You probably think that most of an author's time is taken with the writing, right? well actually although that is a very important part of the role there is a lot more to it, especially for independent or self-published authors.
So, I thought it would be a bit of fun to share what my working week looked like this week.
Due to a couple of family crisis, I missed the deadline to get the edits finished for my sixth book. So, the first thing I had to do this week was email my designer and apologise for the delay and set another deadline that I hope will be realistic.
Then I emailed the people who had bought on pre-order to let them know that the book was on its way, but there had been an unforeseeable delay.
Next, I had to check in with all my social media to answer queries, reply to comments, and check messages. This included checking in with my author association.
Then emails, there were sixty across my inboxes, about half of which needed answering immediately as people had been waiting to hear from me. The rest were divided between my answer this week, answer within a month, or moved to trash.
After that was a meeting with my web designer and maintainer, he needed to let me know what had been going on in my absence, and to find out what I wanted him to spend this month's retainer time doing.
Then I had a meeting about a podcast interview that I am taking hosting.
After all the business 'stuff' then I could get back to my edits.
Unsurprisingly a writer's life it isn't all launches, signings, photo shoots, in fact very, very few of them are like that. It isn't even just about writing.
If you decide that being an author business is the life for you, just keep in mind that as it grows and the better you do, the more of a business it becomes.
In no way is being an author a stressful job, and I will not pretend that it is, but it has its ups and downs just like every other area of life. If you follow my author pages social media, you will there are days when my hair is up in an elastic band, and I'm eating chocolate pudding at 11am (albeit an Alpro pudding, 11am isn't really pudding time).
And if you are interested in an author business for yourself you could start here, with my Masterclass Membership, £37 a month to access twenty years of sales and marketing experience and shortcuts.