Life lately

Plus what I'm up to in March

Photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash

March! That means spring is around the corner and I NEED IT.

I have written before about how much I struggle with the cold and dark, and this is the time of year when I start to see the light a little bit (literally - the brighter mornings and evenings are already making such a difference).

If January saw me in full hermit mode, February I started to come out of my shell a bit. I launched a new digital product with Sam Missingham, my work schedule is starting to get busier (I invoiced nearly 3x as much in February as I did in January), and I’ve been out with friends almost every Thursday evening, when my parents have the kids.

That’s not to say it’s all been rosy. My son has had a chest infection and that’s been miserable for him and for me. Single parenting when one child can’t leave the house, but the other one still needs to, involves a LOT of extra logistics. He also had really awful stomach cramps yesterday that saw us hanging out in children’s A&E for 3 hours, which is never fun.

He’s thankfully fine on both counts now, but it was a lot! I felt incredibly grateful for my local friends and my parents, who have really rallied to help out over the last couple of weeks.

In February I invoiced for lots of work, but not all of it took place in February, meaning I didn’t actually get *paid* 3x as much as January, and still had to dip into my savings.

Those things notwithstanding, I feel in a much better headspace than I did at the start of the year, and I’m looking forward to some of the projects I have coming up.

Books

• Babel*: This book is fairly hefty, the font is TINY, and there’s a lot to the story, but it was absolutely worth perservering with. Victorian fantasy pulling in many real historical threads about colonialism, racism, empire, the opium trade, classism… there was just so much to this book, and it will stay with me for a long time.

• French Braid*: After the density of Babel, I needed something much lighter, and this treat from Anne Tyler was it. She just writes people so beautifully. Ignore the blurb copy entirely - it has almost nothing to do with the story. But I suppose that’s because there isn’t really a plot as such, it’s just a gorgeous story about people, family, relationships and the way our past stays with us over time.

On screen

• One Day (Netflix): I fell in love with Emma and Dex all over again, despite how absolutely atrocious they are at times, and spent the last 3 episodes crying.

• Past Lives (Netflix): Gorgeous story about love and friendship. I think Greta Lee might be my favourite current actress - I will watch her in anything.

• Love is Blind (Netflix): I honestly think this is one of the best programmes to watch if you have even a vague interest in human behaviour. I studied sociology at university, and if I was doing my degree now, I 100% would write my dissertation on what this show tells us about beauty standards, relationship expectations and the myth of happily-ever-after. Oh, also just a lot of drama.

Articles I’ve read or written

• My three most popular articles last month were:

  • A self-publishing experiment -

    Holly June Smith
    shares her self-publishing lessons

  • 7 tips for creating great graphics - if you create your own book promo images, you need this post

  • Creating a social media plan [paid] - the exact steps to take

• How to write emails people want to read [paid] - I *always* read

  Annie Ridout
  ’s emails, so loved reading this. It contains a very useful reminder on how people consume text digitally.

• Do you have bandwidth for me today? Another great piece on friendship from

  Nia

• When your loved ones don’t support your book - from

  Theresa Reed | The Tarot Lady
  .

• How I became a Substack bestseller. Loved this transparent account from

  Slow Scottish Stories

Miscellany

• The Growing Steady newsletter*. This weekly email from the team behind Wandering Aimfully (a membership for people trying to work to live, rather than live to work) has had a revamp and I love it! It has really actionable suggestions for ways to improve your mindset, improve your marketing, make more money ETC every week.

• On that note - I have been in this membership for the last 3-ish years and still get so much value from their monthly coaching sessions. If you’re looking for a supportive small business community and regular coaching sessions (plus a HUGE back catalogue of videos that I have found immensely helpful in self-employment), you can find out more here*.

• I did an Instagram live with

  Nicola Washington
  , where we talked about marketing expectations vs reality and what a ‘big’ or ‘bare minimum’ book marketing campaign can look like.

Ways I can help you this month

• Create better Canva graphics. This course from The Empowered Author (which I run with Sam Missingham) is already getting rave reviews. If you want to make better book promo graphics and videos, this is for you. Find out more.

• Get clear on how you are promoting your book. I will look at your current marketing activity, including your Amazon page, website, newsletter and social media accounts, and create a clear plan for you to take forward to massively improve your marketing. Find out more.

• Let me create your social media content. Send me your book, fill in a form, and I will research your comp authors, create a content strategy for you AND get you started with the content, creating text + imagery for 12 unique posts for you to share on your preferred social media channel. Find out more.

I have space to work with 4-5 new clients this month, and would love one of them to be you! If you have something specific you need help with that isn’t on the list above, do drop me an email. I am always up for working with publishers and authors on bespoke pieces of work.

Latest testimonial

“I was basically fumbling through the dark with marketing, but Katie's expertise and recommendations made me feel much more confident. Her suggestions were spot on and helped sharpen all aspects of my author presence and marketing strategies! She's just delightful and I highly recommend her to anyone looking for guidance.”

Bea Northwick, author of The Cruel Dark*

*Anything with a star means there is an affiliate link. This means I will earn a small commission should you choose to buy something after clicking on it.