S01E36: When Social Media Means Fun

Samantha and Matilda are talking SOCIAL MEDIA plans in today's episode; a topic we can all agree is forever at the forefront of our minds!

Next week Sam and Matilda will be wrapping up the Planning for Success series by talking about Income Plans... 

Where to find Sam and Matilda:

SAM IG: @sammowrimo

Website: www.samantha-cummings.com

Book to start with: The Deathless - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deathless-Frances-June/dp/B0915V5L6F

Most recent book: Curse of the Wild (Moons & Magic Book 1) https://amzn.eu/d/fVXwW3j

MATILDA IG: @matildaswiftauthor

Website: MatildaSwift.com

Book to start with: https://books2read.com/TheSlayoftheLand (book #1 of The Heathervale Mysteries)

Most recent book: https://books2read.com/ButterLatethanNever (book #3 of The Slippery Spoon Mysteries)

Mentioned on the show:

Becca Syme’s Quitcast Episode 5.1 QTP You Should Do All The Things: https://betterfasteracademy.com/quitcast5-10/

Reality Writes Podcast: https://elliealexander.co/blog/catch-up-on-episodes-of-our-reality-writes-podcast

I’m Just a Baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNZrIgppe6o

Transcript:

Welcome to your next step of the Self Publishing Mountain.

I'm Matilda Swift, author of Quintessentially British Cozy Mysteries.

And I'm Samantha Cummings, author of Young Adult Books About Magic, Myths and Monsters.

I've written the books, changed their covers, tweaked their blurbs, tried tools from a dozen ad courses, and I'm still not seeing success.

Now, we're working together to plot and plan our way from barely making ends meet to pulling in a living wage.

Join us on our journey where we'll be mastering the pen to snag that paycheck.

Hello and welcome to Pen to Paycheck Authors podcast.

I'm Matilda Swift, here with my co-host, Samantha Cummings, and we're here to write our way to financial success.

We're two indie authors with over a dozen books between us and still a long way to go towards the quit the day job dream.

If that sounds familiar, listen along for our mastery through missteps journey.

Each week, we cover a topic to help along the way, and this week's topic is social media planning.

Before that, what are your wins and whinges of the week?

I'm going to have a whinge and a win, and it's nothing to do with writing, but we were just talking about this before we started recording, and that is that I've had to do so much adulting this last week.

Loads of things like, I'm trying to sell a car, and I now have to get a win screen repaired, and I had to switch broadband providers, which meant having to talk to people on the phone, and it's just like, it's too much, it's too much adulting, and I don't like it.

But at the same time, I do feel like I have accomplished something, and I'm feeling like, like, this is a good time for me to be doing everything that I'm doing, like with the books, and I don't know, I feel like I've, I've jumped a hurdle in some way, like I can be an adult, like, that's fine.

Throw things at me, I don't like it, but I can do it.

So I'm going to take it as a silver lining that it didn't kill me to have to be an adult.

I just wasn't really happy about it.

It's so tedious though.

I've done a lot of balancing recently as well because it's coming up to the anniversary of my house move, or like everything comes together at once, all the renewals and you have to think, do I want to just let it roll over even though they're increasing it by a hundred pounds or do I have the mental energy to go and find a new quote and talk to them and yeah, fap about that.

It's so boring and I feel like it just takes exactly any that I would otherwise use for thinking about plots.

Yeah.

That's what AI should be doing.

I need an AI assistant.

I need an iRobot just to do the stuff that I don't want to do.

Like I said to my work colleagues today, I'm just a child.

I shouldn't be doing this.

I'm just a baby.

I'm a 39-year-old baby.

I can't be calling people and sorting things out like this.

It's not fair and I don't like it.

I'm just a baby.

I always say that.

Nobody ever gets that reference.

I'm just a baby.

I just think about it all the time.

Baby.

Okay.

So that's your winch.

Have you also got a winch or just your winch this week?

I'm winning in that it didn't kill me.

It made me think, what doesn't kill you make you stronger?

I do feel, I feel like I have, I've put on my big girl pants and I have come out stronger, but just a little tired.

Yeah.

I also have a similar winch, but I'm trying to put it behind me now, because I have, I achieved the last thing off the list today of cancelling one more type of insurance, because I set up another type of insurance, which is just so tedious and boring to think about.

I just don't care enough.

If it didn't cost any money, I wouldn't care at all.

So it's very annoying that it costs money.

I do have loads of wins though.

It was my parents wedding this weekend, I sang, I got many compliments.

The chapel had fantastic acoustics, so I sounded even better than I normally sound.

It was so good.

And I just finished a book last week as well.

I managed to hit that deadline.

I've been going to the gym, just went to the gym before this.

I feel very...

This is also making me kind of think, I find it really a pain or a struggle when I get out of good habits.

