So You Wrote a Book: Now What?

Well, honestly, I don’t know what you should do. I’m still not 100% sure what I’m doing, either. I’ve got a few ideas though.

First, a quick catch-up. Mattson Academy came out just over a month ago and I’ve been on a wild ride of getting pictures from people who’ve gotten the book, reviews from friends, family, and total strangers, trying my best to market the hell out of it, and also just appreciating the fact that I wrote a whole freaking book and actually got it published. I am trying not to be overly modest and just be grateful when people congratulate me, but honestly, it’s a little weird and I’m still getting used to it. Don’t get me wrong–I wanted this, I just wasn’t actually sure I’d get to this point.

It’s been a while since I blogged, and the last one was about getting over a slump. Good news: I did. I’ve been hard at work on Mattson Academy book 3, but working on that has sapped all the “writing energy” I’ve had and I didn’t have it in me to work on this too. Which brings me to the point of this blog post.

Writing the book was just the beginning.

Now that it’s out in the world, I have a million other things to do that are emphatically not writing. A lot of that is marketing. That includes making TikTok videos, Twitter (or X, your choice) posts, Instagram posts, and also just trying to bring up my book at every chance I get up to but hopefully not quite at the point of being obnoxious. It also includes writing blog posts, maintaining a website (thank you to my lovely amazingly supportive wife for that), trying to find people with any sort of following to write reviews of my book, and also more. And we haven’t even gotten to the point of going out for events like readings, booktalks, hopefully getting onto podcasts, or things of that nature. Basically, there’s a million things to be done and keep doing and I’m only one person.

A person who also has a full-time job, a family, likes to get to the gym occasionally, and, recently, has been completely absorbed by two videogames that I couldn’t put down until I 100%ed them (note to self: blog about videogames because they’re great).

I love writing. I’d love to make it my full-time job some day, but I’m not there yet, and that means I’m not always going to get to the weekly blog posts AND the regular content creation, and all the million other things, and still stay sane. Or sleep. I don’t mind losing the sleep so much, but I do like the tenuous grasp on sanity that I have.

The truth is, I never really thought this far ahead. I didn’t sit down and write “Chapter 1” thinking, “Ah yes, so beginneth my new career as a professional author.” I wrote it because I was bored and I had all these ideas rattling around in my head and I thought it might be fun to try and get them down on paper (digital paper). Then I got the bug, and I just kept going until it was done. After I was done, I sent it to a few people; I’d put all that work into it and it seemed silly not to share it. It was only after the third or fourth person tried really hard to tell me, “No, it’s not just because we’re friends. I actually like your book,” that I decided to pursue getting it published.

And that alone took like five years.

So I never thought about the marketing, or the reviews, or the events, or the content. That was future Jay’s problem. Except now I’m future Jay.

I like writing. That’s not even why I started Mattson Academy but it’s certainly why I finished it. I like imagining whole worlds and the weird-ass characters who populate them, and then letting those loveable misfits drag me through their adventures while I just try and keep up enough to write them down. I am sure that I will enjoy some of what comes next. I love talking about my stories. I took the time to create these worlds and it fills me with joy to know other people enjoyed them too, to the point that they have questions. They want to know more about what I wrote. That’s still wild to me, and it’s by far my favorite part of having written a book. That’s what I like.

But I know I have to do the other stuff if I want more people to read it, and if I want to get to publish another one. And another. So that’s my promise to you, dear reader. I’m going to try and do the stuff that is less fun for me so that I can keep doing the fun part and hopefully keep putting more books out into the world to share with other people. I won’t be perfect. I won’t always drop everything to get out another blog post or another video of my cat begging you to review my book. Sometimes I have to play Beacon Pines. 

But I will try.