I'm Sorry, But There Aren't Enough Hours In The Day...

If I had a fully functional magic lamp, or if Jiminy Cricket appeared on my windowsill promising a wish on a star, I wouldn’t wish to win the lotto, or for money to grow on trees.

I’d ask for more time.

It’s such a shame to only have 24 hours in a day. Since more than a third of my day goes toward writing, and another third goes toward my brain cataloging memories and refreshing its cells or whatever the heck it does at night, I must choose how I spend those remaining few hours wisely.

If I sent you a link to this post, or if I haven’t sent a personal response to your email, message, or tweet, please know that I’m flattered that you reached out. I’m sure whatever you need help with is really important to you.

Disappointing others is one of my greatest fears. Because of this, I say “yes” to things too often. But every time I say “yes,” I siphon time from my priorities. And as much as I hate this — because I know what it’s like to be in your shoes — since I’ve said “yes” to so many other things, unfortunately I have to say “no” to you.

I know you don’t think you’re asking for much. But if you knew how many people reach out to me asking for help, you’d understand how much time it would take to say yes to everyone.

Here are the things on my plate that I must prioritize:

In no particular order, here are the things that have to come first, in addition to obvious priorities like my family and my health:

1. Writing novels. I’m fortunate enough to write-full time now, but since I don’t get paid if the words don’t get written — I no longer get paid time off! I must make sure I have the brain space to write on short deadlines.

2. Marketing tasks. Authors are expected to do their own marketing these days, and I’m no exception. That involves sending email newsletters, producing TikTok videos, taking Instagram photos, updating my website, and so on… and it’s very time-consuming.

3. Author admin tasks. Now that I have multiple books in the pipeline at once, it takes a decent chunk of time to handle things like reviewing interior page designs, providing feedback on cover designs, tracking payments, fielding emails from my agents, editor, publicist, etc.

4. Video game freelance writing. I took a pay cut when quitting my salaried day job in order to write full time, so I need to take on freelance projects in order to make up the difference.

5. My personal life. I like to have some semblance of a social life every once in awhile, and to exercise, read, and play video games. Otherwise stress will reduce me to a useless blob. And I really don’t want to be a useless blob.

So, I’m very sorry, but I simply must say no to you. As I hope you can tell, there aren’t enough hours in the day to allocate time to my personal and professional priorities and still make time to answer your question.

Thanks so much for understanding.

Here are some useful links based on questions I receive frequently:

1. If you’re looking for a literary agent, I shared my #QueryTip advice here. I also recommend QueryTracker (check out their forum, too), QueryShark, and The Absolute Write forums.

2. If you need book marketing advice, you can read tons and tons and tons of posts I wrote back when I worked at BookBub on the BookBub Partners Blog.

3. If you’re trying to learn how to do inbound marketing, you can find information here, here, and here (search for anything, you’ll find it).

4. If you’re looking for marketing advice specific to your unique circumstances, I’d recommend posting your question to: