The most recent easy growth came from finding Becca Syme and Clifton strengths. I attended an in-person conference 2-3 years ago because I was struggling and in burn-out, knowing zilch about Becca and the strengths. That conference set me on a positive growth cycle that is still in play. Becca and the Clifton strengths has helped me grow personally and professionally, so a big double win.
I gained a better understanding of what drives me and of what makes me happy. I stopped trying to fit into a mold that wasn't me. I also have a better understanding of other people's motivations and needs and that has helped with my personal relationships.
I see. That's great. The growth we're talking about is less personal growth and more business growth. How does that growth positively impact your business growth?
Let's see. I can write again, so that definitely helps the business grow 😀, and I no longer waste time trying to do all the things that authors are told they must do to be successful, which frees up time for me to do the things that suit me and will benefit my business.
Okay, but I am trying to understand what you are trying to get out of this. Nothing you have told me helps me help you find your path of least friction.
What are those things that actually help your business?
Already breaking the rules. 2 things. One was last year's 45K kickstarter, which was almost 20K in pure profit. IT was easeful because it was a kickstarter that didn't require a lot of prep work or a lot of fulfillment headaches. It was simple, didn't have super fancy special editions, and the process of the campaign itself was joyful. Lots of people were excited and I got some of my best and most recurring clients as a part of the whole thing. The second was a recent conference where I gave the plenary session and sold books at a table. I made 2K of sales from a conference of barely over 100 attendees and am still reaping the rewards in halo effects, future speaking gigs, and high paying coaching clients.
similarity 1: they're both based on the fairy tale part of my fiction, not the fantasy. The thing that sells more, not that I love to do more :) Similarity 2: Both didn't require a lot of crazy work, because they were built on years of previous cachet being built through things like podcast episodes and blog posts (over years).
My challenge is trying to attract a literary agent to represent me. It was easy at the beginning to send out the first 20 queries when I was highly motivated and confident agents would love my MG fantasy about a boy who enters a magical pumpkin world where every day is Halloween. But now that I'm close to sending out 100 queries (after revising and tweaking them and the opening ten pages many times) my rejection letters are getting better, but they are still rejections. And I'm getting discouraged. The only time it gets easier is when I pitch agents at conferences and they ask for fulls. However, they too have failed to become offers to represent me. And conferences get expensive after a while.
Hrm, that's not really how we think about challenges. This is reading ahead, but we consider four kinds of challenges to align your HAPI compass. Heart, or project challenges, audience challenges, prioritization challenges, and income challenges.
I think you have a minimum of 2 of these, and probably 3, but I don't know which one is your biggest challenge. If your biggest challenge was finding an agent, then working on that problem would lead to the result you want.
Since it's not, I can surmise that isn't your biggest block. Your biggest block is either a project challenge or an audience challenge.
Finding an agent is outside the scope of this challenge, and this day's task, but the question is why somebody says no.
The only reason for an agent to say no is that they don't think they either don't think they can sell your work, or they don't think they can sell you. So, how can you change that? There's a whole chapter in my book, How to Become a Successful Author about finding an agent, but for the purposes of this challenge, I would ask you to answer the task question, as they all build on each other, and maybe it will unlock something in you.
You are currently framing yourself from a negative, and I would ask you to reframe based on the task for today, which is What is one time something worked. It clearly won't be an agent, as that has not worked, but there is something that you have done that has led to growth, and that is what I need you to focus on today.
When I gave myself a 30 day challenge to post every day on Medium for 30 days. I found that I wasn't so worried about perfectionism. I mainly focused on completing the post and publishing it.
It didn't do that great. I eventually pulled it back into my own pub. But it was just a good feeling that I could have that kind of reach. That someone would contact me.
I have lousy biographical memory, so specific bits are hard to find. I can find some instances of teaching -- a college class about brain injury, teaching conversations about the brain with clients, giving written feedback to students learning to do research for their master's degree in neuroscience. The common elements, apart from teaching per se, were that these were people who wanted to learn and who brought their own questions or material to address.
I think that's great. So, do you think the key there is that you spotlight things that they should focus on, and you are seen as the expert, so people naturally gravitate to you, and trust you, that might be a commonality there?