I find it really hard to get back into them.

When I'm in it, I think, why would I ever stop doing this?

It's so good.

Eating, exercising, doing all the things.

This is just perfect.

Why did we ever stop this?

What even possibly happened?

I don't know.

And then you get ill and then you're suddenly like, oh, I'm a slug.

I live in a slug land now.

So yeah, I find it sort of frustrating to think that in one part of my mind, I believe this is not my permanent true self.

Another part of my mind knows you could lose it at any moment.

Yeah.

This is not the reality.

I feel that like deep in my soul.

But I feel like because we both had such like adulting like life and many weeks, maybe the universe is just trying to kind of give us a taste of what it's going to be like as we kind of venture into being self-employed authors.

Like we're going to have to do the big girl stuff.

And look, it's actually like annoying, but it's not that hard once you like once you get to it, it's fine.

So I'm taking it as a life lesson of like, oh yeah, like it might be annoying.

But if this is what it takes to be an adult and run a business, that's it's OK.

It's OK.

It's absolutely OK.

I think the big part of it is just like, I resent using my free time to do it when I keep using that free time to write.

And I already have to work.

It feels like work.

It feels like unpaid work, which I guess it is.

Because it's very also based on what I do in my regular job, which is like organizing things and researching things and making calls to get price and stuff.

Like, I'm not being paid for this.

Why is not paying for me for this?

I get paid for this normally.

So yes, that's very tedious.

But I have felt good about lots of other things.

And I'm just trying to be very mindful about like, how do I get back into these habits?

How how can I reinforce them and keep them going?

I didn't want to go to the gym this evening at all.

Like I am feeling quite sort of that, that post stressful time stress.

Like I think I don't, I'm very good like putting aside stress and not paying attention to it one minute.

So last week with like finishing a book and prepping for this wedding song and then go to the wedding, you know, it wasn't horrible stressful, but it was like a lot full on, as well as life admin stuff.

But I didn't really feel it until the after effects.

And then today I just felt really stressed all day.

I didn't sleep that well.

And then really did not want to go to the gym, but I did it and I felt better.

And now I'm here.

But I live in like the sense of the parallel universe in which I didn't go to the gym.

And then I never go to the gym again.

And that wouldn't happen.

It felt good.

Yeah.

And it was easy.

It's five minutes from my house.

So as little barrier to entry as possible for that activity.

And it was nice.

Yeah.

I had a similar-ish thing on Sunday where I really wanted a rest day on Sunday.

And I ended up, I think, maybe doing 18,000 steps and was digging at the allotment.

It's like, that's it's not what I wanted to do.

But at the end of the day, I did feel really good about it.

Like, I was like, well, I was active.

It was good.

But yeah, I didn't want it until I had it.

And then I was happy about it.

I don't know where that was going, but I'm just obviously a rambling mood.

I feel like I'm also rambling me today.

I think that's partly because both of us are trying to put off talking about the topic of the day.

At least I did a little bit.

Yes.

So we are talking about social media planning today.

What are your plans if you have any, and how do you make them happen?

You can answer the question first.

I mean, I wrote the question because I write the rundown every week.

And as I wrote it, I thought I'm going to be so annoyed when to answer that.

So I don't want to give my answer.

So I think we've talked about this topic a number of times.

And I think partly why I mean, often we pick topics that we think is a thing we want to work on, and we want to have the podcast episode as a deadline for us to work on it.

But also I think sometimes it is useful for us to have topics, such as like we've had a few on finance that kind of occur.

We've had a few on social media before.

It's hopefully useful for listeners to hear that like these things come up and we haven't talked about it once I fixed it.

I have definitely made progress since our last chat on social media.

And I'm at a sticking point where I don't really know what's holding me up, but I kind of want to have a chat through what's holding me up.

So where was that previously, maybe before we started meeting as all was, I would post sometimes and without, I've got some sense of branding.

There are definitely lots of things that felt like they tied into coziness and lots of things that tied into the brand that I hadn't quite elucidated, but we're still working towards of just quintessentially British mysteries.

So I got posts about that, but fairly irregular because I wasn't trying to keep to a schedule.

And then I'd maybe have a couple months where I felt disengaged from it.

And when I'm saying posting, I really mean Instagram, because that's like a thing that I quite like.

I like taking pictures, I'm quite visual in that sense.

So I enjoyed it.

I really have never enjoyed being on Facebook.

I haven't really tried TikTok like a tiny bit, but just to kind of see how it works.

So I was doing various panic posting kind of just for me, like as much as I enjoyed it.

And then if I wasn't enjoying it, I would stop.

And and then we've talked a few times about social media and we've talked.

One thing we've talked a lot about is or that has stuck with me a lot was about posting more on Facebook in order to kind of gain your credibility with Facebook and improve your ads.

