{"id":7797,"date":"2018-02-17T17:53:16","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T17:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=7797"},"modified":"2018-02-17T17:53:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T17:53:16","slug":"do-less-achieve-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/do-less-achieve-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Less, Achieve More"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>In recent weeks, there has been a lot of pos\u00adi\u00adtive activ\u00adi\u00adty regard\u00ading my lat\u00adest book, my mem\u00adoir of the writ\u00ading life, Per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading Trou\u00adble<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But what makes this activ\u00adi\u00adty par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly pleas\u00adant for me is this: it came about more or less spon\u00adta\u00adneous\u00adly, with\u00adout my hav\u00ading to do much of any\u00adthing.<\/p>\n

In fact, you could say that late\u00adly I\u2019ve been doing less and achiev\u00ading more.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, Kirkus Reviews gave the book a stel\u00adlar review<\/a>. I had sub\u00admit\u00adted the book to them back in Octo\u00adber of last year and for\u00adgot\u00adten all about it. Then, one evening I was in my local gro\u00adcery store, Marona\u2019s, and the new own\u00ader came over, shook my hand, and gushed about how he had recent\u00adly bought all my books and how much he loved them. A few weeks lat\u00ader, I received an email from a fan who con\u00adgrat\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded me on an arti\u00adcle<\/a> about Per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading Trou\u00adble<\/em> that he\u2019d read in the Pough\u00adkeep\u00adsie Jour\u00adnal<\/em>; I had no idea what arti\u00adcle he was talk\u00ading about; I\u2019d missed it com\u00adplete\u00adly. Then Kirkus Reviews con\u00adtact\u00aded me again, say\u00ading that the review of Per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading Trou\u00adble<\/em> had been cho\u00adsen for inclu\u00adsion in their print\u00aded cat\u00ada\u00adlog that is sent to book\u00adsellers and libraries (a very<\/em> small per\u00adcent\u00adage of books get cho\u00adsen for this).<\/p>\n

Angels Do Exist<\/strong><\/p>\n

A cou\u00adple weeks ago, my for\u00admer book lay\u00adout per\u00adson, Lisa DeSpain, con\u00adtact\u00aded me with an oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adty: for the past year she\u2019s been build\u00ading her new busi\u00adness, Book2Bestseller.com<\/a>, which focus\u00ades on the things about this busi\u00adness that dri\u00adve me crazy\u2014the pro\u00admo\u00adtion of authors, mar\u00adket\u00ading their books, and work\u00ading with social media to expand an author\u2019s plat\u00adform and read\u00ader\u00adship.<\/p>\n

Lisa had read the blog piece<\/a> I wrote a year ago, which was effec\u00adtive\u00adly an online clas\u00adsi\u00adfied ad for what I termed a \u201c21st<\/sup> Cen\u00adtu\u00adry Author Pro\u00admot\u00ader,\u201d or what I con\u00adsid\u00ader the mod\u00adern equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of a lit\u00ader\u00adary agent. She\u2019d read the blog piece and said that she thought she could help me. Of course I said yes, and this blog piece rep\u00adre\u00adsents the start of our new pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtion.<\/p>\n

So I Tossed the Uni\u00adverse the Keys<\/strong><\/p>\n

But\u2014and here is the point of this blog entry\u2014I\u2019m con\u00advinced that none of the above pos\u00adi\u00adtive devel\u00adop\u00adments would have occurred had I not let go at the start of the New Year. I sur\u00adren\u00addered<\/em>, say\u00ading to the uni\u00adverse that I didn\u2019t want to do the online or social media stuff any\u00admore. I didn\u2019t want to have to fight to get atten\u00adtion for my books. I want\u00aded someone\u2014a knowl\u00adedge\u00adable, hon\u00adest, savvy, help\u00adful person\u2014to sim\u00adply han\u00addle all of this stuff for me.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the most impor\u00adtant part of my let\u00adting go: I accept\u00aded the idea that my books becom\u00ading best\u00adsellers and my build\u00ading a vast read\u00ader\u00adship just might not be in the cards for me. I basi\u00adcal\u00adly said to the uni\u00adverse,<\/p>\n

\u201cLook\u2026I\u2019m tired. I\u2019m done<\/em> try\u00ading to do things my way. You<\/em> need to han\u00addle it now, and what\u00adev\u00ader lev\u00adel of suc\u00adcess you want to bring me is fine. I\u2019m going to refo\u00adcus on writ\u00ading the books, using the low-tech process that gives me joy and com\u00adfort. I\u2019m trust\u00ading YOU to dri\u00adve this train from now on. Adios, ami\u00adgo.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, I\u2019d \u201csur\u00adren\u00addered\u201d or let go many times in the past, but it was always with a soup\u00e7on of resent\u00adment that I was hav\u00ading to do it in the first place. I felt like Life had sim\u00adply worn me down and that I was being forced to do it. How\u00adev\u00ader, I real\u00adize now that that wasn\u2019t let\u00adting go at all; it was giv\u00ading up. The dif\u00adfer\u00adence this time was, I didn\u2019t let go from a place of resent\u00adment; I let go with a feel\u00ading that maybe the uni\u00adverse knows bet\u00adter than I do what is best for me and how I can most eas\u00adi\u00adly get it.<\/p>\n

