This is the weekly thread where you can share more about the way you work with the whole community. Today’s questions are:
What’s your personality type? (choose any system…Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, Clifton Strengths, etc.)
and
How is it helping or challenging you to succeed at going wide or growing wide?
My Answers:
I’m an enneagram 3 which is an achiever type and motivated by external validation. Things like external preorder deadlines help me in general, as does having a community waiting on my content.
I’m an ENTP, so seeking the new and turning it into business ideas is both an addiction and an affliction. All Ps struggle with follow-through: we like to start things but it’s not important to us to finish them. In Writer MBA, I’m (thankfully) partnered with a hardcore J to balance that out. (I’m also married to a J, which is nice.) The good news? I do come across a lot of interesting platforms and I try them to see what makes them tick.
My Clifton Strengths are strategic, communication, futuristic, activator, and ideation. In talking to smart people, I’ve learned that while I am low on executing strengths, my propensity to communicate is a good external factor that helps me get stuff done. A lot of my strengths are influencing ones—and I’ll be honest, influence comes very naturally to me. It’s one reason that I gravitate more toward nonfiction at times, because there’s more to be influential on. I am attempting to look deeper at my strengths and power them toward fiction, but there is some conflict between that and my inner artist. 🙂
What works for me going wide is trying new platforms and “hacking” them, then communicating back how I did it. I also thrive under preorder deadlines and having a ready audience waiting for things.
****
Now It’s Your Turn!
Writing this all out is helpful to me (#2 Communication) because it helps me see (or reminds me) where some of my motivations lie, and it helps me organize my work so that my motivations are aligned with my goals. Things unfold better for me when each project is arranged to be motivating. This is one way I cut through the overwhelm I sometimes feel with wide, because when I’m motivated I organically can check tasks off my list.
Now it’s your turn—What’s your personality, what are your strengths, and how are they helping you succeed at going and growing wide? Leave a comment below (open to free and paid subscribers) to share more about who you are and what’s working for you.
Human Design Generator (though idk if I 'believe' in that system, but I'm happy to follow what is recommended for my type)
I have 2 pen names
-- Amy Teegan is fully wide and always will be, but the genre doesn't sell and they take way longer to write so this is barely anything
-- Secret Pen Name is mostly in KU with 2 main series, but I am slowly moving a couple stand-alones wide, a small novella series as well as future books will be wide. The KU books are basically my "day job" and I am happy to build up my wide income slow and steady while the KU books pay my bills
I would love for Amy Teegan to have the kind of body of work like Elizabeth Gilbert--both fiction and non under the same name and just pursuing what interests me, building a readership of people who just like my brain and the way I see the world.
I know I have a lot of infrastructure/platform related things I need to do so Secret Pen Name can make more money and buy myself time to work on the Amy Teegan stuff I really love.
It's very enneagram 5 of me to just want to study something deeply and then create content around it and figure out how to pay my bills doing that. Example: I have started a book of essays about what I've learned from reading Anne of Green Gables 30 times. That is not a write-to-market/volume kind of book; that is a Amy-has-dedicated-readers-who-will-buy-anything kind of book.
And part of that is also making it possible for people to give me money in a variety of ways, not just retailers ( Patreon, Medium, direct sales, etc).
I know this is going to be a slow build, but I figure as long as I enjoy what I do every day and can pay my bills, I don't care.
I didn't really start diving deep into my Strengths until recently, but looking at my Top 10, it was very much a lightbulb moment of, "Oh yes, this explains why I tend to just write/publish stuff and figure out the marketing later."
Four of my top 10 are Executing ones - I like to check things off the list - and while 3 of my Top 10 are in Strategic Thinking, those three are Intellection, Input, and Futuristic, and the others in that category were fairly low scores. I love to learn about writing and publishing (and things in general!) and take a decent number of courses, but I've never been a "plan out a big launch strategy" kind of author. I just...can't make myself do it. Also Analytical is #34 for me, and maybe that explains why I just CANNOT with Facebook or Amazon ads, because analyzing ad data makes me want to stab my eyes out. 😂
In general, I like lists and getting lots done, but I tend to be more intuitive when it comes to the business/marketing stuff, and I just adjust as I go.
I am Enneagram 9 Peacemaker. I prefer internal/external peace. And my books reflect that with their happy endings. I hear about continuing Amazon issues and can’t imagine the bots deciding I have broken some rule. No confrontation, please.
Last year I took my first series wide. I have two incomplete series in Kindle Unlimited that will be completed this year. I will move them out of KU. Hope to have reached enough readers on other platforms so I can launch my next series wide.
I am INFP. The introvert doesn’t want to try a lot of new social things. I listen to authors who say if you don’t enjoy a social platform, don’t use it!
I can’t be someone else. I write clean/sweet small romances as Jan Gallagher Dunn. I could make more money writing steamy romances. But that would be stressful. And I am most creative when I’m at peace with my choices. There is a market for my books, but not all of those readers are on Amazon. I keep watching for promotions on the other platforms and trying to take advantage of them. And learning from my mistakes.
