I love the world of indie publishing.  The freedom and the community is wonderful.  I wouldn’t do it any other way.

But I think we all need to recognize that finding balance between the business and the art of writing can be a real challenge.

I wrote a book.  (Well, I’ve written a series, but for now, let’s tackle one book.) As a friend recently pointed out to a fellow author, I wrote that book so that other people would read it. To that end, I am responsible for publicizing that book, getting word out about it, encouraging people to pick it up and read it.

So if I said that I am a writer, not a promoter, I would be short-changing my work and possibly negating the reason for writing a book in the first place.

On the other hand, PR is a monster that can swallow huge chunks of time without notice.  When I go on Twitter or Facebook, I run the risk of getting sucked into an endless chain of tweets and posts before I realize that it’s two in the morning and I need to sleep. Factor in real life (like most writers, I have other responsibilities and commitments), and it is a dilemma.

I’m trying to segment my PR work to the evening, when I can sit with my family watching TV or movies and still have the computer on my lap. I’m using every tool I can find to make promotion easier. Other authors have been very kind and gracious in sharing their tricks of the trade, and I am very grateful.

Right now, my writing priority is editing the third book in the series, which is completed but hasn’t been touched since I wrote the last word. Once I have Breathless launched in both ebook and print form, I’m taking a break to edit the third book and finish the fourth.

I’m dying to get back to writing, to just putting words on paper, but right now, I’m focusing on not looking at PR as a necessary evil, but as an opportunity to make lots and lots of new friends!