After an extremely busy last two months of 2024, the new year of 2025 has started off in a slow, peaceful place of writing– just writing. This respite from the constant marketing of my first book has been a welcome relief.

Indie authors spend a great deal of time attempting to promote their books. For me, personally, it feels icky to be constantly posting about my book on social media and traveling to local bookstores to ask if they’d carry a copy. Marketing is a whole thing.

After a while, it can become pretty disheartening, and if you’re not careful, you’ll forget why you started writing in the first place. It’s easy to fall into the trap of worrying over how many sales you make or how many reviews you have online. (Newsflash– not many! I’ve discovered people don’t really like to leave reviews.) I’m competitive and a goal-setter, but I’m learning to go easy on myself.

Here’s a list of things that I said or thought in the beginning that I want to remember now. Maybe this list will help you, too.

Reminders to My Writer Self:

• I’m so thankful for the ability to put my thoughts down on paper.
• It’s really fun to create an entire world, populate it with characters from my imagination, and give them amazing adventures.
• I want to learn all I can about writing, editing, illustrating, formatting, publishing, and marketing a book. I love to learn new things!
• I want to write stories that let kids know that they aren’t alone.
• I hope to encourage and inspire imagination in my young readers.
• If just ONE child reads my book and enjoys it or is inspired by it, then I’ve made my goal.
• I’m blessed to be able to enjoy this career.
• I’m excited to be working on a new story, and I’m enjoying every day of creating this new world to share with others.
• Just the acts of writing and reading are pure joy!