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[DIGEST] Big cats and endless plains...
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We’re been talking about my safari for a month and are just now finally getting to the Serengeti. In Maasai, Serengeti means endless plains, and I found that an apt description of it. You could drive forever and see very little, or you could drive for an hour and see two bucket list items within an hour of getting into the park.
We had both experiences, and two of my favorite encounters were with a cheetah and a full mane male lion.
If you want to share how you are doing this week, then there are two ways to interact with this post.
1 - If you don’t want to say anything, or bristle at identifying yourself, then you can reply with this nifty poll.
2 - If you’re feeling very brave, then reply below and tell us how you are doing right now on a scale from 1-5.
I think I’m pretty much recovered from SDCC now, but I tried to work out this week and it totally wrecked me. I used to be able to work out every day no problem, but after COVID working out even worse kills me.
I’m going to peg myself as a 2.5 this week, trending down. I’m very meh right now and I’m very bitter that I can’t work out.
Announcement: On Friday, August 18th at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET/8 pm BST, Monica Leonelle and I are hosting a free webinar about the 5 trends that are shifting the future of publishing. We’ll be going through everything we’ve seen in the past year in the ever-changing indie publishing landscape. Spots are limited, so click the link below and sign up to save your spot.
What I wrote on Substack: This week I wrote up a deep dive into my safari in June. It’s not about author growth, except that growing a sustainable business for me is 100% about having the freedom to take a month off to go on a safari. Without that freedom, there is no point to any of this work.
Just because you love your work doesn’t mean it has to consume every part of you. I burned out hard this year and it took traveling to another country and getting away from everything for a couple of weeks to even begin to get out of it.
Additionally, I contributed to this article about Kickstarter’s new AI policy from my business partner, . While I did contribute to this. it was mostly Monica’s reporting. This story is still developing.
A new chapter of Magic also dropped this week. Ollie is trying to find a rat in her organization.
I followed Kalle as he ping-ponged between the containers like a rat looking for a piece of cheese, hitting a dead end and then doubling back on himself. He pulled a clipboard from the end of a row of containers and stared at it, scratching his head.
“I’m sorry about this,” he replied. “I thought for sure that container 3-8-4-2-1 was in this—aha—” He pointed at his sheet and then pulled a walkie-talkie from his belt. “Operations, this is 623.”
“Go ahead, Kalle,” a gruff voice squawked back.
“This manifest doesn’t have container 3-8-4-2-1 on it, but I’m sure it came in last night. I have the owner here, and she is pissed. Over.” Kalle smiled at me. “Just play along, okay?”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem, my friend,” I said. “I’m always pissed, including right now.”
The walkie crackled to life again. “I’m showing an override here to expedite the container for delivery. It has your code. Over.”
“That’s impossible. It hasn’t passed through customs.” Kalle’s smile faded into an irritated scowl. “Where is it now? Over.”
“They’re loading it on a cargo truck at entrance thirteen,” the walkie replied. “Over.”
“Do not let that truck leave, operations. Do you hear me? Over.”
“Roger, roger.”
Kalle flagged down one of the many golf carts zipping back and forth across the dock and pushed its driver out of her seat. “Get in.” I hopped into the passenger seat, and he took off, leaving the irritated woman flailing her hands in frustration.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” he said, shaking his head. “I would never—you have to believe me! I would never call you here and then—it doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes perfect sense to me, my friend. You have a traitor and a liar in your organization.”
New chapters are free, but paid subscribers can access the archives. You also get access to a bunch of free books and stories from my back catalog.
Upcoming article: Next week I’m back on my favorite topic, audience growth, showing you how to get 5,000-20,000 new readers to your publication every month through group giveaways.
In my career as an author, one thing has been responsible for more of my success than anything else, and that is the ability to work together with other authors on big promotions (which, of course, helps me grow my audience and sell books). I have run anthologies, been part of author book bundles, and tabled with authors at shows to minimize costs and maximize exposure for us all.
However, all those other promotions pale in comparison to what I’ve gained by working with other authors on group builders to build up my mailing list. I’ve participated in over 50 of these promotions before starting to run them myself, and those promotions brought in 140,000 leads.
For years, I ran somewhere between 1-4 group giveaways for authors every month, with each one netting between 3,000-8,000 new readers in just a couple weeks’ time. If you add that all up, I pulled in between 5,000-20,000 new potential readers each and every month when I was running them consistently.
That’s a ton of potential readers. It’s mind-boggling really, to think that I’ve found a way to bring unlimited readers into my ecosystem and share my work with them.
For those of you asking how you get real growth consistently, this is one of my best tactics.
Roundup: Here are some of my favorite articles of the week. These roundups are getting harder every week. Can y’all please think of the me putting together this roundup and make less good work next week? There is so much great stuff out there I literally can’t keep up and I love it.
pulls the thread on radical candor, finally reveals five secrets on slow living she has been keeping to herself, leaves the cult of never enough, and shares John Lennon’s childhood notebooks.
finds pockets of the sacred, finds the names of flowers, asks whether social media is different or whether we’re just older now, and wants to know if rules even matter.
can’t survive the heat of climate change any better than a cactus, wants to know what his stupid art even does for the world, searches for a solution to Worldcoin, and has thoughts on X and is gonna give ‘em to ya.
shows you how to get good at growing your audience, gives you the gaming playbook for growth, talks the future of media, while and show you what makes a good free-to-paid conversion ratio.
lives in grief during the last days of her dog’s life, opines on the direction of her publication, explains how O.U.R. understanding of Sound of Freedom is dangerous, and tells us what women want (and the tenderness is devastating).
scribbles his thoughts on York in his Moleskine, unpacks the good and bad about moving to France, and discusses why she chose to emigrate in her 30s.
deals with his grief over Sinead O’Connor’s death, finds the connection between Sinead O’Connor’s death and Emily Dickenson’s life, wonders whose perspective is really valued in our art, and only likes chocolate on her period.
asks WTF happened in 2023, praises boring AI, goes to the Michael Scott school of prompts, and just wants to shitpost with her friends.
spirals into a Hollywood doom loop, discusses the state of literary mags, talks about what book publishing can learn from Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Confess, Fletch, and talks welcome emails.
shows you how to get that Oppenheimer glow, doesn’t want a Nuface, and harbors a secret fear of the beauty industry.
If you like what I’m doing around here and want to check out the archives, you can do that with a 7-day free trial, or simply go straight to being a paid subscriber. You also get access to my YA horror-fantasy novel, The Void Calls Us Home.
Rebecca never thought she was suicidal. However, that didn’t stop her from jerking her car off the side of the road last night.
Everybody thinks she swerved to hit a deer, but she knows the truth. She did it because a giant flaming being called from the void and beckoned to her to join it in the darkness.
Was it a manifestation of her unconscious desire to die? Could the being really exist? Did it have anything to do with her sister’s suicide just a year before?
When Rebecca starts seeing the creature every time she closes her eyes, she has no choice but to find out the truth before it drives her mad.
If you like H.P. Lovecraft, psychological horror, coming-of-age stories, or deep explorations of grief, loss, death, and junk, then you'll love this world.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.