For Author Crush Month 2012, I wanted to continue my study of self-publishing. So I asked four friends to share with you their self-publishing experiences from four different vantage points. Today, James Scott Bell shares his story of self-publishing shorter works even while he continues to traditionally publish his novels. Please welcome Jim!

So I’m sitting there little over a year ago after having three books come out and looking at these people self-publishing and making extra dough. Sometimes a lot of extra dough. So I finally said, What am I doing sitting here not making extra dough?

My current traditional contract is under a pen name, K. Bennett. This is for zombie legal thrillers, a genre I happened to invent. That left a window for James Scott Bell to start experimenting with e-books. And to become the sort of writer he always admired.

I love the old pulp writers, the guys who made a living pounding out stories during the Depression, some of whom became truly great. People like Hammett, Chandler, Cornell Woolrich. I like the idea of being prolific and being good at the same time.

I started with two collections that each included a complete novella and three stories. I did the novellas in the style of James M. Cain, another prolific writer of the old school.

One More Lie is the title novella of one collection. It’s the story of what happens when you make one bad choice and try to cover it with another.

Watch Your Back is the novella in the other collection, and it’s one of those stories where the too-slick hero gets involved with a femme fatale. Sort of like Double Indemnity. Who is using whom? This collection also features a story readers seem to love, “Heed the Wife,” with the sort of twist ending I love.

I find these types of stories to be profoundly moral. I think the best noir comes out of the view that rough justice happens. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Also, I put out a collection of some of my articles on fiction writing as an e-book, Writing Fiction for All You’re Worth. And I started a short story series, boxing tales set in 1950s Los Angeles.  The first of those is “Iron Hands.”

All this was done as I completed work on my contracted books. I was busy, but extremely happy. Especially when I started getting those monthly infusions into my bank account.

Here’s the deal: It’s all about options and freedom. So long as you’re honoring your traditional contracts, and you have negotiated them in the proper way, and you’re getting along with everybody, having an independent line that complements your traditional work is a no-brainer. It’s real income, and I have this quaint notion that writers are entitled to earn real income from what they write.

But with this freedom there is responsibility. Being in charge of your own writing means you are CEO of your own publishing enterprise. You can expect to experience the stresses and strains of running a small business. You will need new skills to handle them. These can be acquired, but only through effort and self-discipline.

The most challenging part is internal quality control. With traditional publishing, you’re working with a team of professionals and a window of time of a year to eighteen months per book. One of the most exciting things about indie publishing is the speed with which you can bring out books. But you have to find ways to give your work the attention it needs, everything from cover design to marketing copy to editing and formatting. You simply have to think like a business for all these tasks.

So don’t move too fast. Learn your stuff. Put yourself through a self-imposed meat grinder with your writing. Get critiqued. Hire a good freelance editor. Use beta readers you can trust to give you the straight scoop.

This all takes time to develop, but you need that network. You’re not just going to roll a new car out of your factory in a couple of days. You’re going to need tests to make sure the thing runs and can make a long trip. Turn out a couple of those and you can make it an assembly line.

Which is the coin of the realm in self-publishing. It’s as simple and as profound as this: write crazy good books and stories and get them out into the market. And keep doing that, over and over, for the rest of your life.

James Scott Bell is the author of the #1 bestselling book for writers, Plot & Structure, as well as Revision & Self-Editing and The Art of War for Writers. His latest release is Conflict & Suspense.

Please leave a comment and ask Jim any questions you have about his books or his foray into self-publishing. He’d love to hear from you!

I’ve been working on edits for this one project for months. And months. Last week I realized that I have lost all perspective on my edits. I can no longer tell if the changes I’m making are making the story better or just different. It also seems to be taking a lot of time to make small changes.

*Step Away From the Manuscript*

Ever since I sent those dreaded first 50 pages out for critique (again!) in early December I have been following through on the remaining pages in anticipation of my critiquer’s suggestions. But now I need to resist the urge to go back in. If an idea pops up, I’ll just have to write it in the notebook for later.

*Cleanse the Palate*

However, I’m having trouble getting into the swing of my next project. My brain seems to be requesting some time to relax before I require it to hold all the new plot pieces and character arcs together. Like eating a cracker between wine tastings to cleanse the palate, I need to do something to reset my mind, to create that blank space and make room for a new novel.

