I'm An Author! What Do I Do Now?
Hello, readers!
It’s October! This time of year is better known as the spooky season, where you’ll find increasing Halloween decor and ads everywhere you go.
For me, October also means diving deeper into reflecting on my writing journey and where to take its next steps.
Some Recent Reflections
I’ve realized something lately in the past few weeks: I’m an author. What do I do now?
“What do you mean, you realized that you’re an author now? You’ve been an author for about two to three years by now!”
I’ve technically been an author since 2022 (arguably since 2019 since that’s when my first poem was published). But to given context, I’ve dreamt of becoming an author since I was a child and always wanted to create stories that gave others the same sense of magic that other authors’ books gave me.
However, the idea of being an author never fully sunk in until now. I’m an author and poet with three self-published books and more on the way, while having some traditionally-published individual poems and short stories. For the child version of me, that’s an amazing feat and I’m sure that she’s proud of me and the progress I made.
But…where do I go from here? What’s the next point in my author journey?
As of this writing, I have two poetry chapbooks, one kidlit fantasy book, and a short story collection that are completely done writing-wise. It’s just a matter of putting together formatting, marketing, and actually publishing said books that will take some time. I hope to publish two of them next year - stay tuned for more info in 2025!
What Am I Writing Lately?
I shared my newest writing update post for October 2024 last week!
Since then, I finished Draft 2 of my “Ode To Pop Culture” poetry chapbook! The next step is sharing it with beta readers to read and give their feedback.
I’ve also renamed the poetry chapbook as “Nostalgiacore,” as a working title. This title may change again, but we’ll see how it goes depending on beta readers’ feedback.
I also drafted some new poems outside of the collection, and edited them to send to a few lit mags and contests to be considered for publication.
What Have I Done Other Than Writing Lately?
As an author, it’s always great to have some press coverage about your books. One of those ways, especially for indie authors, is author interviews.
At the end of September, I searched for a good masterlist or two for websites and/or podcasts that were currently seeking authors to interview. It turns out, the masterlists I found are mostly not up-to-date. This made things much more unhelpful.
Cue me thinking:
“What if I created my own masterlist?”
And..
“Are there other authors like me having similar difficulties finding websites and podcasts to spread the word about their work?”
So, I’ve started creating a masterlist of websites and/or podcasts seeking authors to interview. As I’m a Canadian indie author, there are probably some sites or podcasts that will be missing from the masterlist by the time I consider it “complete” enough to share with my fellow authors.
I’ll probably put the link to said masterlist in my Freebie Library. I hope to have a working list ready by the end of the year or by early next year.
If you’d like to stay updated on the progress of this masterlist, subscribe to this newsletter!
In the past few weeks, I also have:
Prepped social posts in advance for November and December 2024
Made preparations for an upcoming book sale (a sale!? stay tuned for more news later this month!)
An Awesome Interview with the Awesome Gang!
I got interviewed by Awesome Gang about my writing recently and the interview just got published last week! Awesome Gang is a website that hosts many author interviews, as well as help authors market their books to readers.
Thanks to the Awesome Gang team for interviewing me!
What Have I Heard Lately?
I want to recommend a podcast this time, and this time it’s “QuitCast For Writers with Becca Syme,” hosted by Becca Syme.
This podcast focuses on discussing what kind of habits writers should quit, which ones to continue, etc. I think Syme brings some great points when talking about burnout and preventing burnout, as well as creating a more sustainable life as an author. As someone who went through creative burnout before, I wish that I came across this podcast sooner.
Episodes I recommend include:
What Have I Watched Lately?
I’ve been watching this animated web series called “Dream Catchers” on Youtube lately.
It’s about two characters called Star and TV, and they go into people’s dreams to help them solve their problems. The art is adorable, and you also get funny scenes like this one:
As of this writing, there are only two episodes released so far (the screenshot is from episode 2). However, I highly recommend watching it and I look forward to future episodes.
What Have I Been Reading Lately?
I’ve had some difficulty reading anything that caught my full attention, recently. I don’t know if I just had bad luck in the most recent haul of borrowed library books or if I’ve just been so occupied by my writing and editing work during the past few weeks.
However, one book that did interest me is “The Spellshop” by Sarah Beth Durst. It’s about a woman who goes back to her own hometown and opens up a magic shop…however, this could get her into legal issues later on due to worldbuilding and plot-related reasons. The ambiance of it gave me the “cozy” vibes of games like Stardew Valley, except the main character actually has magic abilities (and a talking plant companion).
Other recent reads include:
“Counterfeit” by Kirstin Chen
“One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston
“Elder Race” by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Thank you for following my writing journey!
I hope you look forward to seeing more of my writing process and work. I also look forward to giving all of you more frequent updates as well, so stay tuned for more!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at clarislamauthor@gmail.com! I’ll respond within 48 hours (except on weekends and holidays).