It really is. I mean on the ‘business’ side of my publishing. I’m following a formula that is clearly going nowhere. I’m not going to hold out for a day that is clearly never coming. Plenty of people can copywrite and I don’t want to be one of them. Cased closed.
What I’d rather do—to borrow the yoga metaphor—is attach the heart to the divine and let the mind follow. Write what I feel should be written (NOT what is supposed to be written) and create a real business case around it.
Leave some room for serendipity, ’cause I can’t fucking stand calculated marketing.
I’m not a journalist. I’m not a marketer. I’m not a fucking copywriter.
I am a writer, an editor, a publisher. People need to know things that I want to talk about. I have an inner confidence, a touchstone that would grant me respect and credibility despite the obvious and inevitable scoffing and laughter from the publishing community.
So I say screw the blogging system and the A-listers, the 3rd f-ing tribe. I don’t want to be part of their hierarchy. All the people I’ve seen rise to the top (all 2 or 3 over 18 months) got there because they hustled. Good for them, but it’s nowhere near where I see myself ending.
I’ve noticed that every day I get more determined and energetic about all this shit. I don’t what I’m going to do but I know I’m going to do it.
Sometimes pure logic dictates natural order. See what I mean:
- Writing a post about SEO (something totally unnatural) shouldn’t take 3-7 days.
- I shouldn’t be writing something that at least 1,000 other people are writing about.
- I shouldn’t be constantly checking to see if my blog post made it to Google.
- Of all the 6-8 affiliate products I’ve ever sold, I only didn’t personally know one of the buyers.
- I don’t fucking need programs and books and training to tell me what to do.
- Not having time to engage in meaningful dialog with people that interest me is bullshit
- I shouldn’t be trying to force a connection between my blog content and my publishing vision where there clearly is none (c’mon it’s a stretch to say that I’m trying to groom writers by telling them they need SEO.
The Conclusion: get my head out of marketing and follow my heart in writing, see where that shit leads.
I’m angry and it feels good.