I Just Wanted to Write a Book

 

Sometimes I think being an author is 10% writing and 90% staring at screens wondering what on earth I’ve just broken.

I’ll sit down thinking, Right, today I’ll write a chapter, and somehow end up three hours later comparing ad dashboards, wondering why my book is cheaper in one country than another, and questioning my life choices because I’ve just realised I haven’t updated my Goodreads profile for… five years.

There’s a particular kind of mental gymnastics involved in author life. One minute you’re deep in a character’s grief. The next you’re resizing a box set image by three pixels because Facebook doesn’t like the crop. Then you’re rewriting your bio for the seventeenth time because it sounds either too serious, not serious enough, or like you’ve accidentally joined a cult.

We have to be writers, marketers, designers, accountants, IT support, and emotional support for ourselves. We’re expected to know why Amazon ads are ‘pending’, why BookBub is ‘live but not live’, why something worked yesterday and doesn’t today, and why every platform uses different words for the same thing just to keep us alert.

And then there’s the social media dance. Be visible, but not salesy. Be authentic, but polished. Be consistent, but spontaneous. Share your work, but don’t bang on about it. Engage, but don’t live online.

But which platform should you be using? Facebook is dead, except when it isn’t. Instagram matters, unless it doesn’t. TikTok is essential, terrifying, and apparently the answer to everything. Threads exists. X exists. Newsletters are vital, assuming anyone opens them. Every expert insists their platform works, provided you post constantly, effortlessly, and with the exact right tone while pretending you’re not trying at all.

As for what to post. Reels. Stories. Possibly both. Is there a difference? Who knows.

All of this happens quietly in the background while readers are just reading our books. They don’t see the spreadsheets, the half-written posts, the ‘I’ll fix that later’ notes, or the moment you realise you’ve spent an entire morning moving commas around instead of writing anything new. They don’t see the tears, the arguments, or the frantic emails to the editor, who often becomes emotional support as well.

So if authors sound slightly unhinged when talking about ads and algorithms, this is why. We’re not dramatic. We’re just constantly one minor platform update away from lying down on the floor and reassessing our life choices.

But anyway... 

Back to writing.