Hey everyone,
So, in case you’re looking to do this, I can officially tell you that changing your name is a royal pain in the behind.
I mean, sure, if you’ve been thinking of changing your name for years, finally doing it will make you feel free in ways that you couldn’t have imagined and it will give you the gift of feeling like the architect of your own identity. As a bonus, it confuses the trolls, which leads to ridiculous levels of fun.
But man, the admin. So much admin.
I put it off through all of last year, but I decided that I just needed to get in there and sort out my “brand.” So that’s what I’ve been doing, knees deep in WordPress, mucking around with SEO and graphics and work that’s so boring I’m falling asleep just telling you about it.
What is exciting is that I have finally– finally!– made a decision on what I want to do with my books for writers, the indie published titles, and…. drumroll please… I’m going to republish them all under my new name. I am incredibly excited about this and there is a lesson in here that I want to share with you, that will maybe help some of you ease up on the pressure you put on yourselves.
So to back up, I have eight books for writers out right now. I have another three that are written and ready to be released. On top of that, I have ideas for nonfiction books that are not for writers but that I’d like to indie publish. I want my books to become my primary source of income in the next year or two and for that, I need to publish them. Shocking, I know.
For years, however, I haven’t. I couldn’t tell you why. I haven’t been able to explain to myself why either. Every time I think, okay, this month we need to launch print editions, something in me says, “It doesn’t feel right.”
That’s where I stop. It’s taken years of discipline to do this but now, if something feels wrong in my body, I don’t do it. I still berate myself for not doing it– I’m not that evolved– but I don’t do it. I’ve lived this in my personal life and endured violence and I’ve lived it in my professional life and set my author career back by a decade. So now, if for some reason, I’m screaming no on the inside, I won’t do something even if it’s the logical right thing to do.
So, here I was, my mind saying, “Publish the goddamn books,” telling you in email after email that the print versions are coming, I promise, and there I was, sitting in front of my computer feeling like it just didn’t feel right.
I didn’t release the print and audio editions. I didn’t even publish outside of Amazon. I just keep thinking I should and then not doing it.
Except, now I’ve changed my name.
And finally, finally, for the first time in forever, it feels right. It feels good.
Later this month, I’m going to go in and list out all the work that I need to do for these books. I imagine it’s a lot. Since I’m bringing out new editions, I figure I might as well update them, get them re-edited, and of course the covers will change, and I need to learn about getting print editions designed and recording audio and… and… and… the list goes on.
I have no timeline on this, but I hope to get started next week and first re-release the books that are already out, and then start publishing the ones that I’ve already finished. After that, I want to fall into a nice rhythm of finishing nonfiction titles regularly, just as I do now with my fiction. With the nonfiction, though, I’ll be indie publishing them so hopefully it won’t be years from when I finish to when they finally make it to readers (sigh).
It’s a journey I’ll be sharing here, of course. Even though I’ve been in the indie space for a while now, I haven’t gotten serious with it. This year, I’m going deep, and I hope to share the lessons (and the mistakes) along the way.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you how I intend to use my journalism and blogging to help my books, especially the nonfiction I’m indie publishing, and hopefully it’ll help give you a new perspective too.
Cheers,
Natasha