You're trying to self-publish your book yet you are not feeling very creative when it comes to the formatting and creating the cover of your book. Lacking creativity to self-publish is not a huge problem, check out my free tips that will help you get started with self-publishing even if you are not that creative.
Today's question has three answers and you're going to want to stick around. Because the third answer is going to tell you the one secret you need to know and how to break through your creativity block.
So let's get into it. The question that was sent to me today was more of a problem. It was lacking creativity to self-publish?
Now, this can be a very common problem that many people experience. As an author, when you're getting started, you also experience this exact problem. Because what happens is you want to get a book out onto the market, you're trying to self-publish a book.
You start to write it, everything seems so clear and you're flowing. Then suddenly for whatever reason may be stress or some sort of writer's block, you feel all the creativity is gone. It's like pulling teeth at this point, trying to get your book onto the market.
And so you're trying to get that last little bit done. Or maybe you're on the production side and you're not feeling very creative when it comes to the formatting and getting the cover and all of these things in place.
Check out this related article: Is Self-Publishing Too Complicated?
There's a lot of the artistic side that can become a barrier. One is the technical side but in this case, it would be more of the artistic side that prevents you from getting your book onto the market.
And maybe you have that exact sensation and this is what we're going to talk about today. But before we get into the answers, check out my free Self-Publishing Checklist. To make sure that you are not skipping any of the important steps necessary to get your book onto the market and selling.
So let's get into it. When I first got started, I wanted to publish my very first book. But the problem was I wasn't sure if I was able to come up with enough ideas to fill an entire book.
I haven't had a very good idea of what the book would be about. In this case, it was about achieving your goals which is a lot of what this blog is exactly about, helping you reach your goals.
And as I was moving along, I was like "well, what if I don't have enough ideas?" And now and then I would hit a point where the creativity level started to drop a bit.
Then I was like "what am I supposed to do in that scenario?". What if I started and never finished the book? I had told people I was going to do this book and here I would be failing and making a fool out of myself not completing the project.
Read A Lot More Books
You would be surprised, I have tons of students in this category who have been working for a very long time. Editing and revising and talking about marketing and all sorts of stuff and never getting their first book onto the market.
So you can have a creative block or a technical block. Or I just need things to be perfect, perfectionism block. There are lots of blocks but the creativity one can be very difficult when we're trying to do something as creative as writing a book and self-publishing it.
I realized this could be very bad. But then I had days where I just completely lacked motivation, I couldn't get myself to do anything. I wasn't writing any words at all during those days.
But I did find though by staying in touch with a community of other authors and people who were talking about what it was I was trying to achieve helps. For example, even just watching a Youtube channel helps to build in your mind the idea that you're going to make progress.
And hopefully, we motivate you to take those steps. And if you look in the comments, you'll see I regularly go back and forth with different students of mine. As well as possible future students who would be interested in going further with that in terms of knowing what to do.
So if you need help just let me know. But also, staying in touch with other authors helped motivate me and keep the creative juices flowing. And as a result, I finally got my book out by just pushing through the pain.
And finding that as we break through those creative barriers, we're able to then get back into the flow. Where things suddenly go easy and we're able to get the book done in time or at least in time. Not necessarily as fast as we might have wanted to but at least done at some point.
That is a very important point that you're not going to want to forget about. So, lacking creativity to self-publish? If yes, if you are experiencing this problem then one option is to read a lot more books. This helps because seeing what other people are writing gets our juices flowing.
Check out this related article: Not Good Enough At Writing?
It keeps us interested in the topic that we're writing on and gives us new fresh ideas. Now we're not saying we would use their exact ideas. But just reading keeps the parts of our brain that also create active.
Meaning that we're able to come up with new ideas and concepts that are going to be important for our readers. They're going to want to read this stuff. We're going to be able to put it and produce it down onto paper and get those books published.
Number two, take a break if you're getting burnt out and losing your focus and just simply feel hopeless. You're going to lose your creativity.
Nobody's creative when you feel burnt out. That is the worst time to write and the quality of your writing will also suffer. So this is something you need to take very seriously.
Do Not Go A Zero-Day
So take a break, give yourself rewards for even the smallest progress that you make on your book. When you're trying to self-publish, as you go through the different phases or even when you get a thousand words written, you need to reward yourself and you need to take breaks.
So that we're able to keep the motivation up. But let me get to the power answer of the day which is the secret answer of the day and our third answer for lacking creativity to self-publish?
It is that you need to make sure you always keep your "Why" in focus. That's the first part of it and that you should also know why you're trying to do it in the first place. If you forget why you're doing something, it becomes a lot more difficult to stay motivated to continue doing it.
So that's something you need to keep track of. And secondly, you need to keep pushing every day. I know you hit these blocks where you feel "oh I don't have no creativity I can't focus at all". But if you can just allocate 5 minutes a day and that's what I found.
I had hired an accountability coach to hold me accountable to make progress at 5 minutes a day. So no matter what you have, you should have at least that time available. And the rule is when the 5 minutes are up and you still feel motivated, keep going.
And if you feel completely demotivated with zero creativity then you're done for the day. Put it aside and come back the next day. But whatever you do, do not go a zero-day.
When I say you need to take breaks on tip number two, that does not mean you take a week off. Do not take time off, you will lose your focus completely. I know a lot of people will say "oh just take a month off or three months or a year or two and I'm sure you'll get back to it".
Check out this related article: You Don't Have The Time To Self-Publish?
The answer is no, you put it into the later-bag and you will never get around to it later. It'll always be there stuck in that sack. So this is something that you're going to want to pay attention to and make sure you do not fall for that particular trap.
So 5 minutes a day? Even if it's what you're writing is terrible, it's okay. Five minutes is what you need to be doing every single day and keeping your "why" in focus. Why are you doing this?
By holding these two in tension, you see holding these two together, we're able to slowly move through these creativity breaks that we experience from time to time. So, do you experience having lacking creativity to self-publish?
If yes write "Yes" below in the comments and if no write "No". Because that will help me know if this content is working or is hitting something sensitive for you. And check out my other blogs and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.