How I Final\u00adly Let Go<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Jan\u00adu\u00adary 1 of this year, I decid\u00aded I want\u00aded to get back to my low-tech writ\u00ading process (a process I will describe in detail in the com\u00ading weeks). I was exhaust\u00aded with the inter\u00adnet and social media, and the con\u00adstant angst they cre\u00adat\u00aded in me: this sense that there was always some\u00adthing else I could and should<\/em> be doing to pro\u00admote my books and myself as an author.<\/p>\n

I had recent\u00adly reread a book enti\u00adtled Do Less, Achieve More<\/em>, in which the author talks about how impor\u00adtant the act of sur\u00adren\u00adder is, and how, if you tru\u00adly sur\u00adren\u00adder to your cir\u00adcum\u00adstances and stop fight\u00ading the same bat\u00adtles, the uni\u00adverse will go to work for you to effort\u00adless\u00adly bring about your desires. But you have to let go<\/em>; you have to tru\u00adly release your wor\u00adries and trust that, some\u00adhow and on its own timetable, the uni\u00adverse will orches\u00adtrate events to bring about your desires.<\/p>\n

(By the way, this is a great book<\/a>, and while I\u2019ve read it at least once a year for the decade I\u2019ve owned it, only this year did I ful\u00adly grasp what it meant to sur\u00adren\u00adder, and only this year was I will\u00ading to hand over the keys of my pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal life to the uni\u00adverse.)<\/p>\n

With\u00adin days of my tru\u00adly let\u00adting go, all of the pos\u00adi\u00adtive devel\u00adop\u00adments regard\u00ading Per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading Trou\u00adble<\/em> that I detailed at the start of this piece began to hap\u00adpen. And here\u2019s the thing: I know that those are just a taste of the good things yet to come.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m excit\u00aded about my col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtion with Lisa and her com\u00adpa\u00adny Book2Bestseller.com because work\u00ading with her means that I\u2019ll be able to focus on the part of this whole \u201cauthor\u201d endeav\u00ador that gives me joy: the writ\u00ading. Lisa\u2019s han\u00addling of mar\u00adket\u00ading and pro\u00admo\u00adtion, the inter\u00adnet and social media, means that all I have to do is write. Some of this writ\u00ading will be in the form of more fre\u00adquent blog posts, like this one, but the way I\u2019m choos\u00ading to look at this work is, it\u2019s still writ\u00ading, and even if they\u2019re \u201cjust\u201d blog posts, I can get joy from mak\u00ading them the best writ\u00adten blog posts they can be.<\/p>\n

Come Back Soon<\/strong><\/p>\n

I encour\u00adage you to come back more often now, because there\u2019s going to be some killer con\u00adtent on here week\u00adly. Soon I will be offer\u00ading, as a FREE down\u00adload, A Study in Crim\u00adson<\/em>, the Dako\u00adta and Svet\u00adlana \u201cori\u00adgin sto\u00adry\u201d; it will only be avail\u00adable on my web\u00adsite, and it will only be avail\u00adable to read\u00aders who sub\u00adscribe to my newslet\u00adter.<\/p>\n

As I men\u00adtioned ear\u00adli\u00ader, I\u2019ll be reveal\u00ading my low-tech writ\u00ading process in detail and how it might work for some of my fel\u00adlow authors or aspir\u00ading writ\u00aders. There will be blog pieces about the back\u00adsto\u00adries of each of my eight books\u2014events and peo\u00adple and places that inspired me, where I got the ideas, and more. Some of my fic\u00adtion\u00adal char\u00adac\u00adters will appear on the site as guest blog\u00adgers. I will reveal some of my knowl\u00adedge about writ\u00ading, and writ\u00ading fic\u00adtion in particular\u2014knowledge gained by hard expe\u00adri\u00adence over 25 years of writ\u00ading pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly. And sub\u00adscribers to my new newslet\u00adter will receive pri\u00advate, \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d peeks into my work\u00adspaces, my bed\u00adside books, and glimpses of what I\u2019m work\u00ading on now.<\/p>\n

I hope to see you back here again next week, and, as always, if you read one of my books and enjoyed it, I\u2019d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n

\u2014Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of pos\u00adi\u00adtive activ\u00adi\u00adty regard\u00ading my lat\u00adest book, my mem\u00adoir of the writ\u00ading life, Per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading Trou\u00adble. But what\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,366,30,244,19,75,364,36,365,7,8,37,209,10,11,13,14,233],"tags":[124,332,370,374,372,94,98,373,211,125,265,371,111,155,367,369,210,368,212,302,221,355,352],"class_list":["post-7797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon-kindle","category-book-promotion","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-ebooks","category-fiction","category-memoir","category-memoirs","category-mystery-writing","category-perpetuating-trouble","category-personal","category-publishingandthemarket","category-reviews","category-social-media-technologyandinternet","category-technologyandinternet","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-writers","category-writingexperiences","category-writing-life","tag-amazon","tag-author-promotion","tag-book-promotion","tag-book2bestseller-com","tag-chin-ning-chu","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-dakota-stevens","tag-do-less-achieve-more","tag-facebook","tag-kdp","tag-kindle","tag-letting-go","tag-memoir-2","tag-orcutt","tag-perpetuating-trouble","tag-promotion","tag-social-media","tag-surrender","tag-twitter","tag-writer","tag-writers-life","tag-writing-life","tag-writing-memoir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7797"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7808,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7797\/revisions\/7808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}