I'd go for the seeing me as an expert and trusting both my expertise and that I want the best for them. In the cases of clients, they sought me out, yes.
In the college class, they were told to come by their employer; the thesis students were assigned to me -- so that was perhaps more earning the trust and credibility after they were my (captive) audience, so to speak.
I don't think I spotlight focus so much as maybe organise and simplify complex material. But/and I find it much less frictionless when I am the initiator vs when others bring the material they are interested in.
Amazing, It sounds like community is something that brings you joy. Do you think that it's more about the partnerships and working together on a shared thing, or maybe it's in people getting really excited about what you're doing, and evangelizing for you that is the key to that joy? Or maybe something else?
When I was posting on serial fiction sites and Radish started getting views and a little bit of money. I also love responding to comments on each chapter.
My positive growth memory/memories all relate back to writing and submitting fiction to other markets, getting acceptances, having an editor tell me what changes to make by when, and then enjoying sharing all the marketing pieces, like going to bookstores, conventions, conferences, podcasts.
Trying to do all the other stuff, especially managing time and making/meeting my own deadlines, has been what's gotten me stuck as I've tried to move more indie. THAT said, I've also had a bunch of health issues hit myself and my family in the past 7ish years that has required me to do a lot of life changes and be caretaker, which has been draining, so adding in all the extra stuff to be indie, like responding to layout, the supremely boring uploading process for all the things, has been painful and wheel-spinning. So much so I've lost the joy in even the writing. :(
Writing for other publications, anthologies, publishers, etc, is a great growth lever. It's one of the big 5, and it seems to have been working for you. And now, there are tons and tons of indie focused publications that are so much more accessible. So, why are you doing the draining things instead of the fulfilling things that bring you joy?
Well, I got my rights back for my epic fantasy series a little over a year ago because I'd fallen behind on their rapid release schedule, so I decided I would go indie. I was doing well until my mom was in and out of the hospital this year, so I pushed back the kickstarter, trying to catch up, and then launched it while I was at DragonCon... it did very well, and now I'm in the place of doing all the little things to fulfill... but doing all that also set me back on writing. I feel like I have no time to write because I'm still trying to do all the nitty-gritty that also has deadlines, like uploading the books, assigning their ISBNs, etc. The fantasy series, itself, is a sprawling thing with multiple books already written or in various states of being written, and there's not a lot of places to just have something that big where I can do the writing on my own schedule. But now I've started down this path... I've gotten lost / overwhelmed. (And I still am dealing with the health and family caretaking, which has its flare-ups that can just drain me for any random set of days.)
So 1. you can have somebody else fulfill your campaign. I don't touch my books for most campaigns, and 2. it's December, and you're a month from 2026. So, let us work on getting you found. Do this exercise.
I don't really know how I'd find someone else to fulfill the campaign / upload the 2 books (it was a duology)... and wouldn't that have to be letting someone else into my accounts? For future ones, I might see if I can hire someone, but for right now, the thought of finding another person I trust to access my accounts, and then training them.... sounds like more work?
I don't think it's an all or nothing thing. I have a fulfillment house I'm happy to connect you with that fulfills campaigns. IDK what accounts they would need to access to fulfill your stuff. You download a csv file and send it to them.
Exercise is printed up for me to do in the morning! Thank you! <3 And I might reach out to you for more info on fulfillment houses. I don't want to clutter the comments though. Thank you again! <3
Oh, this is a hard one. I loved Indie publishing back in 2013/2014 when I could put out a book and make a nice income. Better than I ever made with Kensington/Zebra Romance. Now it feels like a struggle. With over one hundred books, you'd think I would be making a killing, but sometimes I wonder if I could earn more at Walmart. Sorry, I feel like Debbie Downer today. It's Bookkeeping day, and that's always so much fun. Tomorrow I'll be better.
It can be very hard, but I do hope that while we are hanging out together this week you can imagine if growth was possible, and work to envision that.
When you think about the fun bits now, what do they look like, even if you have to slice a lot of other stuff away? Anything standout as particularly joyful?
