Allow Yourself to be a Writer and See What Happens — Part 2
After eight weeks of publishing on Medium
Welcome to Part 2
After almost eight weeks on medium, I am struggling less with the little voice in my head…I can almost hear clearly…you can be a writer! Updates from my progress on Medium, my blog, and as a children’s book author coming right up! (Part 1 if you missed it!)
Blog Update
I am still not traveling. I still have a travel blog. I still want to be out and about, taking photos and enjoying the world! I know the blog will be better once I am. But, in the meantime, I have been finding ways to make meaningful posts. I want to continue to help others find awe in their adventures.
I am still struggling through the process of learning how to blog. I have a vision for reorganization and I have been working toward making it happen. I found a way that I think will work to incorporate awe for adults through travel, awe for children through books. Health and wellness will be the third section, it will showcase the health benefits of awe and promote the healthy lifestyles that make our adventures possible. I will keep my eye on this umbrella to see if everything fits organically under it as I keep building.
Children’s Book — Developmental Editor Stage
I did think that my children’s book, published on Amazon KDP, turned out pretty good. I had a little uneasy feeling about it. I couldn't tell if it was just my over-active inner critic or the fact that I hadn’t sought any professional feedback. Either way, I wasn’t comfortable fully launching and advertising it yet. When I was researching those options I came across the idea of a developmental editor.
I researched developmental editors and hired one. I learned many ways that I can make the book better, which will obviously also improve the books that follow in the series. I am working on those improvements and will have a final consult with the developmental editor within sixty days.
From there, I will continue to self-publish or I will find a publisher as an additional round of critique to make sure I am really proud of the final product. I am talking with a publisher that would do more developmental editing, and work with me through the publishing, launching, and distribution. This would be an upfront fee but I would continue to own the rights. I am trying to negotiate a deal that could include other books in the series as well. Depending on how the negotiations go, I am also considering using the publisher for the first book and then using what I learn to do the others on my own.
Eight Weeks on Medium
I have published 84 stories, I have 1.2K followers, I have 3,700 views, and I have made $44.15. I don’t know yet how to judge the Medium stats for new writers. Maybe my stats are ok…I do know they are not record breakers. The stats that are most important to me: I have realized that I like many genres, I love publishing, I have received a lot of positive feedback, in just a short time I have gotten a lot better at writing and I can see areas where I still need to grow. Medium has made me feel like writing could be a career for me in some way.
I published a story about the uncommon strategies I developed in my first six weeks. I am calling them uncommon because I didn’t hear about them in the webinars, videos, courses, and groups that I have joined. I developed them to solve problems and answer questions that I had when I couldn’t find a solution elsewhere. The story is one of my most viewed!
I randomly realized that one of my stories had been chosen for further distribution (curated). Then, I checked my others and found out that four others had also been curated. Also, two more since then. I thought curation would increase earnings and views but that hasn’t been the case for me yet. I am writing a story about that — it made me curious so I had to do some deeper analysis!
Fear Check
I am getting my work out there. I am a writer. I am comfortable sharing my work with the world, but still not many people that I know. I am wondering how and when I will be comfortable enough to share my work with everyone. I am trying to examine the fear so that I can move past it. I am currently listening to Tom Kuegler’s Side Hustle Summit 2021. It is great to hear that so many very successful writers had fear initially and to learn how they got over it. I am also learning a lot of other skills and strategies to build my confidence — another step toward getting over fear!
Pushing Forward
I still can’t tell you a special secret for success, but I am loving my journey. There is nothing more satisfying than completing a story and pushing publish. Except, of course, opening the notification that the story got accepted at a publication and seeing the claps and comments :) Stay tuned…I will keep you posted as I continue to work through my struggles and on to my next level of success! I always go hard at things that I am interested in and I have been going extra hard at writing!
You can check out my blog here. It is a little better…I am still pushing forward!
Thanks for reading! If you want to read more…