Tuesday, October 18, 2005
The Ten Commandments for Newly Published Authors
I don't know if I can come up with 10, not off the top of my head, but suggestions are welcome. These are things I learned the hard way, and some that I'm still struggling to overcome. But if you want to stay sane as a published author, these are good ideas.

The Ten Commandments For Newly Published Writers
  1. Thou shalt not google thy name
  2. Thou shalt not google thy book title
  3. Thou shalt not check thy Amazon numbers every hour
  4. Thou shalt not check thy BN.com numbers every hour
  5. Thou shalt not lurk on message boards where books are discussed
  6. Thou shalt not read reviews of thy book (unless vetted by trusted friends)
  7. Thou shalt not compare thy career to that of other writers
  8. Thou shalt not obsess over that which you have no control
  9. Thou shalt not call Ingram for sales figures (at least not more than once a day)
  10. Thou shalt not create a spreadsheet with sales figures
This might need some refinement, and I got a little repetitive in places to get 10, but you get the idea.
posted by Patti O'Shea at 4:43 AM

Blogger Candice Gilmer said...

ROTFLMAO! I certainly will keep this in mind when I get published. However, some of that stuff I didn't even know you could do... Which means I'll probably do all of it obsessively (except the calling for sales figures, I'd rather keep my obsessiveness to myself)..

October 18, 2005 8:51 PM  
Blogger Patti O'Shea said...

Candice,

This was all inspired by a conversation going on with the Leisure authors. We always have so many new people and it's interesting to see that almost all of us have fallen into the same trap. I've been good on TACV about not doing most of this stuff, but that's because I learned through hard experience. :-)

BTW, the Ingram's number is automated so no one has to know about your obsession. ;-)

Patti

October 19, 2005 4:20 AM  

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