I'm really not snarky, but telling Mr. Zacharius in a blog post that the little book that they gave me $3200 advance, which sold out, and they would not reprint, had made over ten times that much being indie, felt really good. It was on a post where he didn't believe Indies were making much money. At the time, we were all making great money. I loved my stories, my books, the energy I put into them. I loved that time period. I want to get back to that feeling.
I love that. So what other actions were you doing? Were you running ads? Were you doing Facebook hops? What else were you doing to capture and encourage that joy? I love that moment you mentioned. Bring me back there.
My challenge this quarter is (A)udience. I've really enjoyed and been pretty successful at submitting to anthologies with similar authors. I do not yet know if this has grown my reach. I've also started using Bookfunnel and doubled my newsletter list with one promo (admittedly it was a small starter list). Quick to sign up. Fun to make images for posts. That seemed too easy (no matter what Chris Patterson says about me not trusting easy gains). I've had pretty good open rates from sign ups with somewhat smaller but acceptable click rates. I'm looking into Booksweep and tried out for Bookbub.
Soooo, similarities? Groups? Me, who hides in my office working all alone, might, maybe, possibly do well in groups.
Look at you. It sounds like you are vibing with collaborating with other people, either on somebody else’s thing or a new thing. How does that feel? Accurate or off?
I've always been the weirdo who liked group projects in school, or worked well with committees when practicing architecture. But honestly, I feel like I should figure it out on my own, somehow. Like . . . I don't know . . . you can't do group projects forever, right? Or maybe we cover this later in the week.
I just went on a walk with your last comment, and I think my brain just cracked open. Maybe I should say, "A lock was opened." But it feels more explosive than that. I need to mull this over, but I think shyte might be about to get real here. ~Cracked Brain
The most easeful growth I’ve ever had was when an app company reached out to me and asked to publish my work. I signed the contracts, sent my books, and forgot about it until they paid me my first check. One that eclipsed all my other income sources combined. New audience and zero friction. Damn. That’s making me see I need to try something new, grow into a new space.
I feel like my life as a fiction author was much more easeful when I was indie. Now that I'm publishing under two contracts I feel like I do nothing but wait and it's hard for me to meet deadlines for my fans while I'm stuck in required wait states.
I enjoyed getting publishing contracts, but I find now that they really don't do much for in the way of marketing and make it harder to keep promises to my fan base with regard to release dates, etc. I used to be able to promise without hoping I'd make my dates. I enjoyed being in control of everything, including being able to work with my preferred editors and cover artists and release marketing, as well as promotion (ongoing). One of my publishers still puts "free" extras at the end of my books that aren't books in my series where I would definitely be including "free" extras as the ends of my ebooks that were excerpts from my other books.
That sucks. However, that is a LOT of negative things. I asked for one POSITIVE thing that led to growth. Clearly, it sounds like you already have some stuff that could change.
What I want you to do is visualize a moment of positive growth, and embody how that felt.
For the next couple of days, while you're doing this work, I want you to leave the negative things down, for just a couple minutes, and remember the fun and joy, how that felt, and where to chase it.
Does that make sense? There are plenty of times to talk about the bad bits, and we do that all the time. I would like you to push past all that and remember the things that happened when positive growth happened.
It doesn't even have to be fiction or writing. You could remember becoming class president, or landing your first job, but we are trying to chase the joy here, and envision what frictionless growth even looks like.
Here's the positive that got drowned in the negative :)
I enjoyed doing my own marketing and easily keeping promises to my fan base with regard to release dates, etc. I loved being able to promise deliverables and know I'd make my dates. I enjoyed being in control of everything, including being able to work with my preferred editors and cover artists and release marketing, as well as promotion (ongoing).
:) There was some good stuff in there :) - I get what you mean, though. Focus on the positive. Don't drown it in negativity
Think back to one time when working on your business felt easeful.
While you can picture anything here, try to focus on one that you grew with ease.
* What were you doing?
* What kind of work was it?
* Who were you doing it with or for?
