Six-Month Studio Update

Writing Life

Jun 14

As it’s now June, and we’re very nearly halfway through the year (eeek, where does the time go?!) I wanted to do a more reflective post this week. It’s been just over 6 months since I officially launched my web design studio, and I still can’t believe how much I have loved every second of it.

It was a leap of faith to start something new alongside my writing – I’ve written about the reasons behind my decision to branch out into web design on my author website blog – but suffice to say the decision was made on a bit of a hunch really.

“I have always loved tinkering with websites, and learning techy tricks, but I knew that many authors did not share this love!”

I thought perhaps there might be a little gap in the market for someone to help them with their websites, as there aren’t that many people doing it. So far, in fact, I’ve only discovered two real ‘competitors’ who do the same thing as me and specialise in author websites, and neither of them use Squarespace.

But I never could have predicted how well this business idea would be received! I’ve worked on 14 separate projects so far, and I have two clients now on a long-term retainer with me managing their websites for them.

“I am booked up until September, and today, I had to turn away a lovely client as I couldn’t fit her in.”

The best bit about it, however, is that I have absolutely LOVED the work. Like, really loved it, to the extent where at some points I seriously thought I didn’t care if I never wrote another book, that I had found the ‘dream career’ and that writing seemed a hell of a lot less appealing in comparison.

I have so enjoyed coming up with ideas for marketing the business – from the Debut Author Survival Guide, which I wrote with my good friend Caroline Hulse and really enjoyed putting together; to this blog, which I made a promise to update once a week consistently and which I have yet to slip on (a miracle in itself); to the author newsletter training video I recently launched.

I keep coming up with new ideas, late at night, in the same way one might have new book ideas. It really has kept my brain busy and happy. After working with my clients I realised that a mini-course on using Squarespace to send author newsletters would be useful and so I launched that recently – my first ‘digital product’ (you can find out more about it here!).

“I also really want to launch a ‘DIY Author Website Kit’ to help people who don’t have the budget to get a web designer to build their site for them but would like some guidance. I have lots of plans in the pipeline (and probably not enough time to fulfil them!).”

I know this is all massively showy-offy, but I wanted to record it to a) remind me to keep the faith in the future if doubts creep in, and b) to hopefully inspire and encourage other authors who are considering launching a side hustle alongside their writing.

I know that so many authors cannot afford to live on their book advances alone, and that this is a real worry. So I wanted to say I am proof it is possible to find a second career to complement your writing! You just need to find something you are genuinely passionate about, that has a market.

On my vision board (yes I have one and yes it’s cheesy and woo but actually THEY WORK so who cares), I have a little phrase pinned on a post-it, and it keeps popping into my mind recently: ‘what you focus on grows’. And it’s SO true.

“Whatever it is that you put your attention to, ends up blossoming and growing, almost of its own accord. If you focus on negative thoughts, then guess what happens?”

I had a quiet period when Covid first hit – understandably, people weren’t really thinking about booking in a web designer at that point – but I decided not to panic, but to continue providing good quality, genuinely helpful content through my website, and doing the absolute best job I could for my existing clients, and kept the faith that things would pick back up.

I also decided to offer my services for free to authors whose books had been affected by the pandemic. It was a small thing but it seemed to be the best way I could give back in the situation. I had a great response – I replied to every enquiry as best I could and it was a privilege to be able to help people.

And slowly but surely the enquires started coming back in. It’s so easy to give up when things get quiet, to think that your business idea was stupid, and to just… stop. But you have to keep on promoting it, you have to keep the faith, you have to put in the work, ensuring you are providing the best possible service and that you have truly narrowed down your niche and ideal customer, and things will pick back up.

“In case this sounds like it’s all been a walk in the park, I’d like to ensure you that it hasn’t.”

I was talking to a friend about my web design stuff recently and she said ‘oh you’re lucky, you know loads of authors, the work just came to you’.

And I know she didn’t mean anything bad by it but she was so wrong! Because it didn’t just ‘come to me’. I worked really hard to attract it. I have been working every single evening – bar one night per week (I get Friday or Saturday off) – since launching. I don’t mind, because I enjoy it, but it didn’t just ‘happen’. This kind of stuff is never a happy accident. There’s a hell of a lot of swan legs paddling under the surface of this website, I promise you!

Anyway, so far, so boastful (but I hope, genuinely, also encouraging?). My point really was to say that I had intended to write another book alongside the web design stuff, and I actually got 13,000 words into a new MS when Covid happened, and my daughter was no longer allowed to go to school.

And I reached my limit – because we all have limits! It was impossible to write and fulfil my web design commitments and homeschool my bored 4yo. (Oh and did I mention I still work one day a week for a software company doing their content marketing?!) So, I shelved the manuscript.

I felt super guilty about it. I still do. But she’s back at school now, and I find that I absolutely cannot wait to get back into writing. And that this enforced break has been so good for my creative brain.

“I wrote three novels in three years, thinking that this was the norm, that it was necessary and that if I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer I would have to keep up that kind of pace for life.”

But my third book was a real struggle. I didn’t enjoy writing it, it needed lots and lots of re-writing and editing and fiddling with and in the end I found the process exhausting. I was worn out, basically.

The copyedits came in for my third book earlier this month and I was pleasantly surprised to see that distance had given me some much-needed perspective. Now, I think it’s a pretty good book. I don’t think I’ll ever love it as much as I loved my second, but I think it’s a compelling read and tells (several) important stories. I’m proud of it, finally!

It’s an exhausting career, being a writer. And I think it’s good to get off the hamster wheel from time to time.

“My irrational fear was that if I stopped writing books, I’d never write another. But now I know that’s bollocks. After all, I have been trying to give up writing for decades and never managed it.”

I’ve decided to wait until September now to start writing book 4 properly. I think I need more time to think about what I really want to ‘say’ with it, and also, I’d like to spend some proper time with my family, who now see me as a workaholic. It’s become a bit of a running joke: ‘Charlotte’s always working’ but actually there is more to life than work, even if you love it, and it’s not fair on them.

So yeah, that’s my far-too-personal, oversharing, humblebrag of a studio update! I don’t know if people enjoy reading these kind of things – if you think I sound smug or unbearable and you’d rather I stuck to technical advice on all-things-websites then I totally understand, and I apologise!

But sometimes it’s important to draw a line in the sand and see how far you’ve come. And give yourself a bit of time off, whether that’s with writing, or anything else you’re working on.