Meet my manuscript!

I just said that in the Patti Stanger “Meet My Millionaires!” voice, in case your mind-reading skills aren’t in effect yet today.

This little puppy has been the source of much joy, frustration, concentration, focus, determination, teamwork, and elation for the past ten months.

Thing is, I hate printers. Not my publishing printers, but home printers.  Those nasty little $99 devices that break at just the wrong time.  And I need to see the book printed out to edit properly because that’s the way my brain works.  Screens just won’t do.

I would spend an hour or more printing each copy of the manuscript, replacing ink cartridges and swearing like a sailor for each draft that took place.  There have been many, many drafts.

When Haunani mentioned my blood pressure one too many times during these printing episodes, I decided to say “Screw it” and give FedEx Home Office printing a try. I can upload the PDF to their local office and have it printed within 2 hours for less than the cost of my own ink and paper, since those FedEx elves are laser-printing pros. The swearing is done by someone else if any is required, and I just whisk in to pick up my beautiful, perfectly-printed manuscript.

This simple bit of outsourcing brings me intense joy. Why didn’t I do this sooner?

Guilt. I felt guilty because printing is so ‘easy,’ because it’s ‘eco-friendly’ to try to read on screens, because it’s so ‘lazy’ to let someone else do my ‘work’ for me.

Is any of this ringing a bell?

You don’t outsource _______ because it’s so ‘easy’ that you should be able to do it yourself.
You don’t pay someone else to ____________ because it’s so much eco-friendlier to do _____ instead.
You don’t let a professional handle your dreaded task because you’re just being ‘lazy’ and should be able to do the work yourself.

Lose the guilt.

I promise, the amount of joy you’ll receive from having your green juice delivered or your cloth diapers washed, from having your manuscripts printed or your files RAW-processed, from paying someone to make your trips to the post office and prep orders for shipping — I promise — that joy will surpass your guilt in no time.

Let the joy win.

Take the first step toward outsourcing an icky task today, then tell me what you’re gonna do in the comments — I’d love to hear!

P.S.  Bonus confession: I printed my holiday cards from Minted instead of buying a template and custom-designing ‘em myself.  I felt so guilty but it was fast, simple, and they look FANTASTIC.  Can I get an Amen?