Author Diary Entries

179: Author Update (one year later)

• Sagan Morrow • Episode 180

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In this episode, your host (and indie author) Sagan Morrow shares an author update about what she's been working on since our previous episode over a year ago, plus why we've rebranded the podcast from "Indie Author Weekly" to "Author Diary Entries!"

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You’re listening to the Author Diary Entries podcast — formerly known as Indie Author Weekly. I’m your host, Sagan Morrow, and this is episode #179.


Hello, my friend. It has been a while! Another unplanned break of over a year. In this episode, I want to share what you’ve missed over the past year and why we’ve rebranded this podcast…


Author update:


For the first time ever, my polyamorous romantic comedy novels are available at a bricks-and-mortar store! This is so exciting! Haus of Misfit is a local store where I live here in Kamloops, and they support super cool local artisans and indie brands — including a section of the shop specifically for books. And now, mine are available there!


We started our collaboration a couple months ago, and my first batch of books sold out pretty quick — so I just dropped off another stack last week. If you are local to Kamloops, you should absolutely pop into Haus of Misfit because it’s such a fun store with delightfully weird goods. I adore it. You can get paperbacks of my most recently published novel, Small Town Stilettos, as well as my Polyamorous Passions series there.


This felt like a really big step for me, because I’ve been writing and publishing novels since 2018. 


Although they’ve always been available for purchase as paperbacks, you could only order them online. There haven't been any in a physical location for readers to buy a copy in a store itself.


People have been telling me for literally YEARS that I should approach local bookstores and get them featured in-store. And it’s one of those things where I’ve nodded in agreement that I “should” do that… and then didn’t end up doing it.


Why? Because that would involve me reaching out to bookstores and having that conversation. Because that would involve me needing to figure out the logistics of getting paperbacks into their hands and working out administrative details. Because that would involve — eep! — putting myself out there.


…And ultimately, because there’s a little part of me that kept thinking, “But my novels aren’t good enough to be in a physical location.”


Never mind the readers who have given glowing reviews of my novels.


Never mind the people who have said, entirely of their own accord, that they’re a big fan of my writing.


Never mind the times that I’ve re-read my own novels and thought, “Hey, this is really good!”


I continued to get in my own way, again and again and again and again.


So… what was different, this time around?


The difference is that I was tired of the old story I was telling myself about my work being “not good enough.”


The difference is that I did self-coaching on it and worked through my internal hangups about it.


The difference is that I did my research, found a store that could be a good fit, and put myself out there.


I applied to be featured in the store (a store that I’d visited multiple times, purchased from, chatted with the owner, and admired the work they’re doing in supporting local artists). They got back to me with eager approval and we signed the contract. I dropped off that first little stack of paperbacks, we both celebrated the news on Instagram, and that was that!


…Turns out, it wasn’t actually so hard or intimidating, after all!


There are 3 things that I think we can ALL take away from this: 


  1. Just because something feels really scary at THIS moment, that doesn’t mean it always needs to feel that way! You CAN work through that discomfort and apprehension and fear and insecurity (and FYI, if you want support with that, coaching is truly one of the BEST ways to do it. Visit SaganMorrow.com/coaching for details and how we can work together).
  2. You are not alone in having those “BUT” thoughts or those internal hangups that prevent you from moving forward. We all experience it from time to time! I’ve been a published author for a long time. And sometimes (often) you can’t even SEE that it’s there, because you’re simply too close to it. So these issues can stick around for way longer than necessary.
  3. The action is often considerably less daunting than the anticipation of it. Does that mean it’s EASY to take action? No! But when you a) recognize the negative story you’re telling yourself, b) get tired of telling yourself that old story, and c) work through those internal hangups, you’ll be in a great position to take that leap and shift from anticipation into action — and THAT is when it’ll feel light. Simple. Straightforward. DOABLE.


Anyway, I’m thrilled to have my books in store at Haus of Misfit. It’s wonderful.


The other author update I have for you is that I am making good, yet slow, progress on Book 8 of my Polyamorous Passions series. This is a novel I’ve been working on for quite a while now, and I would have finished it much faster BUT I’m running into this kind of funny problem…


You see, this particular novel is the sequel to Scarlett’s story — Her Bad Idea, which is Book 7 in the Polyamorous Passions series. Scarlett is a burlesque dancer. In Book 7, the story revolved around her entering a dance competition. And this current book I’m writing, the sequel, Book 8, continues to revolve around her burlesque career; in particular, her becoming the feature performer at a dance club. 