My Clifton Strengths are strategic, intellection, connectedness, input, learner. The reason I get lost in my thoughts. And other times I am distracted. Strategic and intellection work together with input joining them. I have so many ideas for stories, and business options. Strategic helps me choose the best paths.
Strategic helped me decide to go wide. With so many authors participating in KU, the monthly fund has to be divided more ways. My books are 50,000 words plus. I would need to sell twice as many books to get the page reads of someone who writes longer stories. With Amazon’s new trick, only showing three categories (of their choice), I am happy I have other options. Who knows what they will do next?
Business decisions lean on strategic skills. I make checklists of what I need to learn, what I have do. I did one for making and promoting my first box set. And did it to prepare for taking my first series wide. It’s a way to bring common ideas together that can be updated as needed.
My personality lends itself to keeping the day job (professional nerd wrangler) to generate the emotional energy (I truly love my day job) and pay for writing my writing habit to product what I want when I want and sell it wide so people can get it where they prefer. It's taken three years working with writing coaches to deprogram myself from the myth of the full-time creative.
The genres I write (dark epic fantasy and gritty urban fantasy, both with a side of queer/poly romance) probably stem from my personality, too. I practice my craft writing coffee shop romances, because Courtships like Action stories are the hardest stories to tell well and without cliche, but I doubt I'll publish those—they're just for me and my writing workshops.
I actually use psychometrics along with archetypes to flesh out my characters and my ideal reader profiles so that I know who I'm writing and who I'm writing for.
Enneagram looks at me and shrugs. Plus or minus a few points, I'm 1, 2, 3, and 4. 🤷♂️ And 5 through 9 are all either 63s or 44s, so no help in sorting those from each other either.
I'm an unrepentant INFP. I write by intuition and I market by intuition. Can't do it any other way.
I’ve forgotten my enneagram type(s) but I have who is expert at it and he pegged me as someone who gets a kick from starting new challenges but weak at follow through. That’s me!
Ok... this is germane to my interests lately bc I'm trying to figure out the intersection of all of my personality traits and what does it meannnnn? So.
I am an Enneagram 9w1-are afraid of being separated from the rest of the world and losing what matters to them. (WIDE! I don't want to miss out on being in libraries and other subscription opportunities I can't take advantage of if I am only sold at one location.
-desire peace, both internally and externally. Their type one wing encourages them to make their idealized, peaceful world a reality.
Negotiators defend themselves by participating heavily in routine to distract themselves and avoid negative emotions.
My top 5 Clifton Strengths are
1. Intellection - characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.
2. Input have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information
3. Relator- enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.
4. Responsibility- take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.
5. Adaptability -prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time
I am an INTJ -A on Meyers Briggs.
My introversion and input play the biggest part in being an author. I'm not spontaneous, but I'm also not a person who plans out books way in advance or spends a day mapping out my book promotion. I think being cautiously brave and not wanting to be left behind makes me a great wide author.
I'm still digging into this topic so I haven't narrowed down what this means to me as a whole person and what it means to me as an author and as a WIDE author.
All right, here we go *cracks knuckles*
Enneagram 5
INTJ
CliftonStrengths: Learner, Input, Intellection, Context, Strategic, Achiever
Human Design Generator (though idk if I 'believe' in that system, but I'm happy to follow what is recommended for my type)
I have 2 pen names
-- Amy Teegan is fully wide and always will be, but the genre doesn't sell and they take way longer to write so this is barely anything
-- Secret Pen Name is mostly in KU with 2 main series, but I am slowly moving a couple stand-alones wide, a small novella series as well as future books will be wide. The KU books are basically my "day job" and I am happy to build up my wide income slow and steady while the KU books pay my bills
I would love for Amy Teegan to have the kind of body of work like Elizabeth Gilbert--both fiction and non under the same name and just pursuing what interests me, building a readership of people who just like my brain and the way I see the world.
I know I have a lot of infrastructure/platform related things I need to do so Secret Pen Name can make more money and buy myself time to work on the Amy Teegan stuff I really love.
It's very enneagram 5 of me to just want to study something deeply and then create content around it and figure out how to pay my bills doing that. Example: I have started a book of essays about what I've learned from reading Anne of Green Gables 30 times. That is not a write-to-market/volume kind of book; that is a Amy-has-dedicated-readers-who-will-buy-anything kind of book.
And part of that is also making it possible for people to give me money in a variety of ways, not just retailers ( Patreon, Medium, direct sales, etc).
I know this is going to be a slow build, but I figure as long as I enjoy what I do every day and can pay my bills, I don't care.
Enneagram 3w4
INFJ (though it's slid more toward ENFJ at times)
CliftonStrengths: Achiever, Significance, Restorative, Activator, Intellection.
I didn't really start diving deep into my Strengths until recently, but looking at my Top 10, it was very much a lightbulb moment of, "Oh yes, this explains why I tend to just write/publish stuff and figure out the marketing later."
