[00:00:00] : I'm Carissa Andrews International bestselling indie author and CEO of Author Revolution. With more than 15 books published, it's safe to say I have made a ton of mistakes in my endeavor to become a full time author. The most important thing that I've learned in the past decade is that indie authors need to protect their creativity and their serenity. Being an author is a long game, and that's why I'm on a mission to teach other Indies just like you how to publish books with a sustainable rapid release method. I created the author Revolution Podcast to give you insights and actionable step by step strategies to help you do just that. If you're an ambitious author or one in the making who's looking to create a long term author career and a life you love, you found your tribe, my friend. Let's get your author revolution underway. Yeah, yeah, Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you've been enjoying the new expert interviews being infused into the episodes lately. Truthfully, I have been having so much fun interviewing guests that when I come back to an episode where it's just me talking, I kind of feel a little disappointed. Maybe it's the pandemic talking, I don't know. But either way, it's been an absolute joy being able to talk with other experts in the in the realm. And I can't wait for later this week because I have two incredible guests scheduled more on them later. But trust me, you are gonna love them. But in the meantime, you are stuck with me again this week, my friend. So last week's episode we had Ryan Z from Plotter. But as luck would have it, I was actually interviewed by Troy Lambert from Plotter as well on their Facebook page last week. Now in it, we were talking a lot about how I've been using plotter for my latest series, the Diana Hawthorne supernatural mysteries and, of course, the way I've used it and manipulated it inside of rapid release roadmap for authors wanting a way to plan out their yearly releases in more of a visual gantt chart kind of style. So if you're interested in any of that, I'll make sure to drop the link on today's show notes so that you can go back and check that video out. There was a lot to unpack in that 30 minute interview, but I think you're going to find most of it super valuable. However, one of the things that Troy asked me was pretty profound, and it's a topic I've personally had to deal with. In fact, it's been in my editorial calendar to discuss here on the podcast, but this week I chose to move it up because of its relevancy. Now that question was, as someone who teaches rapid releasing, how do I go about teaching my students how to handle curveballs when life throws them at you? So, for instance, is it ever OK to cancel or postpone your releases? Well, now, for those of you have been following the podcast for a while, you know already that this year I've had to do just that. Amends and immortals were both scheduled for coming out this year in a much earlier fashion. Amends was originally slated to come out in February, and Immortals was already planned to come out in the middle of the year. But I knew right around new years that it probably wasn't going to happen. There was just a feeling there. I wasn't motivated the way I would normally be in getting the writing done, and I wasn't really quite sure why. So after some soul searching, I realized that there were a few things at play within me. Now, last year was a very busy year. There was so much going on. Not only did we have the pandemic, which kind of came into play, but I was rapid releasing my very first big pullout series, the Wind haven witches. I wrote those four books, released them all, using the strategies that I teach, and there was a lot that kept me busy. But on top of that, I was list aiming, and I was getting this course ready, and I was trying to keep kids motivated because they all have their distance learning thing going on. But I reached the end of this and realized I'm kind of burned out, and it's not because of the rapid releasing per se, but because of all the things that kind of stacked on top of me all at once. So with all of that in mind, I decided for myself for my sanity and then obviously for my creativity that I was going to have to take a step back. I was going to have to remove the pre orders that I already had sent for both amends and for immortals and kind of let the journey unfold to see how it was going to go and to see how my creativity would return at some point. That was my goal anyway, So I've done a lot of internal work. If you followed me at all in my newsletter, I've been taking up the meditation styles and stuff inside of reality Hacker, which has been very interesting. It's like a journal. It's part game, it's part meditations. It's like this weird genre mash up of things, and it's been a lot of fun to kind of wrap my head around it. But it's also been really fun for spurring on my creativity and getting me thinking about things in a different light, which has helped not only writing and teaching, but it's really helped me in my creativity when it comes to Diana Hawthorn and the series that I'm trying to write because she's psychic and there's a lot of things that really can come into play based off of being a