But also I've been rubbish at doing my ads.

So it's just another thing that I haven't done.

And I think and so social media, so I have improved or I have done things that I thought were the obstacle.

So what I thought was the obstacle was I didn't really know what I wanted to post.

I didn't have any sort of plans.

I would just kind of do ad hoc and it would take a lot of starting energy because I have to think about it.

Or I would do it when it felt easy and then just stop when it didn't feel easy.

So I really had no professionalism around my posting.

And then one of my Q1 goals even I think was to kind of like make my improve social media posting.

And we've gone back and forth on this.

I think I actually declared on the podcast before like, I'm definitely doing it.

I'm going to 100 social media.

And then maybe a few months later, like, I'm never doing social media.

It's not effective.

It's not impactful.

And now I'm kind of, I'm not going to go back to the beginning.

But I think one thing I want to do is kind of feel like it was more.

I wanted to research it more, I guess, and like have more of a sense of what might I use it for?

How would I get something out of it?

How do other people get things out of it?

Because you just hear so often in writers groups like, oh, TikTok has made me a quadrilinear in my sleep.

It's so easy.

And I'm exaggerating about it.

It's how I feel sometimes these posts, because I don't use TikTok at all.

And then I've got friends who do make money from TikTok, and it's very, very dedicated, specific work that I don't know if I should do.

I think I could do, and then I think, oh, should I get tempted into seeing how that works?

And I kind of go round and round about this.

And I'm not saying this to kind of say, this is what you should do.

I just kind of, it's interesting, I think sometimes to hear other people's processes and thought processes.

So I've gone around and around a bit on it.

Where I wanted to get up to it, I said, was I wanted to kind of get past some things that I previously thought were barriers.

So what I've now done is research comp authors who are similar enough to me that I think we have the same audience, who I know are making very good money and who do it, or at least part of their success is attributable to social media posting.

And looking at those comp authors, and looking at what they post, what people respond to.

I made myself a list of post types, post types that I wanted to do.

And I think I had 15 post types.

And I wrote them out and I had 12 of those could be batched, so I could do them in big groups.

And I've put it on my chore chart, which I am very good about doing, right?

Apart from this one thing.

On my chore chart every week is like social media content prep.

And it is just such a big job.

And I don't have enough of why for it.

I don't have enough reason.

And what I'm kind of coming around to, and this is again, not really an answer, but it's kind of where I'm stuck at the moment.

Or what I'm being drawn to think about a lot at the moment is like, find, and we talked about this, like find the thing that you find easy, and that you find easy and is impactful.

And, you know, when you keep hearing something again and again, you're like, oh, this is obviously a message that I'm wanting to hear because I keep picking it out.

I just listening to a Becca Simon episode, which I absolutely can't remember what it is, so I can't find it because I, it was, it was a good one.

I'll have a look.

But it was an episode of Becca's Quickcast that was about lots of things.

And one thing that she mentioned, and it was about, she's got this idea about kind of picking the thing that only you can do.

And the thing, I think what social media is, there's nothing there that only I can do.

And that feels like I am drawn to it.

So, so conversely, and I'll give you a chance to speak in a minute.

I know I've just spoken of readers.

Conversely, I have just put my newsletter to once a week rather than once a month.

And that has felt, and to other people that will be an absolute nightmare, then that has felt incredibly easy to me.

I get great responses from my readers.

It's fun, it's easy.

I've got a process for it.

And in fact, I write most of it at my roller skating group on Tuesday night.

So I roller skate for a bit, then I come off and write a paragraph that I've pre-planned, take a break so I don't fall over, roller skate for a bit, come off, write a bit more, roller skate, come off.

So by the end of roller skating, not only have I had great exercise and looked really cool, I've also written my whole newsletter in my Notion app on my phone.

And the next day at lunchtime, in the middle of work, I can transfer across to my newsletter format and then send it out.

And it is so easy for me.

And in fact, I was talking to a friend about that and they were complimenting the writing of it.

And I was like, Oh, I just write it between roller skating.

I was like that I cannot believe that because it feels like something that you really put dedicated thought into.

I was like, I kind of do like I've spent ages on my newsletter and I've spent a long time.

I'm a writer.

Like I've spent a lot of time holding my voice to that.

And it's really, it feels very like something I should pay attention to how fun and easy I find it to write my newsletter versus how much I hate the idea of social media posting.

And I don't know if it's just because I haven't found the way to do it.

So I kind of want to bring a problem to the podcast today rather than necessarily bring any sort of like, here's my progress.

You can all do the same too.

I sort of hate it, I don't have a reason to do it.

Where are you up to with yours?

I want to jump in on yours first before I start talking about me.

