now.

Was it worth the $9.99 I paid for an e-book? Absolutely. This is entertainment reading, a chance to escape into a fantasy world that makes you laugh at the absurdity of it at the same time you turn the page to find out what will happen next.  And for the record, I am not a suburban housewife, though the trades will tell you that is the only group reading it. There are many, many urban singles and working mothers who are staying up late with Christian Grey. Rick Santorum take note. As one of your colleagues said, sex is popular, as is reading about it.

But back to my jealously. It's created a bit of writer's block.

Questioning what I am writing and why I can often struggle over one word when self-editing when others can repeat the same adjectives page after page, as if they have never read it twice and rise to the top of best seller list. Is success in anything...be it writing or a business or a traditional career path, not about honing skills but more  like the lottery? You buy a ticket and you play to win but it's anyone's guess whose got the right combination of numbers. Today it's E.L. James. And while I am envious, her success also offers hope. She wrote what she wanted to, she wasn't afraid to put it out there and the Universe has responded with a resounding seven figures. Or at least Vintage did.

What do you think about the extraordinary success of 50 Shades of Grey?
Have you read it? 
Do you think it warranted a seven figure advance?

On Sale Today, For Your Reading Pleasure

I am not a woman of few words, although Twitter has helped me in learning how to write in 140 characters or less. But today this will be brief. After countless hours, days, months and yes, years, of writing, dreaming, thinking, editing, trying it the traditional way, throwing that aside and editing again, this novel is out in the world. Technically it was available for sale yesterday, but for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is today's new Moon, I selected September 27 as my official launch date.

I like new Moons. I like ritual. I like superstition. Maybe it is the Greek in me. In any case, a new Moon is said to be a magical time of new beginnings when you can recharge intentions or set new ones out into the world. My intention to become a published author has been on many my new Moon lists over the years. It took a while and it certainly did not unfold the way I expected it to, but then what was I thinking? I'm really not a conventional kind of girl. Why would I have followed the established route? 

The print edition and the Kindle edition of The Secrets They Kept are available today on Amazon.com.  There, I said it and I admit it feels a bit surreal. 


If you read fiction, I invite you to buy a copy.
If you like it, I invite you to give it a Like on Amazon.
If you really like it, recommend it to a friend. Tweet it. Facebook it.
If you really, really like it, write a review on Amazon.

Having not gone the traditional route there is no Big Six Marketing budget to drive attention to my novel. Just me and my intentions.

Which, by the way, is to spread the word as far as our viral, interconnected world will allow.