psychic, and it's all first person, so I have to embody her in the way that she would handle things. So I've been kind of incorporating all that I'm learning through this reality hacker stuff. I've been doing a lot of reading. I've been doing a lot of taking a step back just to allow life to unfold and kind of honor where I am in this journey right now, because let's face it, guys, we've been through an awful lot this past year with the pandemic. We've been through an awful lot trying to put on more responsibilities on our shoulders, to either earn money or help kids keep their grades up. And let me say that has been a struggle. I am not going to lie. There's so much stuff that's been compressed this past year, and so giving myself a little grace and giving myself the permission to have a little bit of grace has been super beneficial. So when Troy asked me that question, of course, my answer was, Hey, you always have to prioritize your health, your well being, your family. Whatever the case might be before your release strategy, your books are always going to be there you're audience will understand if you have to push things out. This whole process, this whole game of being an indie author. It's a journey and it's part of our lives. It's part of our DNA. It's part of who we are, but we still control it. We are the masters of our careers were the masters of everything that we're trying to do right now. And we have to remember that even if we set dates, dates can be moved. We are upsetting our own deadlines because that's part of this business. It's part of the industry, but it doesn't mean we are omnipotent. It doesn't mean we know everything that's going to be thrown at us at any given moment. And sometimes life does throw curveballs. Sometimes it's a pandemic, and then sometimes it's You have to move a house, or sometimes it's kids who really need a little more motivation and help and support, and that takes time away from writing. So there's all sorts of things that can come about. But for me, when I was thinking about what are the main things that could really cause you to need to take a step back and need to push out those dates. The three that really came to me first and I think that are really prevalent. Our number one burnout. If you're a rapid release author and if you're trying to do this consistently, it can lead to burnout, especially if you're trying to do more than the four bucks a year that we are recognizing with the rapid release strategy inside of rapid release roadmap. If you've been trying to release a book a month or faster or trying to do a lot of different things all at once, burnout is a really big deal because it puts your body into stress mode. It puts your mind in a stress mode. It shuts you down in a way that makes it extremely difficult to be creative, and we are creative people. So if we shut off our I guess, source of creativity, because that's really what it is. Our source of creativity gets shut down because we are so burnt out. Then things become drudgery. It becomes harder, not necessarily impossible, but it can become no more a joy and the whole point, in my opinion, when it comes to releasing your books and putting your words on page and trying to get your books out there really is to enjoy that process, to enjoy the world you're creating or it's a catharsis. Maybe some of you are writing books that are really difficult, and you're trying to get difficult information out so that it's processed on a deeper level. One of the guys that we've worked with in the past, through the Lakes Area Writers Alliance he lost a child in his story was nonfiction, and it was him trying to process through those emotions of losing a child. So there's different ways that we handle ourselves through our writing. But ultimately, if we're fiction writers, our goal is to enjoy our process. And if we want to do this as a career is to enjoy the process. So when you reach burnout like the way that I did and I think I was operating and burn out a lot longer than I realized because honestly, I wasn't taking days off and we've talked about that on the podcast before as well. And all of those things compiled together really make for a toxic environment when it comes to creativity and getting things done so. Burnout is huge. Make sure you're watching for signs of that. If you're snapping at people, if you really don't know why, you don't want to do something. If your creativity is not working and your story, even though you love the story isn't coming, there's a lot of things like that that can interact and play a part. So the goal then, is okay, burnouts happening. I need to shift my dates and for me. When it came to all of this, I put amends and immortals completely on hold. I didn't put dates out there. I talked to my p a Jenny. She and I kind of went back and forth, and we kind of came up with an internal timeline of when we think we're going to put this book out far. And I felt in the future that I felt there was wiggle room but close enough where I am not letting my timelines run away from me if you know what I mean. And all of that was very good. And we'll talk a little bit more about how to, you know, make sure you're not allowing burnout and some of these things to really derail your