Because you do your weekly newsletter, is there any way that you can turn your newsletter into posts?

And I mean, like, if you're talking about what you've been doing that week, could you take a snippet and turn it into a post?

I could, absolutely.

I do, I have the same three to four features almost every week.

So I have a weekly format and monthly format.

They're very slightly different.

But I have like, here's the book I'd be reading this week.

Here's a link to it.

Here's why I love it.

And it's always a book that is similar to the book that I'm writing.

And I have like his, a themed collection of like, pictures of my cat, of my cats and something about them.

And how my writing is going this week.

And all of those have got pictures to go with them.

They're preselected pictures, often groups of three.

The writing is done.

I'm not describing.

It's not that I don't have content.

Because I have got a plan and I've got a plan based on something I know works and something I could do.

So the obstacle isn't really...

Yeah, I think the obstacle to me partly is like, it's a lot of, yeah, it's the work.

Yeah, it is doing it.

And I just think it is re-demoralizing when it isn't impactful.

So, and we've had this exact conversation where I'm very aware of that.

I was like, social media hasn't, like no one sees your Instagram.

No.

But it does just feel like, I don't know.

It's so difficult.

Maybe.

Yeah.

It's because I saw somebody, I saw a reel today and it was like somebody, I don't even know, it just came up like as I recommended.

It's not somebody I follow.

I was just scrolling, as you do.

And her Instagram, her reel was her just like sat at her desk, like just doing whatever.

And the caption was, not stressing about Instagram posts, knowing that 90% of my business comes from Google.

And I just thought, that's like, yeah.

She's not looking to turn her Instagram into like, that's not part of really part of her funnel.

And I thought like, that's really interesting.

Like I'm trying to turn, I mean, and for writers, I think Instagram is a part of the funnel, but it's not the only part of the funnel.

So that's really like my mentality, like the way that I'm kind of looking at social media at the moment, it's like I'm trying to really figure out which platform is going to like, which one works best for me.

And I haven't really figured that out yet because I don't know which one has converted like followers into readers.

Like I haven't really got that data.

I've genuinely turned epiphany while you've been talking, because why do we keep coming back to this?

Like, why do we ever talk about social media when we know for us so far, it has like, it's very hard to get even views on your social media posts.

And like my epiphany was talking was like, the reason why I keep coming back to social media, and that I think I should use it because I spend so much time on social media.

So it feels like that should have value.

And I, I spend it not mindfully, but I spend it being aware that I am very productive.

Oh, that's a big horn outside, sorry.

I'm very productive and I utilize all the hours of the day to very well.

So like today I have, I don't write on Mondays, so I have worked this lunchtime, I prepped my newsletter, I have been to the gym, I have joined a conference school for other cozy authors, and now I'm recording the podcast.

That's enough.

Right, that's enough.

I've also watched an episode of a mystery TV show that was recommended by another cozy author.

And now I just think, that seems like too much for one day, how did I even fit that in?

But I've also fit in being on social media, which for me is my like, just detachment from the world time, it gives me like a real break from having to think about things and it's enjoyable.

Maybe it's just my like, grind mindset that says like, you must also monetize this and make it useful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that that's the sort of kind of epiphany I've been having recently is the my best, the best posts or the posts that do the best for me on social media.

I like my silly lip syncing-y, just like me making stupid faces posts, which I actually love.

I love to do it because I'm so like, I've always been like this in my family.

I'm like the ridiculously dramatic person in the family.

I'm the person who every Christmas when I was a kid, put on a show every Christmas.

Everyone sit down and go to mime Barbie girl and dance.

I was that kid.

Went down in history.

That was a really good Christmas.

So it really is like, I think that doing those posts really show my personality and I really enjoy it and they do really well.

So when my other posts, which are like my sales posts, fall flat, I'm like, oh, it's like it feels so rubbish.

But then people go on Instagram for fun.

Yeah.

And maybe I should be catering to that.

Yeah.

But you've done those Instagram, like, books to grab my people, you sent them packages and their videos, like I've watched them because you link them in your stories and I'll click and watch them.

The people who are opening packages, they have got such the same vibe as you.

Like, they open them with so much enthusiasm.

I can imagine you guys being friends in real life.

And I think that is what, like, putting out that side of yourself on Instagram has got you is people who are, like, engaging with an authentic version of you.

And I, I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know what to do around that for social media.

I know, I know.

It's difficult because it's obviously different for everybody.

You think that there should be a set thing to do.

So I've got on my wall a social media plan, and I've written down what I want to post every day.

And to be fair, I haven't taken into account, like what percentage I should be selling and what percentage I should not be selling.

But I have got on a Monday, do my weekend wrap up, which I do like to do.

I do that anyway.

And then on a Tuesday, do a book with a call to action and all this stuff.