*Take the Time*

Gardening is my writing foil. I find it challenging (most plants die on me) and beautiful (succulents, anyone?) and life-affirming (organic food to feed the fam). I find these same attributes in my writing life, but gardening comes with less pressure to perform. I don’t ever plan to become a professional gardener so I can play and experiment and kill things off, only to plant more seeds and see what happens. And I don’t have to send any of my produce off to an agent or editor!

As writers, we need perspective on life—our stories comment on it. We need perspective on the publishing business—hard to break into it. And we need perspective on our own writing—get far enough away so we can see it for what it is.

Here are some of the succulents I've kept alive for over 6 months. A record!

This year, my blog here is going to be all about self-publishing but in the context of being a writer first. As a writer, I’m interested in any opportunity where I get to write stories that make me happy and where readers are going to find and enjoy them. With that in mind, I’ve just submitted a short story to an anthology. Yay!

The good news is that I made the deadline with a half hour to go. LOL!

The rough part was the 48 hours before that deadline.

Oh. My. Gosh. What was I thinking? I quickly got to that point where I was sure I not only sucked as a writer, but was completely delusional as a human being. Why, oh why, had I ever quit accounting?

I’d had the idea to take the discarded beginning of my superhero novel and create a short story about how the couple met. I thought it would be fun and I could put it on my web site for free to introduce readers to the characters. That way, when the novel came out, there would already be readers waiting.

But it had been longer than I thought since I last looked at that beginning. When I was ready to start working on it, in fact, I found two totally different beginnings. Hmm, right. I remember now. Some books have a dozen beginnings before you figure out what the heck you’re trying to do.

No worries. I’ll take the best sections from these two and craft a short story out of them.

Um…except I’ve never really written a short story. I’m a novel girl.

Yeah, I started this whole thing grass-backwards.

So. It’s 48 hours before the deadline. I think I’ve got a pretty good version ready to polish. I sit my butt in the chair at the beginning of the day and find an email from a writer friend with an awesome checklist for polishing. I write her back and tell her I love her. I open my file and start working.

I see something that doesn’t work. It needs to be changed and I have an idea on how to improve it. Ooo, I like it. But I have to go change this other thing to work with the improvement. Hmm, which means this other thing doesn’t work.

I knock my head against the wall and my husband tells me he believes in me. I try again. This sucks. It still doesn’t work. This really sucks. Maybe I should just let this deadline pass me by. The anthology is a fundraiser for my chapter so I won’t make any money (which means I’m not losing any by backing out), and no one is counting on my name to sell books so it won’t hurt the chapter if I’m not there.

I open my email again (because that’s what you do when your writing freaks you out) and find a couple emails from other chapter mates who are also racing toward the deadline. I decide not to give up yet.

I make some other changes. There are still problems. I wander out to the kitchen to find something healthy to snack on. I eat almonds instead of chocolate. John tells me again that I rock and I can do it. I promise him gratitude sex when this is all over. He tells me I really rock.

I keep trying. The next day I find several things that really have to be done before I start writing again. Really. Very important. Trust me.

After a few hours, I ask John if we can switch computers so I can change positions. My butt hurts. I take the laptop to the couch near the fireplace. Apparently the change has shaken something free in my brain. I realize the broken sections need to be deleted not fixed.

A few years ago I found a way to delete stuff that didn’t cause me heart palpitations – a new document called “Deleted Stuff.” Yeah, baby. Over the next few hours I deleted one third of the story. Wow. Then I read it again. I’m a genius.

It’s 8pm and the deadline is at midnight. I’m freakin’ exhausted. But it’s not done, and now I’m committed.

It’s 10:30pm and I’m no longer terrified of what my friends will think when they read this. But it’s not perfect. Keep working.

It’s 11:15pm and John asks me if I’m awake. My eyes are open, but he thinks I’ve learned a new skill. I finish the final read without moving anything but my mouse finger and my eyelids. I move to the other computer and re-read the submission guidelines and attach the document to the email.

I hit Send.

And I tell myself that when I get some sleep, I’m going to feel pretty darn good about myself.

I’ve just got to tell you about my new writing routine. It combines one of my favorite things—learning about writing—with one of my least favorite—cooking/cleaning in the kitchen.