Two things jump immediately to mind:
1. Leading team discussions and strategic planning meetings (with my lone employee and my Wordsmith associates at that time, 2006-2009). These were in-person meetings in which everyone contributed, everyone had opinions—sometimes strong ones—that were sometimes in conflict. We worked it out. We made plans, and carried them out. We accomplished meaningful things together until we'd run off the end of the plan and into the weeds, or reality sidestepped our preparations, or it was just time to have another strategy time to share results and personal news, recalibrate, shift gears, etc. and do it again. We were doing this mostly for grad students and doctoral students, and also aspiring authors & mid-career authors who had lost their editors somehow, or realized they needed an editor "on their side" who didn't work for their publisher. I LOVED leading those meetings and being part of that team.
2. Public speaking, when I'm prepared practically and mentally, no matter who or what size my audience is. I find it so energizing, especially when I can see and read the audience, win them over, get them tracking with me. I'm usually teaching/explaining something, but sometimes I'm facilitating a discussion with the audience, trying to pull their experiences and perspectives out of them to affirm them and make sure they are heard by everyone else. I'm usually speaking solo but I also love team teaching, either with my wife or with a trusted colleague. Doing it FOR: the past twenty years it's been academics or literary writers, but before then it was high school and college kids, or urban residents of a particular neighborhood (the adults), or foster-parent candidates, or MOPS & expectant parents, and before that it was kids K-10th grade, and before that it was Scouts at camps or camporees, and before that... I'm skipping a lot. I just love seeing the light of comprehension / empathy ignite in someone's eyes. It never gets old. And it always helps my business these days: the more public speaking or panels or whatever I can do in person, the better.
I hope that's helpful. Now I'll go back and read the part about identifying my biggest area of friction. That will probably be graded on a curve, because everything feels un-easeful in one way or another right now. Except for getting lost in a great book. That's super easy and easeful, and easing to heart and mind...
Late to the party, but I'll catch up tonight :) I believe I know where I am ecosystem and SCALE-wise given previous discussion, but am still going through the challenge.
Easeful growth... I think of putting out a new box set, since it's mainly repurposing existing assets. Most of the work was done on the original book releases, so the box set feels easeful even if I include any extra exclusives. I guess because of the return for perceived effort? I have to get the original books out first, though.
I'm late posting on the challenge emails because I've been spending a lot of time thinking about answers while also running away from the challenge. When it felt frictionless... Back, years ago, MySpace was still a thing and Twitter was still a newborn. Writing books, blog hops and blog parties, connections with other authors felt more meaningful and connections with readers felt more personal (not in the they knew everything about you/stalker kind of personal), small writer/reader conferences, small digital presses... The focus was on writing and process and connecting with each other, not on ads and social media platforms and monetizing everything. When we could ask each other for help or for advice and not feel so alone, and not be directed to masterminds or coaching. It was hard, and I was a small pebble at the bottom of a mountain, but it was also fun and I learned a lot. I haven't felt that since 2013 or so, and then burnout took hold of me because the path was no longer clear and I was fighting everything.
It seems like you enjoy working with other authors to create experiences for fans, though. You talk about blog hops, blog parties, and other authors.
Those kinds of things can still exist, of course, we just have to choose that’s how we want to live, and then we can. I know you’re in phase ½ b/c you’re in burnout, but Collaborating and Spotlighting both are all about capturing this feeling in different ways.
I recommended my book in a reader group under a recommendation request post that was asking for almost exactly what I wrote. Got several times more sales in the next few days than I’d gotten in months.
The most recent easy growth came from finding Becca Syme and Clifton strengths. I attended an in-person conference 2-3 years ago because I was struggling and in burn-out, knowing zilch about Becca and the strengths. That conference set me on a positive growth cycle that is still in play. Becca and the Clifton strengths has helped me grow personally and professionally, so a big double win.
Cool. How does that growth cycle look specifically?
I gained a better understanding of what drives me and of what makes me happy. I stopped trying to fit into a mold that wasn't me. I also have a better understanding of other people's motivations and needs and that has helped with my personal relationships.
I see. That's great. The growth we're talking about is less personal growth and more business growth. How does that growth positively impact your business growth?
Let's see. I can write again, so that definitely helps the business grow 😀, and I no longer waste time trying to do all the things that authors are told they must do to be successful, which frees up time for me to do the things that suit me and will benefit my business.
Okay, but I am trying to understand what you are trying to get out of this. Nothing you have told me helps me help you find your path of least friction.
