Hi there,
One week is past since the experiment started and I am startled and
overwhelmed. I started taking part of the three day lasting IndieReCon on Tuesday,
a conference set up by and for independent publishers; that means mostly
writers who decided not to (or sometimes couldn’t) join the mainstream
publisher and sell their books online or by investing their own capital in
prints.
I have to admit that I was impressed by the high amount of information.
Each hour a new post was charged on the webpage and discussions started nearly
7 minutes afterwards, when the first participants finished reading it. Besides
the posts and the discussion boards there were life-chats and video interviews.
The days started at 8am and finnished long after 9pm. In only three days I have soaked up so many different aspects of this career, I
can barely sum it up and I certainly wasn’t able to digest all of it at a time.
And I think that is actually my major problem right now. Having a wide
overview about what is in front of me is certainly positive for a pragmatic and
strategic approach, but it did steal the breath out of me: There is so much to
learn!
When I read the profiles of the people organizing the conference I feel
stuck. How are they able to write and publishing one or two books each year on
their own, while still having a regular job and also being a mom/dad? …I wonder
if something goes wrong with my interior time perception or my vital energy. How
do they do it? Are they exchanging their Duracell’s every 48 hours to continue
non-stop? What about the rest of their lives? Don’t they have friends to meet,
places they want to visit, other hobbies to experiment? Don’t they ever have a
bad day or get sick?
I would be envious, if it wouldn’t appear so surreal to me. I know time
is a relative thing, and the more skilled and experienced you get in something,
the quicker you are. But even if they are having a high degree of expertise, in
order to be able to manage several pages a day, after coming home from work, after
having family dinner and after putting their children’s to sleep, it still
means a lot, a lot, a huge amount of sacrifice! So yes, what else can I say but
merely “respect, ladies and gentlemen!”
But now, in order to not let me down, and not give up after the first
week, I need to put myself more concrete goals. I need to concentrate on
writing first. How about a short story every week? Is this very daring?
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