Four of my top 10 are Executing ones - I like to check things off the list - and while 3 of my Top 10 are in Strategic Thinking, those three are Intellection, Input, and Futuristic, and the others in that category were fairly low scores. I love to learn about writing and publishing (and things in general!) and take a decent number of courses, but I've never been a "plan out a big launch strategy" kind of author. I just...can't make myself do it. Also Analytical is #34 for me, and maybe that explains why I just CANNOT with Facebook or Amazon ads, because analyzing ad data makes me want to stab my eyes out. 😂
In general, I like lists and getting lots done, but I tend to be more intuitive when it comes to the business/marketing stuff, and I just adjust as I go.
I am Enneagram 9 Peacemaker. I prefer internal/external peace. And my books reflect that with their happy endings. I hear about continuing Amazon issues and can’t imagine the bots deciding I have broken some rule. No confrontation, please.
Last year I took my first series wide. I have two incomplete series in Kindle Unlimited that will be completed this year. I will move them out of KU. Hope to have reached enough readers on other platforms so I can launch my next series wide.
I am INFP. The introvert doesn’t want to try a lot of new social things. I listen to authors who say if you don’t enjoy a social platform, don’t use it!
I can’t be someone else. I write clean/sweet small romances as Jan Gallagher Dunn. I could make more money writing steamy romances. But that would be stressful. And I am most creative when I’m at peace with my choices. There is a market for my books, but not all of those readers are on Amazon. I keep watching for promotions on the other platforms and trying to take advantage of them. And learning from my mistakes.
My Clifton Strengths are strategic, intellection, connectedness, input, learner. The reason I get lost in my thoughts. And other times I am distracted. Strategic and intellection work together with input joining them. I have so many ideas for stories, and business options. Strategic helps me choose the best paths.
Strategic helped me decide to go wide. With so many authors participating in KU, the monthly fund has to be divided more ways. My books are 50,000 words plus. I would need to sell twice as many books to get the page reads of someone who writes longer stories. With Amazon’s new trick, only showing three categories (of their choice), I am happy I have other options. Who knows what they will do next?
Business decisions lean on strategic skills. I make checklists of what I need to learn, what I have do. I did one for making and promoting my first box set. And did it to prepare for taking my first series wide. It’s a way to bring common ideas together that can be updated as needed.
My personality lends itself to keeping the day job (professional nerd wrangler) to generate the emotional energy (I truly love my day job) and pay for writing my writing habit to product what I want when I want and sell it wide so people can get it where they prefer. It's taken three years working with writing coaches to deprogram myself from the myth of the full-time creative.
The genres I write (dark epic fantasy and gritty urban fantasy, both with a side of queer/poly romance) probably stem from my personality, too. I practice my craft writing coffee shop romances, because Courtships like Action stories are the hardest stories to tell well and without cliche, but I doubt I'll publish those—they're just for me and my writing workshops.
I actually use psychometrics along with archetypes to flesh out my characters and my ideal reader profiles so that I know who I'm writing and who I'm writing for.
Enneagram looks at me and shrugs. Plus or minus a few points, I'm 1, 2, 3, and 4. 🤷♂️ And 5 through 9 are all either 63s or 44s, so no help in sorting those from each other either.
I'm an unrepentant INFP. I write by intuition and I market by intuition. Can't do it any other way.
Clifton Matrix:
Always
1. Strategic
2. Achiever
3. Futuristic
4. Activator
5. Competition
Mostly
6. Command
7. Significance
8. Self-Assurance
9. Relator
10. Intellection
11. Learner
12. Ideation
13. Input
I'm an enneagram Type 3 (Achiever) with a strong 1. So I lean toward perfectionism if I'm not careful. My Clifton #1 is Focus which is awesome.
INTF
Enneagram 9 Peacemaker
INFP Mediator
Clifton strengths Empathy, Harmony, Includer, Intellection, Learner
Pisces ♓
At least I'm consistent 😅
Based on all of that, I'm sure it is no surprise that my why is making others feel seen. And it provides a clarity on what I should not be writing
What is “KU”?
I’ve forgotten my enneagram type(s) but I have who is expert at it and he pegged me as someone who gets a kick from starting new challenges but weak at follow through. That’s me!
Ok... this is germane to my interests lately bc I'm trying to figure out the intersection of all of my personality traits and what does it meannnnn? So.
I am an Enneagram 9w1-are afraid of being separated from the rest of the world and losing what matters to them. (WIDE! I don't want to miss out on being in libraries and other subscription opportunities I can't take advantage of if I am only sold at one location.
-desire peace, both internally and externally. Their type one wing encourages them to make their idealized, peaceful world a reality.
Negotiators defend themselves by participating heavily in routine to distract themselves and avoid negative emotions.
My top 5 Clifton Strengths are
1. Intellection - characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.
2. Input have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information
3. Relator- enjoy close relationships with others. They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.
4. Responsibility- take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.
5. Adaptability -prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time
I am an INTJ -A on Meyers Briggs.
My introversion and input play the biggest part in being an author. I'm not spontaneous, but I'm also not a person who plans out books way in advance or spends a day mapping out my book promotion. I think being cautiously brave and not wanting to be left behind makes me a great wide author.
I'm still digging into this topic so I haven't narrowed down what this means to me as a whole person and what it means to me as an author and as a WIDE author.