What are those things that actually help your business?
I guess I'm in a good place and don't need to get anything out of this. Thanks for helping me see that!
Already breaking the rules. 2 things. One was last year's 45K kickstarter, which was almost 20K in pure profit. IT was easeful because it was a kickstarter that didn't require a lot of prep work or a lot of fulfillment headaches. It was simple, didn't have super fancy special editions, and the process of the campaign itself was joyful. Lots of people were excited and I got some of my best and most recurring clients as a part of the whole thing. The second was a recent conference where I gave the plenary session and sold books at a table. I made 2K of sales from a conference of barely over 100 attendees and am still reaping the rewards in halo effects, future speaking gigs, and high paying coaching clients.
Amazing! I love both of these. Do you see any similarity between the two? Are there any overlapping actions that connect why they were so successful?
similarity 1: they're both based on the fairy tale part of my fiction, not the fantasy. The thing that sells more, not that I love to do more :) Similarity 2: Both didn't require a lot of crazy work, because they were built on years of previous cachet being built through things like podcast episodes and blog posts (over years).
My challenge is trying to attract a literary agent to represent me. It was easy at the beginning to send out the first 20 queries when I was highly motivated and confident agents would love my MG fantasy about a boy who enters a magical pumpkin world where every day is Halloween. But now that I'm close to sending out 100 queries (after revising and tweaking them and the opening ten pages many times) my rejection letters are getting better, but they are still rejections. And I'm getting discouraged. The only time it gets easier is when I pitch agents at conferences and they ask for fulls. However, they too have failed to become offers to represent me. And conferences get expensive after a while.
Hrm, that's not really how we think about challenges. This is reading ahead, but we consider four kinds of challenges to align your HAPI compass. Heart, or project challenges, audience challenges, prioritization challenges, and income challenges.
I think you have a minimum of 2 of these, and probably 3, but I don't know which one is your biggest challenge. If your biggest challenge was finding an agent, then working on that problem would lead to the result you want.
Since it's not, I can surmise that isn't your biggest block. Your biggest block is either a project challenge or an audience challenge.
Finding an agent is outside the scope of this challenge, and this day's task, but the question is why somebody says no.
The only reason for an agent to say no is that they don't think they either don't think they can sell your work, or they don't think they can sell you. So, how can you change that? There's a whole chapter in my book, How to Become a Successful Author about finding an agent, but for the purposes of this challenge, I would ask you to answer the task question, as they all build on each other, and maybe it will unlock something in you.
You are currently framing yourself from a negative, and I would ask you to reframe based on the task for today, which is What is one time something worked. It clearly won't be an agent, as that has not worked, but there is something that you have done that has led to growth, and that is what I need you to focus on today.
When I gave myself a 30 day challenge to post every day on Medium for 30 days. I found that I wasn't so worried about perfectionism. I mainly focused on completing the post and publishing it.
Amazing! Did you see growth from that in your connections, or was it mainly finishing and posting something, which is great by itself.
An editor from one of the bigger publications reached out and asked if they could publish one of my posts in their publication.
Awesome! I love it. Did you follow up in that area with other people like them? Or was it mainly 1 and done? How did it do when it published?
It didn't do that great. I eventually pulled it back into my own pub. But it was just a good feeling that I could have that kind of reach. That someone would contact me.
Is that something that feels good to keep trying? Or are you more interested in doing other things? Is there anything you are excited about trying?
Will continue to create content. I know this is a long game. I would like to start creating courses.
I have lousy biographical memory, so specific bits are hard to find. I can find some instances of teaching -- a college class about brain injury, teaching conversations about the brain with clients, giving written feedback to students learning to do research for their master's degree in neuroscience. The common elements, apart from teaching per se, were that these were people who wanted to learn and who brought their own questions or material to address.
I think that's great. So, do you think the key there is that you spotlight things that they should focus on, and you are seen as the expert, so people naturally gravitate to you, and trust you, that might be a commonality there?
I'd go for the seeing me as an expert and trusting both my expertise and that I want the best for them. In the cases of clients, they sought me out, yes.
In the college class, they were told to come by their employer; the thesis students were assigned to me -- so that was perhaps more earning the trust and credibility after they were my (captive) audience, so to speak.