Let’s back up to July when I signed up for a free webinar: “Translating Rejection Letter Lingo: What To Do about a ‘Flat’ Story.” The webinar was part of Deborah Halverson book launch for Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies. She conducted the webinar with author/illustrator Katie Davis.

By participating in the webinar, I landed on Katie’s email list.

Now, Katie is a picture book author. So after a few newsletters that I didn’t bother to open—because Katie is a picture book author and I’m a novelist in training—I decided I better unsubscribe and clear out my inbox. BUT, I decided to  read one before unsubscribing.

So. Glad. I. Did.

There was this brief mention of Katie’s podcast Brain Burps About Books. I made a note of it and went on my merry way. *Did not unsubscribe because I wanted another reminder if I forgot about the podcast.*

Eventually the podcast made its way to my iPod. And I finally got around to giving it a listen.

Wow! These are great. She is so funny and personable, and she’s had some really good guests on air. Not just picture book people! Middle grade and YA authors included. (And general marketing tips for you grown-up writers!)

Anyways, all that to say my cooking sessions have gotten a lot more interesting for me thanks to my iPod and Brain Burps. You might want to check it out too!

As I write this, I’ve just come home from taking my kids roller skating for the first time. We had a blast, wobbly, though we were. I grew up ice skating and like having the ability to dig into the ice to turn corners or, even more important—to stop! We left with only minor bruises but with requests to go back soon.

Now, as the day is dwindling, I’m making lists of thing I have to do. It’s got me thinking about time again. So, for my retro blog this week (We are supposed to be taking this week off here at Routines for Writers) I’ll point you two my previous musings about time:

It Takes Longer Than You Think (this whole publishing business—you know what I mean!)

Number Your Days (prioritizing our time)

Now, go out and make the most of what we have left of 2011!

In January of this year, I posted this blog about organizing the upcoming year’s writing goals. Starting January 16, I’m once again teaching this 4-week online class, Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for the Writer, and I’d love to see you there. This is one of the exercises we’ll be doing in the class. I hope it helps you get started toward organizing your time and achieving your writing goals!

This month we’re all making the handoff between last year’s partially accomplished goals and this year’s fresh new and exciting goals. In the online class I’m teaching this month on goal setting and time management for writers, we’re using an annual planning calendar to find out how many days we really have for writing. Once we know that number and plan around it, we can create goals that can be achieved with a minimum of stress and guilt.

Take a 12-month calendar you can use just for writing. There are pros and cons for using the large laminated year-at-a-glance type, and the monthly flip calendar, so decide which one you prefer and dive in. Begin by crossing off all the days you already know you won’t be available for writing. That list will be different for each of us – birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, public holidays, kids’ school events, etc.

When you’ve crossed out everything you can think of, decide how many sick days you want to plan for. Also choose a number of days for emergencies. (The number will depend on your situation, the people who depend on you at work and home, the number of days last year that something came up unexpectedly, etc.) Count the total number of days you still have available on the calendar, then subtract the sick days and emergency days. This is the number of days you have for the year that you can plan your writing around.

You may also want to plan for some catch-up padding, especially if you’re chronically behind. One way to pad your time is to cross off the last three open days of the month, every month. That automatically gives you a full month of “extra time” for the year – 3 times 12 equals 36 days.

Let’s say you end up with 200 days in 2011 that you can devote X number of hours each day to your writing. Now you need to look at your goals and break them down into the number of hours each will take. For instance, if you can write 500 words a day without a problem, and you plan to write the first draft of a category romance of 50,000 words, it will take you about 100 days, or half of your year. If it takes you twice as long to edit and revise as it does to pound out the first draft, you need another 200 days.

That means you could produce a 50,000 word book every 18 months without stress or guilt. And by stress and guilt I mean feeling like you should be doing something else when you’re writing, or feeling like you should be writing when you’re doing something else. That is the kind of situation this type of planning can help you avoid. After all, you crossed off the holidays and vacation days and birthdays that you wanted to focus on. You’re free!

Now you’ll have to look at all of your goals for the year – which may also include showering every day, sleeping for 6-8 hours a night, driving to the grocery store, etc. – and figure out if you have more goals than can be accomplished in 52 168-hour weeks. If you have too many goals for the next 12 months, you’re setting yourself up for failure. But if you can do the math today and see that before it happens, you can make changes now and end up with a plan that truly can be accomplished.