progress entirely. But number two there's another reason why you might have to move things around, why a release might have to get canceled or get postponed. There's obviously family and life situations come up or even world. Planetary stuff. The pandemic obviously being one. Maybe you are pregnant. Maybe a family member dies. Maybe someone gets really sick and you have to help out. Or maybe it's just kids who really need some more support through this pandemic. And if their distance learning still or anything along those lines, there's a lot of life situations that can really put pressure on us. And if we are not careful, we could almost resent the family in life situations because you're trying to get the deadline met that you yourself have created. Now. My advice here always is that family comes first when it's possible to postpone a launch or a release or anything along those lines in order to be more supportive of family. That's where your energy should lie, because, let's face it, your books will be there. Your audience will be there. Your stories will eventually come out. But kids are only going to be kids so long. Parents who may be failing with their health are only going to be around so long. There's all sorts of life situations that have to get work through and a lot of the times. You'll find that if you don't put family first, they're always in the back of your mind, and it's causing more stress with your stories. It causes more issues when it comes to your creativity. So always, always put family and your life stuff first, because you are always going to be in a better place at the end of it. The number 31 of the reasons why you'd have to push off any kind of release or post opponent is truly uninspired stories. Now with amends. I knew the storylines that I wanted to do, but I felt like I was missing something, and probably most of it was my creativity was just kind of juiced out. I needed to kind of refill that well. But uninspired stories can come in lots of different disguises. You can be in this rut where you're writing the same type of story over and over again, or you're using a formulaic expression or Maybe you've been writing the same series for a while, so all of the storylines are uninspired and there's no more creativity that you're really pulling from. So when that happens, you need to be kind of switching gears for a little bit. I think you need to get inspired again. Start reading in your genre, which is something that we've covered before. Start watching shows again that are going to spark some creativity within. You. Talk with other authors about how they would handle certain things, research different ways to pit characters against one another. Insert new characters. For me, one of the greatest things that I did was I started reading again, and I put some effort and emphasis on the first thing in the morning. The first thing I do is I grab my cup of coffee or my teeth and I sit down and I read at least one chapter every single morning, and I did that using KF Breen's magical midlife series. I guess it's called the Leveling Up Series, and I'll tell you what. It was the best thing I could have done because it inspired me in a way to bring in more humor into the Diana Hawthorne series. So immense has a lot more humor. Oracle itself. Diana has always had humor, but I've kind of amped it up even more because I enjoyed that process of reading those types of characters. And I have characters who play very well in that kind of drama. So it works very well. All of these things. When you're uninspired and your stories are uninspired, it's time to take a step back and allow yourself. I guess the room to play an experiment and try something new, because everything can come together at that moment once you've had that opportunity to take a more critical look at it. But also a more playful look at it. A more inspired look at it, a more creative way to look at it, obviously. All right, so what about when you're just trying to procrastinate? How do you know the difference? How do you know between burnout and family life stuff and uninspired stories? How do you know it's that? And not just I really want to procrastinate on this thing. Well, unfortunately, only you are going to know the answer to that. You're going to have to ask yourself those questions. What is it that is making me want to push it out? Is it fear? Is it something that is getting in the way that you haven't even realized? Maybe there's new client work, and you've been prioritizing that instead. I know I've been guilty of that. Procrastination can also be in the form of releases. Haven't worked out for me in the past, and so I don't want to be disappointed again. I know this is one that plays in my mind. Sometimes I don't want to be disappointed again, and so therefore, I'm going to kind of drag my feet. All of these things can the symptoms of just being a procrastinator and not wanting to get things done burn out, on the other hand, is going to feel heavier. It's going to feel like nothing feels right. Like every request, every situation you're trying to get over, or everything that you're trying to handle is too much writing in emails, too much. Making a phone call is too much. Dealing with dinner is too