Maybe the Blocker Isn't a Blocker
Behind-the-Scenes #3: In which I realize that I could just...make a different choice
Something occurred to me recently. I realized that I had stopped working on and adding products to my website storefront because I didn't want to deal with preorders, and my preorder efforts had mostly not worked thus far. I had the wrong plugin, the payments weren’t coming in correctly, blah blah blah. Long story short, I had tech issues that were preventing me from getting preorders set up on my website. And it was completely bumming me out and draining my energy.
Step 1: Question the Premise (a Becca Symeism)
When I realized why I felt blocked, I thought, why does anyone need to preorder from my store anyway? I do almost all of my book preorders through Kickstarter already, or someone will eventually be reading along on Ream when I get that fully set up, or they could preorder from a retailer where the functionality is entirely done for me.
Furthermore, I have a ton of stuff for people to buy on my website. There is also so much stuff that they could literally buy right now that is not up there. (I’ve finally given up and hired someone to help me get all of my work up and available there and elsewhere, too!)
Step 2: Do I Want To Fix This?
And I don't want to offer preorders. There's almost no moment where someone wants a book that is only partially done and the first thing I'm going to think of is "hey, you should just buy it from my website." There are so many other places that I would direct them to first.
And then I realized, this is my website. I don't have to offer preorders at all!
I mean, this is pretty obvious.
But has it maybe been blocking me subconsciously from working on or even looking at my website for several months?
Absolutely.
Step 3: Am I Going To Fix This?
So I am going to NOT offer preorders on my store anymore. And instead, I will give people three other places to preorder whatever they want.
The only thing I want to sell from my store is something that is already done and can be delivered immediately without my intervention at any point. That is what feels good right now.
I don't know if I'll change my mind in the future, but I doubt it.
And while this is a very specific story, I've realized more often than not that if there's something I supposedly want to or should move forward on, and I'm not, it's usually because of something dumb that I don't want to deal with like this. In most cases, I can just...Not deal with it.
In most cases, we have a choice.
The blocker isn't really a blocker after all.
What is something you “have to” do, that you really don’t have to do at all? How can you just take that off your plate and never think about it again?
I'll tell you what my biggest blocker is. Her name is Ash 😅
But seriously, I haven't gotten any writing done, or done really any work with my writing business in so long because I'm been so focused on trying to launch my other venture. Which has been a lot of learning new technologies when it would have been faster, easier, and better to pay someone to do it for me, except I didn't have the money for that.
But then learning those technologies has sparked side projects that are in various stages of being half-completed.
On FB you recently talked about the differences between grasslands and forests, and my toxic trait is trying to act like a grassland when I'm not, and doing so in a way that's not even particularly useful. The main project is software that helps writers, but it winds up being part of an ecosystem of being an authority for a certain stack of web development tools instead.
And of course, absolutely none of that helps me sell books about gay kids riding dragons 🤷♀️
I was just considering this issue myself. Enjoyed your process and conclusion. 👍🏻