Good luck!

One of my annual writing routines is to figure out in December or January what I want to work to accomplish in the new year. It takes me a little while to figure it out because I need to make sure I’m not just creating a big To Do list. And historically I’ve set unachievable goals or made no plan for follow through, so I was always disappointed in myself at the end of the year. Then I learned about S.M.A.R.T. goals. My productivity and self-esteem have soared!

I haven’t yet taken the time to figure out the right wording to make these goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely – I’ll be working on that in the next couple of weeks. But here are my goals in a general sense for 2012:

Top 5 Goals

• Self-publish my romantic comedy, Love at the Fluff N Fold
• Self-publish a second novel, either another romantic comedy in the same series, my superhero book, or a YA I’ve been working on. Depending on which friend I listen to, I have strong support for any of those being the next book. LOL!
• Self-publish a short nonfiction book on what I’m teaching in my online class next month, Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for Writers
• Self-publish a short nonfiction book on the business aspects of growing your writing career
• Create and stick to a budget for my writing business, and one for my personal life

Secondary 5 Goals

• Successfully begin and complete a change in direction in my blog topics for 2012 here at Routines for Writers, focusing on self-publishing and how I’m looking for wisdom in my spiritual life (We’ll tell you more about this next month!)
• Update my author web site in a way that I enjoy and that readers will enjoy
• Learn about and implement promotional activities for all of my books, including building a quarterly newsletter
• Focus on and create an efficient office, so it works no matter what country I’m in or how often I move
• A yet-to-be-determined mystery goal!

I’m still trying to finish a few of my 2011 goals, (see my post about those last week) specifically getting my romantic comedy, Little Miss Lovesick, into print. But I’m trying to balance my work with the fact that I’m home with family and friends for the first time in 2 1/2 years and I want to enjoy them as much as possible in case we move again.

Have you written down your 2012 goals yet? Have you tried to word them in such a way that they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely? If you’d like a little help with goals and time management, tailoring a system that will work specifically for you, sign up for my online class. It’s $30 and runs January 16 – February 12.

Just for fun, since you probably don’t have any weight loss goals for December – LOL! – give yourself a Christmas cookie or a piece of fudge or pie for every goal you finalize this month. I think five main goals and five secondary goals works wonderfully. And that’s only ten cookies after all. Plenty of time to work them off with January’s health goals!

As I’m writing this blog I’m frustrated with myself for letting so much time slip away from me today. I’ve got one solid day a week that I am supposed to guard jealously for my writing, yet these past few months I’ve noticed I’ve let other activities encroach.

And then when I don’t get much writing done in a week I get grouchy and am tempted to blame my kids, my husband, my messy house, the groceries (do we really have to eat?), the dog, and any other responsibility that took me away from my writing goals.

Pause. Think.

Start over.

I’ve blocked out that writing time and it’s up to me to say no to other activities during those hours. Perhaps I need to go write at the library so I’m not tempted to work on my to-do list at home.

So, my tip for today is to look back on how you’ve managed your writing time this past year. Can you guess how many hours were spent in production—actually writing words? How many spent in editing, research, education, marketing, social networking, blogging, etc.

Or were you diligent to write down the numbers as you went? I started to, once upon a time, but was not consistent. Now that it’s nearing the end of the year I wish I had those numbers in front of me!

It’s that time of year – time to see how we all did on our 2011 writing goals. You know that we take our writing goals fairly seriously here at Routines for Writers. We may or may not accomplish what we set out to do, but we do try to keep track. That helps to hone the following year’s goals so that we’re always closer and closer to creating goals we can accomplish. Very important for self-esteem and momentum.

Last January I taught an online class on goal setting and time management (I’ll teach it again this January) and at the end of the class I posted my goal list along with all the rest of the class. Here are my goals for 2011 along with what I accomplished.

TOP 5 GOALS FOR 2011

Finish Superhero Book
To be blunt – it didn’t happen. I lost my confidence while getting critiqued by my classmates who were more on the literary side. Plus, after the RWA Conference, my goals changed significantly. See below.