But that's not me.

That's what I think a business, how the business should run.

Social media Sam.

Yeah, that's social media Sam.

And I think that social media Sam, I think it's way too restrictive.

And whilst it is helpful to keep my head in the game and be like, there are certain calls to actions that I've written down, and ways to try and connect to readers based on emotion and all that stuff.

So it is helpful, but it's such a chore making, just a still post with a picture of a book and a quote.

I just feel like, would I interact with that?

I mean, I do interact with that because I do save other people's posts.

Because that's how I come up with ideas of what to post, is that the things that I've liked throughout the week, I save them into a folder.

And then at the weekend, I look through and I'm like, okay, I'll make these posts.

But I don't know, like they don't feel like me and they're not getting any interaction.

So, how can I put my like, humour and silliness from my stupid reels into the posts about the book?

That's the difficult part for me.

Me, maybe you just don't.

But it's like, if you're never going to use it for sales, and you were just trying to say like, I'm just, I quote, brand building, which sounds really...

Yeah.

It sounds very apathetic.

But it is, but I want to attract the people who find me like semi-amusing because my personality obviously goes into the books.

So, yeah, like I am a personality writer.

I do like to put a lot of myself and like have quirky characters and like bit snarky people.

And like, it all comes from me.

So, I don't know, like I'm not very disconnected.

Yeah, I think we might even come to the same opinion last time we talked about the topic.

But I think where we came to it was like, social media is maybe a good place for you to just refine that side of yourself and then present it in a better to people who actually are engaged with you.

Yeah, I think I really want to, I am drawn to it.

Like I have enjoyed in the past, I've enjoyed posting on social media.

And I have had Instagram for a long time.

And I love sharing like pictures of nice things that I see and I go to a lot of, I do a lot of things that Cozy Readers would love.

I think that's...

Just in general, you do a lot of things.

So in the past, when I was like sharing posts, it felt very easy.

I didn't feel like I was struggling to find content, but it felt like my content was not at all deliberate.

And so then I kind of got to the stage of like, oh, I must make it more productive.

I must make it sell books.

And part of the problem was like, I just ended up having my posts seen by my friends and family, which feels sort of pointless.

Or I could figure out like, sometimes you get a post to get a bigger audience, but it was always outside of my book community.

So like a lot of stuff that I post about like nice properties in Royal England, like beautiful country houses.

And it's like, there's a lot of country house people on Instagram.

They love looking at them, but they're not cozy readers.

So then what's the point of like trying to expand your network, people who are not useful?

Yeah.

I think it feels very demoralizing that we've come on to same space again.

And I do sort of wonder what would that...

I don't feel demoralized.

No, I feel like...

I don't feel demoralized.

No, no, I do.

I feel like this has been an epiphany because like last week, we were talking about launch plans and we were talking about how book funnel and building a mailing list is the key to a successful publishing career because those people are already signed up to hear from you and to buy your books.

So that really is like the key part of the business is getting people to sign up to your mailing list because you know that they are committed, like way more committed than a social media follow.

So I think that maybe social, like I always feel like social media is the top of my list for like the most important thing that I have to do to be out there and to find readers.

But I'm starting to reshuffle that and think like, I don't think that's right for me.

I don't think that that's, I think it's the best place for me to socialize with readers and have that be like the fun thing that it's for, like it was supposed to be in the first place.

I think that they have like duped me into thinking that I should be a business person on there.

And that's not where business Sam comes into play.

Yeah, I definitely, I think of my social media down the list.

Like it feels disposable to me, but that's why I've took sense of it.

And my newsletter is like where I first announce things and first share things.

And it's where I give free content.

You know, that's the only place you can get free content for me like this additional tech and prequel, you know.

Yeah, and I think I've just kind of got this lingering sense that like I should be doing something different.

And I think a lot of people do, a lot of people are trying to do all the things.

And this is also what Becca was talking about the podcast I listened to, was just like, people need to stop trying to do all the things.

And I really, really do want to lean into like do the things that you are uniquely good at.

And maybe find a way to bring that energy that I have in my newsletter to my social media.

And try that rather than trying to like model myself on successful authors in the business and just do what they do, because to me that would feel draining.

So the person who I think in the cozy sphere, who does really fantastic job of social media and puts a huge amount of effort into it is Ellie Alexander, who has a new podcast called Reality Rights, which I think I've recommended before, but I'm going to put this show in the house again, because if you're not listening to it, listen, because it is eye-opening.

In terms of how much she does.

And she is mostly a trad author and does more work than any indie author.

You know, absolutely more.

I'm like, holds herself to a very specific standard, I think maybe because she's trad.

So she does a lot of things very intensively.

Whereas I think an indie author might feel a little bit more like you can kind of throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.

I think she feels like she has to approach everything very professionally.