I don't think I spotlight focus so much as maybe organise and simplify complex material. But/and I find it much less frictionless when I am the initiator vs when others bring the material they are interested in.
I loved posting in my early days on Twitter. I was having fun and growing my followers. People would help each other and it felt like real community.
Amazing, It sounds like community is something that brings you joy. Do you think that it's more about the partnerships and working together on a shared thing, or maybe it's in people getting really excited about what you're doing, and evangelizing for you that is the key to that joy? Or maybe something else?
Community, working together, feeling part of something.
I love helping people and talking with them.
Maybe this will resonate. https://www.frictionlessgrowth.com/p/collaborators
When I was posting on serial fiction sites and Radish started getting views and a little bit of money. I also love responding to comments on each chapter.
Amazing. I love it.
My positive growth memory/memories all relate back to writing and submitting fiction to other markets, getting acceptances, having an editor tell me what changes to make by when, and then enjoying sharing all the marketing pieces, like going to bookstores, conventions, conferences, podcasts.
Trying to do all the other stuff, especially managing time and making/meeting my own deadlines, has been what's gotten me stuck as I've tried to move more indie. THAT said, I've also had a bunch of health issues hit myself and my family in the past 7ish years that has required me to do a lot of life changes and be caretaker, which has been draining, so adding in all the extra stuff to be indie, like responding to layout, the supremely boring uploading process for all the things, has been painful and wheel-spinning. So much so I've lost the joy in even the writing. :(
Writing for other publications, anthologies, publishers, etc, is a great growth lever. It's one of the big 5, and it seems to have been working for you. And now, there are tons and tons of indie focused publications that are so much more accessible. So, why are you doing the draining things instead of the fulfilling things that bring you joy?
Well, I got my rights back for my epic fantasy series a little over a year ago because I'd fallen behind on their rapid release schedule, so I decided I would go indie. I was doing well until my mom was in and out of the hospital this year, so I pushed back the kickstarter, trying to catch up, and then launched it while I was at DragonCon... it did very well, and now I'm in the place of doing all the little things to fulfill... but doing all that also set me back on writing. I feel like I have no time to write because I'm still trying to do all the nitty-gritty that also has deadlines, like uploading the books, assigning their ISBNs, etc. The fantasy series, itself, is a sprawling thing with multiple books already written or in various states of being written, and there's not a lot of places to just have something that big where I can do the writing on my own schedule. But now I've started down this path... I've gotten lost / overwhelmed. (And I still am dealing with the health and family caretaking, which has its flare-ups that can just drain me for any random set of days.)
So 1. you can have somebody else fulfill your campaign. I don't touch my books for most campaigns, and 2. it's December, and you're a month from 2026. So, let us work on getting you found. Do this exercise.
https://www.frictionlessgrowth.com/p/prioritizing-your-business-using
I don't really know how I'd find someone else to fulfill the campaign / upload the 2 books (it was a duology)... and wouldn't that have to be letting someone else into my accounts? For future ones, I might see if I can hire someone, but for right now, the thought of finding another person I trust to access my accounts, and then training them.... sounds like more work?
I don't think it's an all or nothing thing. I have a fulfillment house I'm happy to connect you with that fulfills campaigns. IDK what accounts they would need to access to fulfill your stuff. You download a csv file and send it to them.
Either way, do the exercise.
Exercise is printed up for me to do in the morning! Thank you! <3 And I might reach out to you for more info on fulfillment houses. I don't want to clutter the comments though. Thank you again! <3
Oh, this is a hard one. I loved Indie publishing back in 2013/2014 when I could put out a book and make a nice income. Better than I ever made with Kensington/Zebra Romance. Now it feels like a struggle. With over one hundred books, you'd think I would be making a killing, but sometimes I wonder if I could earn more at Walmart. Sorry, I feel like Debbie Downer today. It's Bookkeeping day, and that's always so much fun. Tomorrow I'll be better.
It can be very hard, but I do hope that while we are hanging out together this week you can imagine if growth was possible, and work to envision that.
When you think about the fun bits now, what do they look like, even if you have to slice a lot of other stuff away? Anything standout as particularly joyful?