Submit Superhero Book
Sort of done. I didn’t submit it officially, but I did pitch it to a couple agents and editors at the RWA Conference this summer. One agent asked me to submit it officially, but the feedback I got from the editors was that they didn’t know how to successfully sell romantic comedies (enough to make it worth their while to buy). So I made a decision not to submit it to the agent and possibly wait for a year or more to find out no editors wanted it – like I’ve done in the past. I made a career change decision. Keep reading.

Write First Draft of Angel Book for Master’s Degree
I thought I’d be able to pound out the first draft of this in my last semester of my master’s degree, but two things happened. One, we found out that John’s job was scheduled to end a few weeks before my final classes, so I had to reschedule everything so that I took nearly twice the load a semester early so I’d finish just in case John didn’t get renewed. That made it difficult to get as much done as I would have if the load had been spread over two semesters. Good thing, though, because John’s contract wasn’t renewed.

Two, I found it difficult to connect with my teacher for my final class where I was to write my book. She and I had completely different ideas about what constituted a contemporary Young Adult novel aimed at the American YA market. I felt like I was fighting her the entire way. By the time I got to the end of the class, I no longer knew what I wanted my story to be about. I’ve got some of the worst writer’s block I’ve ever had on this book. My solution – start over.

Finish Master’s Degree
I DID IT! YAY! There are pros and cons to this of course. The great part is that I did something I really wanted to do. The hard part is that I found myself second-guessing myself and my story ideas most of the time. There were a few times when I really felt encouraged, and I need to keep my mind on those moments. But it’s taken me these last five months to begin to regain my equilibrium. It’ll take me a bit more time to get ahead of the game confidence-wise.

Start My Author Web Site
DONE! YAY! Of course, there is a TON more to do that I haven’t had/taken the time to do. I’ve got a 2-page list of things that need to be done on the site in 2011. But at least I made my goal of starting the site. Next year I can make and meet some of the goals on that 2-page list of mine.

SECONDARY 5 GOALS FOR 2011

Attend RWA Conference in NYC
DONE! YAY! The morning after my last master’s degree class I got on a plane in Sydney and headed for New York. (I loved New York City!) I’d been thinking about the pros and cons of trying digital self-publishing if things didn’t go well at the conference. Doing some research, it looked like something I could do, something I might enjoy doing. So when I didn’t hear anything encouraging about the current market for romantic comedies, I went home with all the information I could gather from workshops on epublishing and self-publishing.

That’s when I altered my goals for the year. My new goal as of July 6th was to get my romantic comedy Little Miss Lovesick digitally self-published by the end of the year. Within a couple weeks, I’d altered the goal to get the book out by the end of September. On September 21, I MADE MY GOAL!

I also wanted to get my book in print before Christmas. I’d made a tentative goal of December 1st, knowing that I may or may not be moving then. Turns out I did move, so now my goal is to get it in print before the end of the year. The more I learn, the more I’m not sure if I can do it. I’ve decided to spend the time needed to do a great job rather than hurry to try to take advantage of the Christmas rush. But I still hope to get it out before Christmas.

Run 2 Half Marathons and the City2Surf Race in Sydney
There is a trio of running events in Sydney that is comprised of the Sydney Morning Herald Marathon and Half Marathon in May, the 14km City2Surf race in August, and the Blackmore’s Running Festival Marathon and Half Marathon in September. We ran the last two in 2010, and we wanted to do the trio in 2011. Unfortunately, I had nearly two semesters’ worth of classes happening at the time of the May race, so there was no way I could train for a half marathon. We ran the City2Surf in August and beat our 2010 times – yay! And John was deep into overtime on Happy Feet 2 by September so there was no way we were going to be able to run that race. Still, we kept running all year. That was a huge win for us!

Visit New Zealand
I didn’t think we’d be able to find time to take a trip between school and work, but work was the key to our trip. John wanted to see Wellington, New Zealand, where Weta Digital is located, to see if it was the kind of place we’d like to live. We only got to see Wellington, not the surrounding countryside or any other towns, but we got to be there for five days! Yay!! It was awesome!

Finish Jessica’s baby blanket (Caroline was born in 2009!)
I’ve been working on this blanket for two years! I still haven’t finished it, but I worked on it. (I tried a new crochet edging that is super cool but incredibly time intensive. Time is something I haven’t had a lot of since mid-2009 when I was halfway done with the blanket.) I have to finish my goal of getting Little Miss Lovesick in print first, then I can work on finishing the blanket. Thankfully, Jessie is happy to get it whenever I finish it.

