The Author Life: A Collection of Essays on Craft, Marketing, and Mindset

Exactly what I needed to keep going

If this book were available in paperback, I’d print it out and keep it on my shelf next to Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and Indie Author Mindset by Joanna Penn. It’s a great read if you go from cover to cover but I think the best part about books like this is the ability to turn to it when you’re in the middle of a crisis. You can look at one essay and get the motivation to continue as well as some tips to help you on your way. Whether you’re struggling to write or frustrated with the business side of being a career author, J talks about it in this book. While he provides practical steps to take, he also gives you something that is worth even more. Hope.

Some of J’s advice comes across in a heavy handed way, but he prefaces those with he’s talking to his past self. And we all know how stubborn we were when we were young. And might still be. The hardest part about those for me wasn’t that it was new information, it was that I knew all of this and still haven’t put most of it into practice.

Overall, this book is everything I needed it to be when I picked it up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve considered quitting. Just walk away from being an author altogether. People--readers and friends and family alike--have kept me on the path. But when I was at my darkest moments--when couldn’t even explain what I was going through to my husband--it was books like this that pulled me out of it. This book helped me through my most recent struggle--one of the darkest I’ve been through. I look forward to reading more by J.