Author Self-Care
May 5, 2023 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as author self-care, motivatrion, tracy read
Happy May.
Yes, I’m going to say it . . . I can’t believe it’s already May. The year is almost half over and I still have things from the first quarter I need to do.
Okay, so I’m going off course with this post and talk about a subject we as authors are guilty of not doing . . . self-care . . . wellness. I don’t know about you, but I am slowly moving back into society after three years of isolation. I still wear a mask. No judging. I happen to be highly allergic . . . grass, watermelon, horse hair, peanuts, cats, some dogs, dust…the list goes on. The other reason I’m still masked up, I’ve been undergoing some dental work and don’t want to catch anything before my next procedure..
Thanks to COVID, I have neglected myself. My beauty or maintenance regime has been very inconsistent. Prior to COVID, I went to the salon regularly. My hands, feet and hair were always on point. I worked out five days a week between 60 and 90 minutes per day.
As we are on the back end of the pandemic, I got a revelation. I need to take regular breaks. I also realized, haven’t been good about my self-care. I did a self-check and was shocked how easy it was for me fall back into some of my old habits. Not getting enough sleep was at the top of my list. When I don’t get enough rest, my thinking is cloudy and clear and my writing makes no sense.
So how am I going to resolve this? With baby steps.
First off, if I were to go all in with a major wellness change, I think I’d freak out. I really want to rest from all work for three consecutive days a month. Then I want to break the late night television binge. I have been hooked on Perry Mason reruns as well as the new HBO version. These two shows have kept up beyond my sleep time. The next thing, I want to do is gym five days a week for an hour per day. Third, I want to eliminate junk.
Believe it or not, the easiest thing on this list to do is eliminate junk food. Telling my body no to junk food was easy. Telling my body to go to bed earlier wasn’t. Here’s the weird part, my body clock still wants to get up at it’s designated time regardless of when I got into bed..
What does all of this have to do with self-care/wellness? If we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t count on anyone else to do it for us. The main reason for self-care is to live better . . . get stronger . . . get healthy.
If you haven’t already, I challenge you to start a wellness plan and or journal. Pencil in three day breaks every quarter. Remember, on these breaks you aren’t allowed to do anything work related. Then I want you to adjust or evaluate your sleep schedule. I won’t ask how many are on a regular sleep schedule, because we’re writers. We write when the muse speaks, but let’s train the muse to visit us during the day so we don’t have to be up late..
Next on the list, cut back on the junk food. Do I really need to explain this to you? You know junk food isn’t the healthiest option. However, the occasional hamburger and fries sort of just hit the spot. If you aren’t working out, get a plan. Start out with a brisk walk a few times a week. Then add some strength training. Trust me on the strength training. You need all the strength you can get to set up your book tables at signing events.
These few changes will help you stay healthy and wise. Trust me, your brain will welcome the opportunity to recharge.
Here’s to a new healthy second half of the year.
Tracy’s Books
AUTHOR RECOVERY
January 5, 2021 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as Planning, promotion, series, tracy read, writing
Happy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful holiday.
This morning I woke up to a daunting historical fact. Five years ago, I made a rather strange decision or idea to publish a title a month for a year. I’ve spoken about this project several times over the past years. When I set out to do it, I had one main reason, to sell more books.
I heard the best way to gain readers and sell more books was to write more books. I also heard it was easier to do advertising with more than one book.
When 2016 started I had one full-length novel, a novella and a novelette. What I didn’t have was a completed series, or at least a duet. I now know that was a big mistake. If I were to ever do another challenge like that, it would center around one series.
I have learned a lot about writing and publishing books. I think I finally have a handle on my writing style and what my readers expect from me. I write books that aren’t necessarily written to market. In my books someone is always wrestling with their feelings, raging hormones and how they mix with their faith. I like to hook my reader with something a little sweet and sassy so they can get to know the characters. The heat levels grow as the series progresses. In my writing world, the characters need to read like real people. It should feel like you’re reading about someone the reader would actually know.
I have three series and two duets I need to tie up. I’m not saying I’m going to tie up all of these collections this year, but I’m going to try.
I’m also guilty of using cliffhangers…another thing I tried to sell books. I think it would have been successful if I’d immediately released the next book in the series.
Last year I didn’t release a book and my sales suffered as a result. What did I learn from this…no new book and a lack of marketing my backlist leads to no money. I did however, participate in some incredible free promotions which gave me awesome results. My book Unexpected Love was #1 in one of my categories on Amazon US and UK for three days. I was on the roof. Both of my other books peaked in the top ten of their categories.
These promotions yielded several thousand downloads and sales which I loved.
I take responsibility for my low sales, because I failed to do adequate marketing and advertising. I refuse to kick myself for not sticking to my production schedule. I was distracted by a little thing called COVID-19.
So what is my plan for this year? I’m not quite sure. I know I’ll be releasing a book in February. My goal is to release the next in that series approximately three months later. I’ll also be releasing new covers for my Alex series as well as another book.
The other thing on my list is the follow up to Unexpected Love. I have the cover, title and eleven thousand words. Seeing several free copies have been downloaded and it ends in a cliffhanger, I need to release the follow up asap.
Before I start any writing plan for 2021, I’m going to take a few days, clear my head and make a reachable and achievable plan.
So what’s your author plan for 2021?
~Tracy
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