So yeah, her podcast is interesting.

She also has a husband has a lot of work with her as well on this.

So he comes from like a, I think like a techie marketing background.

So has a lot of useful skills.

But their podcast is them talking quite frankly about like how much effort they put into things.

And they had a really good episode where they talked about kind of their marketing and what had been effective and the places where they'd wasted energy.

And for them, it is useful, right?

Because they have got a lot of engagement with all the posts.

They get a lot of interaction with their readers on there.

I think it does a lot to drive sales.

Like you can see Alexander as we speak, she's got like two books in the top 100, Cozy at least, maybe three.

But listening to her podcast was really eye-opening in terms of like how professionally she does it.

But I think she genuinely enjoys it.

And I genuinely don't like, I like it.

I think the problem is I like doing the little like occasional posts of like nice places I've been and nice cakes I've eaten and like cute quirky things around my house.

And I don't like the next step to like professionalize it.

And so I'm just sort of stuck at thinking, Oh, any Alexander does that, so I should do that.

So then I do nothing because I'm not doing that.

It's so much work.

Yeah.

And we know that you have a very all-or-nothing mindset when it comes to, that you're such a perfectionist that if you can't do the thing that you think is going to work, you don't want to do it.

I'm also very busy.

So it's like, I...

Yeah, exactly.

And you're very busy.

Yeah.

If I had my time, I would love to do some of the stuff she did.

Like I would find it really fun.

But if I'm like, I would have to be not sleeping to do the amount of work that she does on her social media.

Yeah.

I don't want that for myself.

Yeah.

If that's not the life that you're wanting, then maybe don't try.

I mean, I do think that you like, I don't think there's anything wrong with your like, what you post on social media.

I don't think like, I don't know, you don't seem invisible on social media.

And you have a really thriving email, like mailing list.

And you do that side of things so well.

Like I'm really bad at that side of things.

And like, I just wish that I could get my head into the game like you, when it comes to emailing stuff.

So like, that's, that's good enough.

And if you're on top of that and you're doing that, I mean, and that is social media.

It's just like unseen social media.

So you are doing, like, if you're doing that every week, then you're, you are winning at something.

Yeah, and I think you're right.

Like, I could just try taking that same concept that I already have set up and saved, and it's on my phone, because I put it in specific folders that I can access my phone.

Why not just copy that across and see how it works, and see if I can get some engagement there.

And if not, because there are things I like posting about.

They're not things that I have had to work hard to really jam into a certain structure.

So maybe try that and mix it in with just, I don't know, pitch them nice cakes, I mean, which is my favorite sort of post.

Exactly, and that's what people expect from Cozy's.

They want that, especially if you've got a large American audience.

They love seeing the cutesy British stuff.

So why not give it to them?

And I'm surrounded by it.

Yeah, exactly.

Why not give them the quirky things that you've got in your house and the cakes that you're eating and the countryside walks that you're going on.

Give it to them.

Yeah.

I walked some alpacas last week or a couple of weeks ago.

Delightful.

I mean, yeah, that sounds like it should be in a Cozy Mystery.

I know.

I spent the weekend in like a 17th century old chapel when my parents got married in a tiny little hamlet which had nothing but this chapel and one old inn in it.

Also very mysterious.

I want to find out more reason behind it.

The next village along was called like something like Blubber Houses.

Blubber Houses something.

But it's like, it's not near the sea.

So why Blubber Houses?

I'm so intrigued and I feel like I'm going to research this and maybe write a whole newsletter about it.

I think that's also what I need to do more of is just like, I love things like that.

Like I love quirky English things.

And I've got so, yeah, this is the all nothing thing like hung up on, on I should make it more productive.

But like, I could just enjoy my social media more and just find a way to like, find a bet like it's a good excuse to be on social media, the amount I would like to be.

Yeah, pretend to myself.

It's for good reason.

Yeah, well, that's it.

Like today before like we did this and I was like, oh, I need to batch some content.

And I just batched like 10 silly videos that I'm gonna post throughout the week.

And I was thinking like, oh, I really need to figure out what I'm gonna post in between them.

But I was like, I know I've got a book coming out.

So I do need to do like some teaser videos and some quotes and stuff.

But at the same time, like, I'm just gonna, I think I'm just gonna start being silly on the internet.

Yeah.

I'm just, let's just see what happens.

If you're gonna be silly on the internet, I'm just gonna be like cute and quirk on the internet.

Yeah, you be cute and quirk.

I'll just be silly.

Yeah, it'll all be fun.

And I forgot to say that as part of my, like one of my wins this week was that one of the Bookstagram people that I sent my book to posted a really nice video.

That was a good win.

And that is a good, that was a good social media win for me.

She has over 15,000 followers.

