Ernie Lindsey – Risks, Rewards & Babies

Risks, Rewards, and Babies – Navigating the Deep Waters of Parenting and Publishing

By: Ernie Lindsey

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. This parenting thing is hard work, and we only have a single infant in the house.

I tip my hat to those amazing authors who manage to write and create pieces of literary art with a whole gaggle of offspring running around. It’s inspiring, but I just don’t know how they do it. If you feel like sharing the secret, I’m happy to listen. My novel HARMLESS was written while we were still trying to figure out how many ounces of formula were appropriate and I can’t even imagine adding the needs of multiple children into the mix.

I’m lucky in the fact that I’ve had some success with my novels, enough so that I’m able to stay at home with my seventh-month-old son and write on the side. Thankfully, we have family in the area and they’re more than willing to take him for a couple of days a week so I can get some dedicated time at the keyboard. And in addition to that, my wonderful wife sacrifices much needed family time on the weekends so that I can keep working.

But it’s tough, really, because there’s always something that needs to be done around the house. When I have my days to write, I have to force myself to take advantage of the time, even though there are toys to be put away, vacuuming that needs to be done, groceries to shop for, and laundry to do. (Dear God, the laundry. Everybody warned us, but I don’t think we actually believed how quickly the mountain could pile up.)

I have to set specific word count goals and stick to them, otherwise, you’d find me tallying up how many of my t-shirts are covered in spit-up and pureed pears.

It’s just my way of writing, but I have to be totally zoned out and uninterrupted in order to be productive. Around here, we call it, “going under the hood.” So, that pretty much eliminates being able to write when I’m on duty.

On the days that I have my son while my wife works, I take care of all the things that don’t require utter concentration for hours on end like marketing, editing, proofreading, advertising, cover design, document formatting, market research, social media, interviews, blog posts, reviewing audio files, paperwork, and everything else involved with running your own publishing empire.

And that’s in addition to diapers, bottles, feeding, cleaning, walks, play time, finding Mr. Monkey, and the general instances of mild panic when you realize that you have no idea what you’re doing and every moment of being a parent is a continuous learning process.

Come to think of it, life as an indie author is the same in many ways. Each novel or short story written is like a child. You have to help it grow, mold it, nurture it, watch it mature, and then keep your fingers crossed once it’s able to walk on its own. Sure, there are the standard guidelines we can follow to help the process, passed down from those who have gone before us, but in the end, what it really comes down to is simply doing your best because honestly, none of us knows how the world will accept what we create.

In the meantime, if you could tell me where Mr. Monkey went, I’d appreciate it.