One common concern I hear from many subscribers like yourself is, “I work full-time, write books, and I just can’t seem to find time for book marketing. Is my case hopeless?” 🕰️ The answer is a resounding “No!” 🎉 Many successful authors who earn a living from book sales started exactly where you are now, juggling a full-time job and their passion for writing. The good news is there are proven strategies to help manage your time more effectively.
🔎 Where Can I Find the Time?
The challenge of balancing writing, a full-time job, and book marketing is one that many authors face. The key to overcoming this hurdle lies in understanding that book marketing is crucial to your success as an author.
🛤️ Your Journey, Your Choice
When faced with the time conundrum, authors usually take one of two paths. Some feel overwhelmed and believe that success is impossible due to their limited time and resources.
Others, however, undergo a paradigm shift. They start viewing writing and selling books as their main business and their full-time job as a temporary side gig. This new perspective changes their priorities and enables them to carve out time for their author business.
⏳ Your Time, Your Choices
We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but how we choose to spend them makes all the difference. If you’re determined to be a successful author, you’ll need to allocate time for all the integral parts of your business – writing, researching, marketing, and so on. You can find time for these activities by:
🔹 Reallocating time from non-priority tasks. 🔹 Optimizing your existing activities.
For example, a working parent could research popular authors in their genre while waiting during their child’s sports practice. Entertainment time could be repurposed into writing. Teenagers can be encouraged to cook dinner, freeing up time for your marketing activities.
⏲️ A Time Management Exercise
To better understand how you’re spending your time, I suggest trying a simple but powerful exercise:
Prepare a piece of paper in which your day is divided into 15-minute segments. Track and record absolutely EVERYTHING you do during the day.
Here’s an example of how your entries might look:
8:00 – Woke up and lay in bed
8:15 – Chatted with my husband
8:30 – Stretched and washed my face
8:45 – Got dressed and fed the dog
…
6:00 – Read the news
6:15 – Continued reading the news
6:30 – Checked my email
6:45 – Wrote responses and sent them
7:00 – Checked Facebook
Continue this practice for at least three days. Afterward, color-code your activities to distinguish between vital tasks and time-fillers. You might be surprised at what you discover. When I performed this exercise myself, I discovered I was spending three hours on lunch and just four hours on actual work!
The aim of this exercise is to bring clarity to your time usage and help you identify non-productive activities you can replace or optimize. By aligning your time with your priorities, you’ll find the necessary time to promote your books and bolster your author business.
Ready to Dive Deeper? Join Our Community! 🌐
If you’re not already part of our group 📚 How to Find Readers and Promote Your Books, I highly encourage you to join us. It’s a place where you can share the results of your time management exercise and learn from the experiences of others.
In our community, you can ask questions, get personalized advice, and join in discussions about all aspects of the marketing process.🚀
