[DIGEST] Vacation, had to get away...

I'm still on safari, but I'd love to hear from you.

June 17, 2023

I’m having a great time in Africa, hanging out with zebras and lions, but I’m excited to hear how you’re doing when I get a wifi connection again. I was planning on uploading some pics, but it looks like that’s not going to happen right now. I did share this one in Notes earlier this week.

If you want to tell me how you’re doing this week, there are two ways in 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 have been on safari all week, so I really hope I’m having a great time. However, I don’t know, because I’m writing this in the past.

A new chapter of Magic dropped on Monday. If you love portal fantasy, then you will probably love this, too. New chapters are free to read, but paid subscribers can access our entire archive, along with a dozen free books.

This week’s article is Where to invest your time and money when building an audience for your writing. Unlike some of my other posts, this one delivers on the title. I’ve talked about building an audience before, but since I’m in Africa I wanted to resurface a post I did for my old blog.

You can access all my previous posts by either getting a free trial or becoming a paid subscriber. You also get access to a bunch of free books and stories from my back catalog.

Next Wednesday, I’ll be launching an article called How to build a substantial body of work that allows you to fight imposter syndrome. Maybe it will resonate with you

Here is a preview:

There are three chasms you must cross in your career.

The first is the chasm of talent. When you begin, you will suck, and your goal is to create enough that you become good. The second is the chasm of popularity, where you attempt to build an audience of loyal fans who support and buy from you.

Eventually, if you work hard enough, you will become a good creator, and if you master marketing you will build an audience. Those first two chasms are infinitely surmountable. 

The third is the chasm of self-doubt. I have never met a creator who does not wrestle with self-doubt even at the apex of their career.

As creators, we are birthing something from nothing, and in doing so, we are bringing something new into the world. It doesn't matter how often it happens, bringing something new to life is always fraught with fear.

I hope it resonates with you. I talked about building a body of work before, but in this article, I resurface this idea into its own post.

I don’t have any recommendations this week because I’m still on safari, but I can’t wait to catch up with everything when I get back.

If you like this post 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. If you love YA fantasy, I wrote an alternate history fantasy book based on a research trip to Spain called The Marked Ones, and paid subscribers can access it for free. Magic destroyed the world once. Now, magic users are the enemy. To be marked with magic is to lead a cursed life.