Budget! I'm referring to the budgeting of time. Any author's life is filled with a multitude of responsibilities including family, friends, not to mention that most of us have a day job. I mention friends and family as responsibilities because we'd be awfully lonely without those we love in our lives, so they deserve our time and consideration. So then, it becomes doubly important that we budget our time for writing and promoting.
I belong to several yahoo groups as well as Linkedin, Twitter, and Triberr. These are all things that I am part of in order to chat with readers and promote my erotic romance books. I check emails each morning and usually before bed. In between, it becomes a matter of budgeting my time. After all, I'm the main one who cooks and cleans, so if I want to work on the next book, then I better make good use of my time.
Ah, another crucial B word…Book! Writing the next book needs to be our first priority as authors. Readers look forward to our next new book whether we are writing a series or just singular stories. As a reader myself, I know this to be true. Immersing ourselves in the creation of a story can also be thought of as our temporary escape from our demanding lives. We should enjoy what we write, not worrying whether the next story will sell or not. Each new book deserves the love of an unencumbered heart. While it'd be great if the next book made us rich, we can't write something worthy of reading under such pressure.
Our last B of the day is Blogs! Having recently started my own blog, I've come to realize that promotion work needs to be done, and done with enough efficiency not to leave us exhausted. This is one reason I've always loved doing guest blogs. I keep it to one or two a month, which allows me to meet an intriguing new group of readers from each blog. Exciting fun!
So what are your thoughts on Budgeting your time? I've tried multi-tasking but dinners tend to come out crispy and dark. Lol. Especially, if a particular scene is particularly hot and spicy.
How do you manage your time in order to get the next book written?
Mary Corrales
