So I have said this year was going to be the year that I stopped making excuses for why I couldn’t do something. I acknowledge that I can’t just say an automatic yes to every single little thing but that doesn’t mean that I can’t make a substitute solution so that I can still stay on the right path to my end goals. For instance, one of my main goals this year is to stop waiting for a traditional publisher or an agent to say yes to my books and say yes to them myself by self-publishing them with the ISBN #’s I’ve been sitting on for literally over five years now. So I know that my budget is going to be an issue. To say that it is tight would be a gross understatement, but to get around the issue that I can’t exactly afford a professional book cover, I am going to use a special graphic program (as professional as I can get it) and learn how to do one myself (and if you knew how challenged I am in the area of technology you would understand what a huge deal that is for me lol). So my no excuses rule means I can’t focus on the lack of money to get a professional book cover, I just have to make a way to do one on my own.
Now there are some other things that I have been making excuses for and I realize that I am going to actually need to set some deadlines. Deadlines are what keeps people who second-guess themselves at every turn and can what if their way right out of an opportunity, people like me, held accountable for actually following through. I am supposed to start back at a hobby that I love and had to stop because I had gotten injured. I was supposed to had gotten back to it last year but I was feeling a little scared that I would re-injure myself. I told someone that I would finally get back to it this year but I left it open ended with no actual set time. It gave me a way out of it by not having an actual time pinpointed. That same person made me pick a date the other day and now that I have that date in my mind (it’s March 5th by the way), now I feel obligated to stick to it. I don’t have any excuses right?
So with my book, that’s supposed to release soon (I know, very vague right lol) I had made the commitment to publish a book but I just didn’t say when. I suppose I did that as some sort of safety net just in case something went wrong with the whole process. With no deadline, I wouldn’t have to explain to anyone else why it didn’t happen. But that pretty cowardice right? So I’m setting a deadline hear and now that the re-release of my book, The Diary: Succession of Lies, is going to be released on March 1st, 2019. So you heard it hear first and now I have to no choice but to do it because I have no excuses! So deadlines are the thing now! It’s what I need to hold myself accountable—my new accountability measure if you will! Do deadlines work for you? Let me know how deadlines have helped you in your life?
Jimmetta Carpenter
Writer/Editor
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Write 2 Be 
I know Google exists but I thought I ask you to open up dialogue. What is an ISBN? Why do you need one? Any reason you sat on them for 5 years? I can understand as I’ve sat on domains without websites.
An ISBN number is the number that is used to register the title of your book in order to distribute the book throughout bookstores as well as online and locally. I sat on them for five years or so because I was trying to be traditionally published and was sending off my manuscripts to agents and publishers but I was only getting rejection letters, nice and individually crafted rejection letters, but rejection letters nonetheless! I still would much prefer traditional publishing to self-publishing, for me it just has more validation but I’m tired of waiting on someone else. Thank you for asking! Now why are you sitting on domains without website??
Did they offer reasons on why they rejected your books? Have you tried to motivate yourself by looking up authors (or others) who were rejected and found success independently?
I have only 2 domains I been sitting on. I mainly purchased them so no one else could have the names. Another reason I’m stuck on how on the consistent content portion. For one of my domains I could easily just post the story I wrote but what’s after that? Plus it’s only $15 for a year so not really losing anything.