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KEEPING THE WORK ALIVE!
The best "give" with which an author can bless herself (sorry guys, this time the pronoun goes to us OK?smiles) is to work to keep her published book(s) in circulation.
When I got my first three contracts in children's books there was no real internet and definitely no Google search!! I hope you use and bless it now as much as I do!
Why not commit to even just fifteen minutes a week - (while sipping a guilt-free cup of creative self-love)- to surfing online for leads, book blog promoters, links etc that will potentially guide readers online to click "BUY NOW!" on your books at Amazon or to seek you out on your blog/ web site/ you tube/ Face Book - use the tools that feel right for your energy level.
Remember to use your book trailers and keep it fresh - update your blog, photo or post something about a new creative project and then plug your books. Putting out new content is a must if we are to keep our work alive and "alove" online. (I haven't been able to update my custom website for years so I recently started new content with blogs and you tube.)
The truth is we all want the same things and deserve the best out of life - in my belief and experience this is practical and possible for each person in our unbounded universe. Tune in afresh daily and allow your intuition to guide your ambitions.
Over time you will clarify your creative missions and clues will begin to shout, not just nudge you - the only secrets are: listen and "obey" i.e. follow through. Whatever the outcome, assess the lessons learned. Very often creatives I meet are in accountant mode when they need to be working on some other aspect of their craft or business. And of course the most important work is the one we do within ourselves. Rest when it is time to rest. Develop a daily discipline of paying attention to your creative ideas and leanings. Don't knock the clock! I am often surprised what a quarter of an hour will render - as Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way) has pointed out, time becomes elastic when we don't make it a stumbling block to our creative work. Be kind and generous to your inner creative spark - it is De Vine and will bear fruit according to its own good season: Good Orderly Direction.
Accepting that day jobs or side lines are a great way to support our creative loves is a greater wisdom than negating society, the government, economies, and every ubiquitous "They" who don't "get" us and what we do. It is not that we should not be art activists when it is appropriate, but thinking and feeling this way habitually will surely clog the flow and our ability to magnetize all the goodness we desire and deserve.
I say often in workshops that thinking "community" over "competition" is the best way to spread our wings. Creative work has a time when it gestates in solitude and then a time when it finds "family" with fans.
Network freely by sharing the love - join blogs/ add links you like and so on but don't stop there, contact people online who inspire you or whose work feels akin to your own sensibility. Everyone enjoys this kind of sincere, active support.
Creative Blessings always and all ways and most of all...
Happy Writing Adventures!
http://meaningfulbooks.blogspot.com/
http://meaningfulbooks.blogspot.com/
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