(This is an excerpt from my Indie Author Survival Guide, available on Kindle and Nook.)
What? We’re Doing It Again?
Now go do it again.
It may seem impossibly overwhelming to hear those words. How can you keep up this pace? How will you survive when you’ve barely gotten through this book launch, and only then on a steady diet of cheetos, fruit loops, and day-old coffee?
Breathe. It does get easier. The second time around and the third will still have butterflies doing combat drills in your stomach, but by the 17th title, even that goes away (don’t ask how I know this). But seriously, you will become an old-hand at this publishing business faster than you expect. That’s when you get to lift up your head and peer into the future. To make adjustments to your Five Year Plan. To begin to flex your freedom muscles as a writer. To really embrace what you’re doing: building a career as well as a business.
Have a latte and savor the moment.
Then put your nose to the grindstone and write another book. It’s why you’re doing this, right?
searches end with the words “… of the future.”
hands (iPad, iPhone, iPluggedIn), and it increasingly feels like the Future Is
Now. Being a gadget person, I’m not averse to any of this (quite the
opposite), but I wonder what will happen to bookstores. I used to pedal my
bike to the local mini-mall, where an independent bookstore was tucked in a
tiny space next to the Sav-On. Every week, I would spend about half an hour
scanning the Science Fiction shelves searching for just the right book to spend
my allowance on. I used to dream of having a room in my house, wall-to-wall
with books.
bookstores as much as possible, hoping to keep them afloat. Then they converted
half their floor space to toys, and more often than not, I couldn’t get the book
I wanted. Sure, they could order it, but hey, I can do that from my house!
Without paying for gas (or shipping, since I’m a “member”). It drove
home for me that giant bookshelves of books was possibly the least
sensible way to gain access to stories and would one day (soon) become a museum
exhibit of the way that books used to be
distributed. That sentence will make some people shudder, but instead of becoming mired in nostalgia, I pictured
the real Bookstore of the Future. The one that just might keep the brick-n-mortar stores in business.
be.
steroids.
animated touchscreens in the children’s section.
screen for a skyped author visit.
want a personalized search bot that finds me all the books I will love.
I want my obscure, hard-to-find, nearly-out-of-print book printed in the shop while I sip tea.
I want a cozy
place where people gather to have their writer’s and book club meetings.
I
want to sit in an overstuffed chair by myself or with a friend while we talk
books.
I want a place that welcomes local authors as well as
touring celebrities.
I want a place that hosts writing competitions for youth.
I want a place to go for classes on literature enjoyment, analysis, and creation.
I want a community
gathering place that celebrates all things literary.
morning, High Tea in the afternoon, and wine-and-cheese at night.
latest book-reading gadgets.
Future be Amazon?
But no one has a lock on the
future – it’s there for the grabbing by the one with the most imagination.
I agree! Love the sound of that kind of bookstore!
I'll have what you're having!
Why don't you open one- sounds like you have all the right ideas.
That sounds like the PERFECT bookstore. Ever since the Borders closed by me, I've only been in a bookstore once or twice…so sad. I used to go there just to hang out!