Sometimes, you simply have to take a breath and clean up your world. Two things have happened in the last few weeks that took up a considerable amount of my time and energy.
The first, of course, was cleaning up the financial books and getting them to the accountant for our tax year.
Because I use a Mac I had been using the software iBank. But, it went “south” on me and started making a significant number of mistakes. I don’t know whether this was because it is an older version, whether the bank changed its interface, or whether I was not holding my mouth right when I pressed the buttons. A great deal of my time and energy went into reviewing every bank statement and interaction to ensure it was corrected before going to the accountant.
Did I mention I hate accounting?
A Marketing Mistake
The second and more problematic was advice about setting up my e-books and the corresponding email system I began to implement.
The short version is that every e-book would receive its own story sequence acting as a reward for having purchased the e-book. In theory, this is an excellent idea. In practice however, it gets complicated and after a few weeks of working behind the scenes I realized I had broken my cardinal rule.
That rule, of course, is keep-it-simple-stupid.
I had set up a system that would work in theory and hopefully in practice but it would mean far more maintenance than I am willing to do.
I want to write. I want to share stories. Yes, I want to make money doing it but I am no longer willing to spend a great deal of time on technical and website issues.
I’m far more interested in spending my time writing stories than I am figuring out and working on technical “stuff” (I would have used another “S” word here but…)
What’s the problem? Why Sorry?
The simple fact is I had gone about half way down the road of breaking up the email systems into the new complicated system before I decided the kiss system was a better one for me.
There Will Be Duplication In Emails Sent
Readers may see a duplication – as in they’ve already read this story – as I sorted out and revert back to my simple system.
So my apologies for the duplication. Thanks for understanding how sometimes the “what you can do,” is not exactly what you should do in our Internet world.
And Now
I’m going to revel in spring as it unfolds. I’m going to take some long walks and watch the bright, new, fresh green of unfurling leaves and spring blooms.
And I’m going back to writing and enjoying the words.
And oh yeah, I’ve unsubscribed from that marketing gurus advice.