So like, why not let somebody else do my social media for me by sending books out?

She was so enthusiastic about it.

Yes.

There was some nice comments as well.

So that was nice.

So I'll keep reading from the comments like, Oh, anybody, anybody going to take a bite?

Yeah, like the best thing about this is like how much people love the little bookmarks that you made, which are just, they're so personal and so handmade.

Like you, so if anyone's not seen Sam's social media, which you should watch, she, I, what's the tool called?

I've no idea, but she's like Woodburn.

Pyrograph, I've got, I actually got the box here, so I can read it off this box.

Pyrography, I mean, don't have words like that.

I can't pronounce words like that.

And so effectively, yeah, it's like, it's kind of like a soldering iron, but instead of sold it, it's got different kinds of like pendants and things and like some of them are moon shaped, which was just like a win because it came with a little half moon thing and you just burn into wood.

So I made some very cutesy personalized bookmarks for people that had Curse of the Wild they were for.

So Curse of the Wild, and they had a kind of like wolfy design on one side.

So some of them had claw marks, some of them had wolves howling at the moon, which I drew on.

Oh my God, it was, and on the other side had quotes.

It was, and as actually somebody who said that it was their business and they make them said like, that was impressive that I had like handwritten in like a handwriting script had managed to burn these quotes.

It took so long.

It looks like it'll be fast.

It's not fast.

It's so slow.

But if you're like a hobby collector like me, it was a fun few hours.

Yeah, I do love a new hobby.

But yeah, I'm such a good example of just like, really leading thing that only you can do, right?

You like a good new hobby.

You can have a lot of confidence.

Like I would say my issue with that would have been like, oh, they're not like 1000% perfect.

So I can't send them out.

I must keep practicing for 10 years until I'm an expert pyrography.

I'm a 50% person.

I'm a finish it to 50% and then think, yeah, I'm done.

That was my problem at school.

And that's my problem in real life.

But you know what?

I'm still here.

I'm thriving.

I absolutely love it.

And the alternative, if it's me, I haven't learned any of that.

They've got nothing from me.

No one's ever received a handmade bookmark from me, probably since I was a little kid and forced to make them at school at some point, or in the brownies.

But not like I haven't said, that your packages look so good and we're so well appreciated.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was a really fun thing.

Leaning into what only you can do and making the most of that.

Okay, I feel inspired.

I think it's useful to like talk through a thing that we have a hang up on, because I think a lot of people have the same with social media, sort of feeling like I should be doing something and I keep coming back to it and I don't know what I'm meant to be doing.

And it doesn't feel useful anyway.

Yeah, it doesn't feel useful unless you hit it big, the minor little fluctuations where you might get a few followers or you might get like a thousand views on something, those like little fluctuations of, oh, how exciting, and then always like it's always dragged down by you do a post and seven people see it.

I think until you hit big numbers, it just feels so difficult and I just yeah, I'm kind of just sick of feeling like I'm not doing well at it because I am doing well enough that I'm showing up every day.

And I have got followers and I have got readers who like are excited to read my next book.

Like that's good enough.

Like, and I'm just hoping that like eventually that'll grow and it has to grow because every time I put a new book out, like the ball will continue to roll and I'll gather the moss and all that.

Just do all the random analogies that don't make any sense.

But yeah, like eventually it will just get better and bigger.

Yeah, I think why not like enjoy yourself along the way.

I think such a major thing that I do not think I want to try and like figure out how to make it a business component.

I think I just want to find a way to have fun with it that does something to represent my brand, because I know some people on social media, like in my newsletter, you know, I've got the bottom of my social links and every time like someone clicks through.

So clearly some people want to be following us on socials.

But I have just done nothing months because I've been sort of paralyzed, been like I'll return to it when I've got my like incredibly complex, detailed posting schedule sorted with these like videos that I do every few days that I'll somehow magically find the time to make.

And I'm not going to do that.

So I think what I need to do is just start with something and then see what I thought of doing.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think so.

I think that's probably the best view is just use the content that you've already got and repurpose it.

That's the most efficient thing you could be doing right now.

Yeah, better than nothing.

And I would enjoy it when it's all things that I like sharing.

So, yes, I should do that.

Hopefully anyone listening who is kind of stuck in a similar place.

Yeah, I hope you guys have been helpful.

Also, yeah, do reach out to us.

We post on social media.

I don't know if you guys know.

We post on social media, we're on Instagram, Pen to Paycheck Authors on there.

And that one is like, we stick to that pretty well.

We do.

But that one, there's less silliness.

Yeah, there is less silliness, but also that is clearly a brand, right?

It's not a person.

So it's easier to kind of see what should you do with it.

And we have set up to use the content with the minimal effort.

So we use the podcast and we have the app we used to do the program, we used to do the podcast, makes those for us, it clips them for us.

