A Man with Three Hats

I thought it might be interesting (for some) to share with you what I actually did over the course of the last week with my author’s hat on. For one thing, you might be surprised at how many other things I need to do that don’t involve the delightful activity of writing.


As an indie author (I’m a control freak and therefore write, publish and market my own books) I wear three different hats during the course of any given week, so I’ve summarised things in terms of each of those hats.

Maker (doing the writing): Yep, this is my favourite hat. I completed a final pass through a new story due out later this year, tidying up a few minor things, and spent some time turning an existing ebook into an audiobook. The latter entails a surprising amount of re-work as some things simply don't migrate from the written word to audio as conveniently as you might think.

Marketer (finding readers for my books): I have been running a new ad this month as a bit of an experiment and the end of the month will entail some time spent on analysing its performance, so I spent a little time beginning that process. I am also starting to line up my marketing for a new book due out at the end of May, deciding which of the many opportunities available to give it a little boost will be best for me to focus on.

Manager (I run a business and it needs to be managed): Mostly it's been time spent on planning, for the new book launch and another project that will land in the autumn. As we are nearing the end of the tax year I have also started the process of ensuring my spreadsheets are fit to be sent off to the accountant.

So, there we go, that was a more or less typical week for me. One during which I probably spent less than half my author time on writing down those words. In reality I doubt I could write all day every day; fun though it is, everything has its limits! In any case, when you are in effect running a business you need to ensure every aspect of that business gets its fair share of time and I've found the three hats approach is an excellent way of achieving precisely that.

(I first encountered the three hat methodology with Go Creative! run by the wonderful Orna Ross. Find out more here).