(Or, Decision Paralysis is Real)
A few days back, I did an open blog post about how Kickstarters fit into my overall view of how I want to be releasing books. I’m working toward that goal, and hope to be there “soon,” whatever “soon” means. In that blog post, I noted an interesting project that was highlighting a novella (rather than a novel)—which I noted as another twist or advantage on the idea of publishing in the modern era. Our ability to publish novellas well is a very cool thing, and not something that was available to us in the olden days.
In the process of writing that, I also ran into RS Kellogg’s business process, which is similar but different.
I know Rebecca. She’s a fine writer. Given genres and tastes, I’ll always recommend picking up her work. But today I want to focus on her overall approach to building her audience. Specifically in this case, she’s working on a series of small Kickstarter projects. Short story collections and other pieces. She recently ran a project, Rapunzel Reborn, that was filled with (naturally) stories focused on Rapunzel. Now she has another collection going (Favored by the Goddess), focused on 16 stories inspired by goddesses and other such creatures. As I noted, I have met Rebecca, and through various interactions, I am at least loosely aware of her business plan, which is to do a series of Kickstarters, similar to what Kris Rusch and Dean Smith are doing, but at a much smaller scale. I think she expects to do two more over the next few months, and has as many as eight more projects planned out.
I’ve been fascinated watching her progress, though, not because of the schedule—which is cool in itself—but because I can see her using each project to try new things and expand into new skills.
To see what I mean, take a look at Favored by the Goddess, and see her physical book, which is quite pretty.
A lot of what she’s done here was new to her. Just as things she did with her Rapunzel project were new to her then. That’s a thing to note, here. Being an independent publisher (or anyone else in any other business, I suppose) can be overwhelming.
It seems like a million things need your attention, and decision paralysis is a real thing. It’s easy to feel like you need to be an expert at thousands of skills before you can move out and take charge, and then once you’ve actually created something I’ll call mastery of a thing, the world changes and that thing is no longer important—or at least is no longer as important as it was.
Thinking about it that way can be overwhelming.
As a very small business, there is, after all, only you in there (he says, pulling the name of his little-used podcast out of almost thin air). Yes, I really do want to do some more of that, too…sigh.
Rebecca’s approach to this is fantastic, though—and is another thing that’s new about the world around us as independent publishers. Instead of waiting, she’s using each step of the way as an opportunity to do just that—take one step forward, explore new ideas, learn new things, and then carry them onto the next step.
And along the way, she’s bringing new readers to her work.
If you are a reader and enjoy fantasy work that borders on fairy tales and mythology, you should probably follow her for the work itself, of course. But if you’re a writer, you should follow her to see how she’s progressing. Either way, if you click on her Kickstarter profile link, you can sign up to get notified about all those currently planned releases.
It’s a great world out here, you know?
When you are your own publisher, there are a million ways to succeed.
The challenge, though, is to focus on what you are going to do now. I mean, really focus on it. Have fun. Make the art that makes you happy, get that done to the best of your ability, then move on to the next thing.
Learning along the way.
That’s what I’m thinking as I scan Rebecca’s projects today.
Do good work. Move forward. Have fun, whatever that is in the moment.
Then do more good work.
Aside – I’ve launched my own new project on Kickstarter! You can find “1101 Digital Stories in an Analog World” right here!