much. That's burnout. It filters into everything that you do not just your creativity, but when it comes to your stories. Procrastination is something that we all have to get over. And we do that by setting those deadlines and by giving ourselves maybe some rewards or punishments, depending if you're a punishment type of person. I personally work better with rewards. But hey, um, to be able to give yourself a reward for finishing a week well, or doing something that is going to make you happy. For instance, Um, Jenny and I, she's trying to reward me for getting amends written. And so every time I write a chapter, I get this gold star on a chart and we talk about it on our inner sanctum chats on Facebook. We do these inner sanctum chats on Sunday nights, and it's just a silly conversation. Everybody has fun pretty much everyone who comes into this Facebook Live knows each other, and so we're just goofy as heck. But we talk about my progress with the book that I'm currently working on, and she's got this big chart that we go through, and every week the people who are joining know how many chapters I wrote because I get to put stickers on my chart. Yes, I'm a kindergartner what can I say? But there you have it. You really duty to ask those questions on what is the reason? The true reason. I want to postpone or push out a launch. And if there are those legitimate reasons, like burnout or family life situations or uninspired stories, take the time. You need to get your head back on straight. Take the time you need in order to master your story and produce something that you're going to be proud of. You don't want to put crap out into the world, right? You don't want to do more of that. You want to be able to write the compelling, interesting, dynamic stories that you know are brewing within you. So make sure even if you're putting out a rapid, really strategy, even if you think you're going to get it all taken care of and something is getting in your way, don't allow perfectionism and this idea that you have to stick to it to be the only option. You are in charge of your career and you are in charge of how you handle all of those deadlines. So if you're like me where you set a deadline and it's really difficult to switch things up. Just know you're not alone, but that it is still okay that nothing is going to go completely wrong, that the life you live is fine, that the world will keep turning and your readers will still come back even if you miss a particular deadline and have to cancel a preorder or have to push it back, whatever the case might be. Well, I will also mention this year if you're in this particular vote right now. One of the interesting things that I found when I had to cancel amends and immortals is that Amazon is allowing because probably this whole pandemic has shifted a lot under our feet. They're allowing all of us to be able to cancel a pre order. And normally it would say you can't put another pre order up for an entire year, which would be a huge bummer. But there are actually allowing us to cancel pre orders. And then as long as you email them and say, you know what happened, why they will reopen your ability to put a preorder up, which is what I've done this year. I was able to cancel both of those preorders. And when I felt like I was ready and I knew things were going to be flying again, I was able to put a men's up for pre order, which that is the only pre order I do have up notice. I have not put immortals back up, even though I've got to cover ready for it and all of those fun things. But I do plan on once I have amends ready and it is launching, I'll have the pre order ready for immortals because that's not happening until July. So tell me, have you ever had to postpone the launch? Or have you ever worried that if you set up a rapid, really strategy, you might not be able to deliver on it? So maybe you don't even bother? If so, drop me a line inside the author revolution Facebook community and let's have a discussion about it, because I really do think we need to normalize the fact that we are setting these deadlines and yes, we want to stick to them and we want to deliver the information in the books and the entertainment to our readers when we say we're going to. But sometimes we also have to prioritize our own self, our own well being in our own mental health. All right, So in addition, don't forget that you can head over to today's show notes at author revolution dot org forward slash 73 to download today's transcript or get a link to the things that we discussed today. Like the interview with Troy at Plotter. Alright, my writerly friend. That's all I have for you today. I hope you feel a little bit more comfortable about setting a rapid release strategy, knowing that you can always alter things as you go on. Life is a game, my friend, and so is writing. Sometimes you just have to play the hand you're dealt with or get a new set of cards, right. It's okay to make changes, and it's okay to embrace whatever is coming at you at that particular moment in time. All will be well speaking of, well, it's time to get some of my own writing done. And as we know, amends is not going to finish writing itself. It's also your turn. Go forth and start your author revolution.