Saturday, 23 May 2015

An Author's Day


A Day In My Life

Firstly, apologies. I said from the beginning I wouldn't blog regularly. However, I had intended to do more than I have. Sorry. I will try to do better.



05:50 – ‘sunrise alarm clock’ starts kicking in

06:15 – alarm now has full sunrise in motion, accompanied by radio kicking in (time to groan and  roll over)

06:20 – gradually drag myself into the land of the living

06:35 – finally admit I cannot stay in bed all day (begrudgingly), and heave arse out of bed

06:50 – valuable reading time done whilst carrying out ablutions (tmi?)

07:00 – having thrown some clothes on, stagger downstairs to make packed lunch & breakfast

07:10 – eat breakfast trying to catch some news on BBC Breakfast

07:20 – shit! Is that the time?? Rush out the door. Get to car. Rush back in for Kindle.

07:50 – phew, made it into the day job OK. Thanks be for quiet traffic.

08:45 – had coffee, which helped me get through meeting first thing

10:00 – been hard at work ‘adminning’ (yes, I made up a new word), but now wondering how many hours are left in the day. Decide it’s too many!

10:30 – coffee number 2. Will this day ever end? Storyline is knocking but I’m trapped here so I can’t do anything about it.

13:00 – managed to be productive, but tummy rumbling means time for cheese & apple lunch. 30 minutes to scoff food and read some other indie authors’ work.

13:30 – back into office. Feel sleepy after food so coffee number 3.

16:30 – yay; I managed to focus on admin work all day (well, I did it, whilst my heart was longing for a farmhouse retreat)

17:05 – get home. Option 1) exercise 2) feed cat 3) collapse on sofa (interchangeable dependent on mood)

17:30 – if not done so already, feed cat (anything to stop the meowing)

17:35 – check in with fb/Twitter/Goodreads/Amazon sales or reviews whilst greeting hubby as he gets home

18:00 – time for feeding! Option 1) hint at hubby until he makes dinner 2) make it myself (usually option 1 wins out here)

18:30 – eat dinner, perhaps whilst still typing replies to people

18:45 – think about blog.

19:00 – brain hurting. Just sit and relax in front of TV

19:05 – get distracted by personal fb

19:10 – write sarcastic comment on hubby’s fb, just so he knows I’ve remembered he’s sitting next to me :-/

19:30 – try to promote existing books and worry I’m not doing enough

20:00 – need a bath (tends to keep flies away). Take opportunity to read.

21:00 – too tired to do anything now. Plan on writing book as soon as I get home tomorrow.

22:00 – Go to bed, exhausted (having actually done PC work most of the evening even in the gaps where I’ve pretended I don’t)

Exciting, huh? Weekends might see a bit more sleep, sometimes a day out or amusing step kids. I occasionally get space and time to write.
This sounds like I’m moaning. I’m really not. Having been made redundant five times I’m grateful to have a job at all. I need to keep a roof over my head somehow. I just wish I was able to ferret myself away when the writing bug grips me, just to get some words down. The writing Mistress is a cruel one; sometimes she comes calling at inappropriate and/or inconvenient times. By the time I manage to get home I’ve forgotten what she was trying to tell me.

But I wouldn’t change it. I love writing. I truly do. And for now at least, I’ll just grab the best opportunities I can to practise my craft.
One day I’ll get that farmhouse. Mind you, I’m sure that naughty writing faery will still wait until I’m with a holistic client before making an appearance ;-P

But here’s the thing; I spend my life feeling exhausted. Sometimes there’s holistic clients and step children to slot in around my hours. I write, re-write, get proof readers, edit, stagger through book cover options, promote with every spare moment. Fine, that’s my choice. But with an increasing number of sites advertising free eBooks, there’s fewer and fewer people willing to pay for all this blood, sweat and tears. It’s not like I’m asking for much; way under what the traditionally published hard copies of yore would’ve done. Just an acknowledgement / a small token of my hard work would be nice. And something which costs nothing; a review once you’re done please.

There are currently around 287,000 romance books in the Kindle book store. If I ever want to climb the rankings I need people to buy my books, but for more people to buy my books they need to know they exist, guess how you can help. Yes, those precious reviews really do help others notice and decide whether or not to buy. So please please do leave reviews for books you’ve read. I personally read every single one, and get thrills of excitement every time. I just love hearing what people think.

And the best thing about the modern way of publishing means that the majority of authors now have some sort of social media presence. You can like fan pages, chat to us etc.
Should you wish to find me, I can be located here:
or: https://twitter.com/TLClarkAuthor





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