I'm really not snarky, but telling Mr. Zacharius in a blog post that the little book that they gave me $3200 advance, which sold out, and they would not reprint, had made over ten times that much being indie, felt really good. It was on a post where he didn't believe Indies were making much money. At the time, we were all making great money. I loved my stories, my books, the energy I put into them. I loved that time period. I want to get back to that feeling.
I love that. So what other actions were you doing? Were you running ads? Were you doing Facebook hops? What else were you doing to capture and encourage that joy? I love that moment you mentioned. Bring me back there.
My challenge this quarter is (A)udience. I've really enjoyed and been pretty successful at submitting to anthologies with similar authors. I do not yet know if this has grown my reach. I've also started using Bookfunnel and doubled my newsletter list with one promo (admittedly it was a small starter list). Quick to sign up. Fun to make images for posts. That seemed too easy (no matter what Chris Patterson says about me not trusting easy gains). I've had pretty good open rates from sign ups with somewhat smaller but acceptable click rates. I'm looking into Booksweep and tried out for Bookbub.
Soooo, similarities? Groups? Me, who hides in my office working all alone, might, maybe, possibly do well in groups.
Look at you. It sounds like you are vibing with collaborating with other people, either on somebody else’s thing or a new thing. How does that feel? Accurate or off?
I've always been the weirdo who liked group projects in school, or worked well with committees when practicing architecture. But honestly, I feel like I should figure it out on my own, somehow. Like . . . I don't know . . . you can't do group projects forever, right? Or maybe we cover this later in the week.
I mean, my whole life is group projects of two types.
1) https://www.frictionlessgrowth.com/p/collaborators
2) https://www.frictionlessgrowth.com/p/spotlighters
So I don’t agree with that. I think group projects make growth easier if you do it right.
Maybe of the most popular authors ever mainly did newspaper serials or anthologies.
I just went on a walk with your last comment, and I think my brain just cracked open. Maybe I should say, "A lock was opened." But it feels more explosive than that. I need to mull this over, but I think shyte might be about to get real here. ~Cracked Brain
The most easeful growth I’ve ever had was when an app company reached out to me and asked to publish my work. I signed the contracts, sent my books, and forgot about it until they paid me my first check. One that eclipsed all my other income sources combined. New audience and zero friction. Damn. That’s making me see I need to try something new, grow into a new space.
Amazing. This feels like you get a lot of benefit from collaborations, and from working with platforms that aren't your own. Does that feel right?
I wouldn’t have said so before but it seems that way yes.
I feel like my life as a fiction author was much more easeful when I was indie. Now that I'm publishing under two contracts I feel like I do nothing but wait and it's hard for me to meet deadlines for my fans while I'm stuck in required wait states.
I enjoyed getting publishing contracts, but I find now that they really don't do much for in the way of marketing and make it harder to keep promises to my fan base with regard to release dates, etc. I used to be able to promise without hoping I'd make my dates. I enjoyed being in control of everything, including being able to work with my preferred editors and cover artists and release marketing, as well as promotion (ongoing). One of my publishers still puts "free" extras at the end of my books that aren't books in my series where I would definitely be including "free" extras as the ends of my ebooks that were excerpts from my other books.
That sucks. However, that is a LOT of negative things. I asked for one POSITIVE thing that led to growth. Clearly, it sounds like you already have some stuff that could change.
What I want you to do is visualize a moment of positive growth, and embody how that felt.
For the next couple of days, while you're doing this work, I want you to leave the negative things down, for just a couple minutes, and remember the fun and joy, how that felt, and where to chase it.
Does that make sense? There are plenty of times to talk about the bad bits, and we do that all the time. I would like you to push past all that and remember the things that happened when positive growth happened.
It doesn't even have to be fiction or writing. You could remember becoming class president, or landing your first job, but we are trying to chase the joy here, and envision what frictionless growth even looks like.
Here's the positive that got drowned in the negative :)
I enjoyed doing my own marketing and easily keeping promises to my fan base with regard to release dates, etc. I loved being able to promise deliverables and know I'd make my dates. I enjoyed being in control of everything, including being able to work with my preferred editors and cover artists and release marketing, as well as promotion (ongoing).
