Self publishing a book about raising chickens is turning out to be a lot like writing a book about raising chickens!
I raised over 100 poultry chicks and I wrote two books. One was about raising over 100 poultry chicks.
And I’m writing about how to self publish a book… and I’ve noticed a very big difference between raising chickens and writing about raising chickens.
When I fussed about the brooder temperature for the chicks, they grew…
And when I changed their feed and water, they grew…
And when I went in and out of their pen, they grew….
They grew no matter what I did. And if I had left the roosters to their own devices, they would have also multiplied.
But when I was writing the book, every time I stopped typing, the book stopped progressing.
And even if I left it under a warm lamp, with plenty of food and water, it still didn’t grow.
Every time I turned my back on the chickens, they grew, but despite turning my back frequently to my book, it didn’t grow…
Unless I wrote another word, and another, and about… 100,000 more.
Then I went and self published my book, and once again, nothing grew unless I made it grow. There was some independent progress, as word of mouth drove book sales, but mostly, it was like writing it.
One bright side of all this work is control. I can choose when to write, where to publish, and what things look like. Some of my poultry grew surprisingly out of control, either in size or behavior. And I never knew what they were going to do next… whereas my book rarely surprised me with plot turns or out-of-control sales.
But maybe one day, there will be a writing project that grows when my back is turned. It has happened to self published projects before, and it is happening more and more each day.
So maybe the difference between raising chickens and writing about raising chickens is similar to the difference between nature’s creation and literary creation… that’s kind of deep!
