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Book Update: delays won’t get us down

What I’m working on: Everything at once!
Mood: Frustration

Well hello there,

Today I have to admit that I had been feeling totally frustrated lately!! We’ve had a number of delays in the last couple of weeks with this book project.

THE C-WORD
Covid… has certainly had an impact. With our state in stage 4 restrictions, lockdown has been wreaking havoc on everyone’s mental health and personal lives, with lots of big life shifts happening. When you can’t see your family and friends for weeks on end, and a physical book launch seems like a pipe dream (canceled for September), it’s kind of hard to feel excited about anything… I haven’t been giving my book the love and attention it needs and deserves. My head has been pre-occupied with other life stuff.

On the other side of the world, my wonderful editor Caitlin has also had to move house due to Covid. The situation had been getting worse in her city, so she decided to move states to be closer to her family. We made the decision to put the editing process on hold, so everyone could sort out their pandemic impacted lives.

CREATIVE BLOCK?
My team and I have also been a little creatively blocked!! It seems we’re brilliant with coming up with creative ideas for our client’s books, but when it comes to my own book, it was tough. When the sky is the limit… ideas seem to just fly about. We had so many creative concepts, ideas and inspirations, but nothing solid. Am I too close to the project? If I’m the client, am I driving my team nuts? Are we trying to be TOO creative?

And.. out of nowhere…that pesky imposter syndrome started showing up! All of a sudden I was afraid of launching the book, even though pre-order sales are going well. I hadn’t heard from my editor… was it any good? We couldn’t pinpoint the creative vision, was the book going to be a flop?

I had to rest and rejuvenate and think…I went back to the creative brief and thought about my ideal readers again. What would they want to see in the book? How would they want to experience reading it? What was in it for them?

A few days later, I got a voice message from Caitlin, she was back to editing the book. “It reads really well!” she assured me. As my confidence and sanity started to come back, I had a vivid dream about the book.
I woke up and knew EXACTLY what creative direction to take and how I wanted it to look.

And so we’re back! With a new creative vision. A clear creative brief. A new launch deadline. Covid or no Covid, these delays won’t stop us in our tracks.

JUST KEEP GOING
I’m going to practice what I preach, and just keep going with my book…

And just like that, Caitlin’s edits are in! I can’t wait to review what she’s finessed in the manuscript!

With love and light,

Maja

PS. Monday’s with Maja over at the 20-minute Author are back on Monday 31st of August. Join me and our growing community of authors to be in my private Facebook Group for my latest book design and publishing tips.

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