:) There was some good stuff in there :) - I get what you mean, though. Focus on the positive. Don't drown it in negativity
I love it. It seems like you really like that direct connection to fans. Out of curiosity, are you an upholder from Gretchen Rubin's four tendencies?
Cool :)
And I'm not sure what you mean, but maybe :)
https://gretchenrubin.com/books/the-four-tendencies/
Thanks for the pointer!
For clarity, I'm responding to your prompt:
Think back to one time when working on your business felt easeful.
While you can picture anything here, try to focus on one that you grew with ease.
* What were you doing?
* What kind of work was it?
* Who were you doing it with or for?
Two things jump immediately to mind:
1. Leading team discussions and strategic planning meetings (with my lone employee and my Wordsmith associates at that time, 2006-2009). These were in-person meetings in which everyone contributed, everyone had opinions—sometimes strong ones—that were sometimes in conflict. We worked it out. We made plans, and carried them out. We accomplished meaningful things together until we'd run off the end of the plan and into the weeds, or reality sidestepped our preparations, or it was just time to have another strategy time to share results and personal news, recalibrate, shift gears, etc. and do it again. We were doing this mostly for grad students and doctoral students, and also aspiring authors & mid-career authors who had lost their editors somehow, or realized they needed an editor "on their side" who didn't work for their publisher. I LOVED leading those meetings and being part of that team.
2. Public speaking, when I'm prepared practically and mentally, no matter who or what size my audience is. I find it so energizing, especially when I can see and read the audience, win them over, get them tracking with me. I'm usually teaching/explaining something, but sometimes I'm facilitating a discussion with the audience, trying to pull their experiences and perspectives out of them to affirm them and make sure they are heard by everyone else. I'm usually speaking solo but I also love team teaching, either with my wife or with a trusted colleague. Doing it FOR: the past twenty years it's been academics or literary writers, but before then it was high school and college kids, or urban residents of a particular neighborhood (the adults), or foster-parent candidates, or MOPS & expectant parents, and before that it was kids K-10th grade, and before that it was Scouts at camps or camporees, and before that... I'm skipping a lot. I just love seeing the light of comprehension / empathy ignite in someone's eyes. It never gets old. And it always helps my business these days: the more public speaking or panels or whatever I can do in person, the better.
I hope that's helpful. Now I'll go back and read the part about identifying my biggest area of friction. That will probably be graded on a curve, because everything feels un-easeful in one way or another right now. Except for getting lost in a great book. That's super easy and easeful, and easing to heart and mind...
Late to the party, but I'll catch up tonight :) I believe I know where I am ecosystem and SCALE-wise given previous discussion, but am still going through the challenge.
Easeful growth... I think of putting out a new box set, since it's mainly repurposing existing assets. Most of the work was done on the original book releases, so the box set feels easeful even if I include any extra exclusives. I guess because of the return for perceived effort? I have to get the original books out first, though.
I'm late posting on the challenge emails because I've been spending a lot of time thinking about answers while also running away from the challenge. When it felt frictionless... Back, years ago, MySpace was still a thing and Twitter was still a newborn. Writing books, blog hops and blog parties, connections with other authors felt more meaningful and connections with readers felt more personal (not in the they knew everything about you/stalker kind of personal), small writer/reader conferences, small digital presses... The focus was on writing and process and connecting with each other, not on ads and social media platforms and monetizing everything. When we could ask each other for help or for advice and not feel so alone, and not be directed to masterminds or coaching. It was hard, and I was a small pebble at the bottom of a mountain, but it was also fun and I learned a lot. I haven't felt that since 2013 or so, and then burnout took hold of me because the path was no longer clear and I was fighting everything.
It seems like you enjoy working with other authors to create experiences for fans, though. You talk about blog hops, blog parties, and other authors.
Those kinds of things can still exist, of course, we just have to choose that’s how we want to live, and then we can. I know you’re in phase ½ b/c you’re in burnout, but Collaborating and Spotlighting both are all about capturing this feeling in different ways.
I recommended my book in a reader group under a recommendation request post that was asking for almost exactly what I wrote. Got several times more sales in the next few days than I’d gotten in months.
Nice.