And we batch created some other content that we thought would work well, and with minimal effort.

So yeah, and we're not necessarily looking to have a feeling, like have an engagement on a human level.

I think we've very much been like, we have a presence, we won't be able to be engaging on some way.

But yeah, but there's not really a way to do it.

The podcast is a thing, right?

And like the books are the thing with your own writing.

And yeah, maybe Instagram is not the best place to find the readers who will fund my career.

I think that's putting too much pressure on Instagram.

It's just the cute pictures.

Yeah.

And it's putting too much pressure on like, the people, like friends, not just friends and family, but any acquaintance that you have on Instagram, if they don't buy your book, if they're liking your post but not buying your book, you kind of like, it's putting like a weird, it does for me anyway, it kind of gives me a weird thing like, oh, they interact with my post all the time, but I don't think they've bought a book.

And it just, it makes me feel weird about it.

And I don't want to feel like that.

I just want people to be like, like the posts, that's enough.

Like, that's fine.

Don't click on the links.

It's fine.

So, yeah, I need to be less.

I don't have a feeling, because I think I follow a lot of authors who I, I would never buy their book as a consequence of a post.

It just keeps them in my mind.

So at some point, I will buy a book, but it's not, I'm never there thinking, oh, if only I had a book to read right now, what shall I read?

Let me go on Instagram to find a new book.

No, I have a book in front of me, obviously, at all times.

I've got Kindle up on my phone.

I'm choosing to be on Instagram because I want to be distracted from the thing I'm meant to be doing.

So it's just like we keep it all tuff of mine.

And yeah, I'm going to try and just find a fun way to do it.

And I do think I've hung on to it because I want to make my social media time productive.

And I'm going to try and let go of that.

That is not serving me well.

It is making me feel guilty for relaxing.

Yeah.

Which...

Yeah, and maybe we'll come back to this at the start of next year when we do our new Q1 goals and we'll revisit this and have like, we'll have a different opinion.

But for right now, I'm feeling good that social media should be fun.

And yeah, I'm okay with that.

Yeah, we have got our Q3 goals coming up soon.

So Q3 recap.

Q3 is almost over.

Yeah, Q3 review, that's what I call it.

Yes.

No, that's going to be good.

It's so useful to have those reviews and just kind of see, even if you didn't do anything, why and what did you do?

And kind of appreciate that absolutely love and do these those quarterly reviews.

And I think people also like them.

They seem to get good listens.

So hopefully everyone else is listening along and doing their own quarterly reviews.

It's not quite time for the Q3 recap though.

So next week topic, we are continuing our series on planning for success with an episode on income plans.

Do you have any initial thoughts on that?

At first, when I read this, I was like income plans, what are we talking about?

But then I had written a note to say that it was kind of like also side hustling stuff.

So effectively, it's like how to make money that's like not just the books, how to make money as a business, which can involve more than books.

So this is something that I've been thinking about for the entire year and I still don't know.

I don't know.

I'm kind of on the fence about some of the ideas that I have, so I think I might save them for next week.

But yeah, like this is like, I think it's a struggle because I don't feel like I have anything else I can offer people, but I know that's not true.

That's just like a mindset thing.

So that's, yeah, I'm going to be bringing mindset stuff next week.

Yeah, I think it is very mindset because like knowing you, I think you have a lot of skills that you give away for free, that you don't think you can charge for.

And that is, you could monetize them, but it's like, do you want to?

I think I'm also, I'm in a related position in that like, I have got things that people will pay me a lot of money to do, but it turns out I don't really want to do them.

And that is interesting in a different way.

So yeah, I think lots of stuff to talk about next week.

I'm going to leave on a teaser in that I have tried and very temporarily succeeded at something that seems like just free money for nothing and was great.

And then instantly got some adult life corporatey email about it.

And it just like, I need to go and do some more verification and checking things out.

So they made a fun thing boring, but it is hopefully when I reinstate it, and I will tell more next week because I'm going to hope to be successful by them at the reinstating.

Hopefully, I will be back in like another little money train on the way.

So yeah, lots of things I think to talk about next week.

And it's a good topic as well to review, because I do think there's a lot of stuff because it's so mindset.

There's a lot of stuff that like you can get away without examining.

And I would like to have a bit of chance to examine where am I really going to make money come from, or where could I make money come from, that I'm not really exploring at the moment for various reasons.

So I'm looking forward to that chat.

Hopefully everybody else is as well.

And hopefully this podcast has been fantastic.

Do recommend it to people.

Review, forward, share, tell everyone you know.

Find us on Instagram.

We are very fun there.

Or we're professionally fun.

Yes, professionally fun.

Yes.

We will say goodbye here.

We'll see you next week.

Goodbye.

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