And here’s where I’ve had a funny “problem” — I myself am a burlesque dancer. (My stage name is Babe Maverick; you can get details on that on my burlesque Instagram account, @babemaverick) And I have been doing a TON of learning lately, reading books about burlesque and attending a burlesque expo and doing research into the history of burlesque… and I keep coming across little details that I want to include in the story. 


The result is that I keep tweaking it here and there. Technically, the story is finished! It’s undergone multiple rounds of edits; it technically only needs a couple more proofreads before it would be done… but I don’t want to rush it in case more little details come to mind. So I’m letting myself take this stage of the writing process a bit slower, to see if there’s appropriate opportunities within the novel to tuck in little extra details. 


I have some travel coming up in a couple months, and my plan is to prioritize book progress during that time so I can properly wrap things up. If more details come to mind that I want to include, they’ll get to slide into the next book.  


The last thing I want to mention today about this current work in progress, Book 8 of my Polyamorous Passions series, is that I’ve FINALLY chosen a title for the novel! I don’t want to announce it yet, because I want to do a title reveal, but that was a great step. 


Now that my author update is out of the way, let’s talk about the rebrand of this podcast:


Up until THIS moment, the podcast has been called “Indie Author Weekly.” But now, we are officially the Author Diary Entries podcast.


Why? Well, the BIGGEST reason is that I haven’t been releasing these episodes weekly — and it kinda makes me antsy to not have an alignment between the name of a thing and the embodiment of that thing. My hope is that we WILL get back into weekly-ish episodes, but I also don’t want to feel locked into that schedule. So it felt like it was time to change the name.


I brainstormed a few possible ideas, but when THIS name jumped out at me, it felt perfect — because I already have the “diary entries” branding in the other side of my business!


The main aspect of my business isn’t the books. The main thing I do in my business is my work as a Personal Fulfillment Coach and Anti-Hustle Productivity Coach, and in particular, I specialize in solopreneurship. So for the past many many years, I’ve been writing a weekly newsletter called the Solopreneur Diary Entries — it goes out every Saturday, sharing behind-the-scenes anecdotes and experiences of my life as a solo entrepreneur. I share lessons learned, mistakes I’ve made, wins, thought processes and mindset shifts, all of that stuff. It’s super fun, and if you don’t already receive it, I highly recommend you check it out! In my opinion, it’s an absolute gold mine for solopreneurs. You can subscribe at SaganMorrow.com/newsletter — it’s totally free.


Now, 3 years ago, I expanded on the Solopreneur Diary Entries newsletter and created the Solopreneur Diary Entries: Premium Edition, which is monthly video masterclasses, workshops, and trainings — we do a brand-new class each month on topics related to anti-hustle productivity, personal fulfillment, and/or solopreneurship.


The idea behind those monthly classes is that they’re like a much more comprehensive, robust exploration of the type of topic I might explore in my Saturday newsletters. They are often around an hour long, with high-level concepts and personal stories and customizable action steps and inspirational pep talks; the works. So it felt like it made sense to brand those classes as the “Premium Edition” of the Solopreneur Diary Entries newsletter.


(You can learn more about THAT at SaganMorrow.com/premium). 


This brings us back to the podcast! Because really, at the end of the day, this podcast captures the similar idea of the Solopreneur Diary Entries — it’s about sharing my experiences with you, taking you along this journey with me, showing behind-the-scenes of life as an indie author, peppering some inspiration and action steps along the way, giving you some fun insights about the books I write; that sort of thing. 


It feels so good to view this podcast as the other side of the coin from the Solopreneur Diary Entries. This podcast gets to be an audio diary of my author experience: The name “Author Diary Entries” just makes sense!


Plus, I did a fun boudoir photoshoot for my Babe Maverick burlesque account, and some of those photos featured my novels as props, so really the rebrand of this podcast is a perfect opportunity for me to reuse one of those photos in the podcast graphic.


And that is the story of our podcast rebrand. 


I’d love to continue the conversation with you on all of this — find me on Instagram & Threads to share your thoughts on this episode; my handle is @Saganlives. 


That’s a wrap on today’s episode! As always, you can access the show notes and transcript of this episode at SaganMorrow.com/podcast. And if you are enjoying the Author Diary Entries podcast, please take 2 minutes to rate and review it on your favourite podcast platform. 


Thanks so much — I appreciate you!


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Sagan Morrow

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