It’s the first
Wednesday of the month, time for
I’ve been trying to be more upbeat lately with my IWSG
posts, more supportive, more positive.
But this month, I’m finding that a bit more difficult. I think it’s just me getting tired, like
being at the midway point during a marathon.
My whole life, it seems, has become all about my book, the
weekly, daily, and minute-to-minute ups and downs of how it’s selling, being
reviewed, or how it’s ranking. Everyday,
it’s something new, an excited reader or a position shift on an Amazon list. Just something.
And right along with these shifts, my mood soars or plummets. I would liken it to a yo-yo on a roller
coaster. One minute I’m up and the next
I’m down. I take it all in, the reviewer
progress reports on Facebook and Goodreads, the hourly rise and fall of my
Amazon US ranking versus Amazon UK, and ugh, the reviews. Most are good, but not all. So even if I do get a good one, I let the
not-so-good bring me down, only to pop back up when my title moves higher on a
Top Rated list.
It’s never-ending and is seriously making my head spin. And I cannot afford to be
distracted or sidetracked right now. I’m
making huge progress on my next book, like two to four thousand words a day, so
much that I have to take weekends off so my brain and psyche can recover from
the emotional overload of writing this tale.
It’s easy to just say, “Don’t look, don’t pay
attention.” But I know that won’t work
for me. Yet still, when I, all of a sudden, realize I haven’t checked some form of social media or Amazon in over eight
hours, I realize how calm and focused I feel.
That should tell me something. To
stay away. Don’t look. So why do I continue to torture myself?