See More of Australia Before We Move
We didn’t get nearly as much exploring done as we wanted! Very sad. But we had to keep in mind that we were doing other things that were important to us – school and work. Still, we saw a good amount due to our friends. We went to Melbourne for our anniversary in 2010 and we wanted to go back, but we didn’t have time. However, our friends took us on day trips to Hunter Valley (wine country), the Blue Mountains, and pretty drives around the area. I guess the only way to see more is to be on vacation for a while. LOL!

So there are my goals and what I accomplished. Not bad. And here is the reason I believe in both writing down your goals, and looking at them later: you see that you did more than you thought you did. At least, that’s the case with me. I was wondering if I’d accomplished much at all, but I see now I did pretty good, especially considering I was a full-time-plus student for half the year.

If you’ve been thinking that you need to get your goals not only written down, but broken down into workable chunks, take my online class next month. There are no formulas that you have to fit your life into. I’ll give you several ideas on how to proceed and you use what works for your personality and lifestyle. The goal of the class is to come away with a workable plan, and to know how to change it if your circumstances change (as mine did twice in 2011).

How about you? What goals did you accomplish in 2011? Next week I’ll show you a rough draft of my 2012 goals. Think about yours and we’ll compare notes.

We’re back in Los Angeles now, but there is almost nothing about our future that is known. I can deal with that lots of times, but I don’t deal well with stressful situations when I’m not sleeping well. Saturday it seemed like I could only think of the downsides and the negatives in our situation. Half of everything I felt I needed to get my To Do list done is on a ship in Sydney Harbour. John talked me through my fears trying to help me pinpoint the problem so we could find some solutions. Then the next day we went to our old church, Bel Air Presbyterian, and the sermon was about anxiety and getting around it.

Wow.

I am always amazed when God steps in and shakes my shoulder to get my attention. Because we have friends who go to both the 9am and 11am services at church and we haven’t seen them for a couple years, we stayed for both services…so I got a double dose of the message. Probably a good thing.  :)

So Monday I started my week with some time away with John in Palm Springs. My goal was to spend the week working on the print version of Little Miss Lovesick, getting some writing done on my next book and a short story coming out in an anthology, and resting. I would love to end the week with the feeling that I’d caught up on my sleep! By the end of the day yesterday, I already felt better and had made a dent in my To Do list. Now all I can think about is how to make this letting-go-of-anxiety twist an intentional part of my career in 2012.

Next year is leap year – we have a February 29th in 2012. I’ve been thinking about making it my leap of faith year. How can I put that into concrete terms? What can I intentionally do differently next year? And how will that affect my readership? Am I willing to risk losing some blog readers and potential book readers by not only being myself in an even more transparent way, but focusing on taking faith-based risks in my career? For a whole year?

The thought is both scary and exciting. Which feeling will win?  :)

If you’re also thinking about next year and what goals you want to make for 2012, you might want to consider joining me in my online class. I’m again leading “Going the Distance: Goal Setting and Time Management for the Writer” for the Orange County Chapter of RWA. You can read about the class and sign up for it on that page. I’d love to work together to make our 2012 goals purposeful and doable.

I’m a member of the Dark Side Down Under blog, Australian and New Zealand writers who write speculative fiction of various kinds. Last week I wrote post titled, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Getting Published about how I started writing romantic comedies and how I ended up self-publishing one. You might find it fun to see how things worked for me. It was fun to get it all down on paper, so I decided to re-post it this Friday on the OCC RWA blog, too.

Well, I’m feeling much better than on Saturday. I’m sure letting go of the fear of the unknown future went a long way toward getting a lot done already this week. I’m learning a lot about my new career path (self-publishing) from Aaron Shepard with his books, Aiming at Amazon, POD for Profit and Perfect Pages. Those books – and some research trips to bookstores – are helping me figure out how to make the best choices in getting Little Miss Lovesick into print. It’s been tough to focus on doing the best job no matter how long it takes rather than making sure the book is available for sale in time for Christmas orders. But maybe if I don’t let fear influence my decisions, I’ll reap greater rewards in the end.