I have been in situations where I have asked the question and then sought the answer. I have never found a satisfactory one.
Do you know someone to…. take care of my social media?
Someone who will manage my author Instagram account?
Someone to run great ads on Amazon and Facebook?
Someone who is a good editor of short stories, someone who understands the characters I write about?
Someone who can design really good book covers?
Someone who can spread the word about my writing?
Someone to build a website that does a great job for readers?
Someone who can build a superb e-commerce store for eBooks?
And so on.. and so forth.
The reality is no one who is great or wow at these things exists.
Ok – correction. They probably exist, but they are not going to work for you.
Because not only do you want that someone, but you also want that someone to be wow, cheap, available and someone who understands what you want, all at the same time. It is simply not going to happen.
I have come around to realize that there are two potential better alternatives.
One is to get slightly better, maybe decent at whatever it is that you want someone good for. But to be selective at it.
You can’t be a decent cover designer, and a social media promoter, and a good editor, and a website builder – all of yourself. So choose the thing that you really care about, and leave the others out. If it mean being good at editing, get decent at it. If it is cover design, get decent at it. Choose one or at best two, and get decent at it. For the others, consider option two.
Two is to find someone who is decent (not great!) and learn to specify what wow or great means to you.
One can’t just tell a website designer or a cover designer that one wants a great author website or a great book cover. Specify what great means. It is easy to learn. Easy to specify. And then it becomes easier to evaluate.
And once you find someone who is decent at producing whatever you specify, pay for it.
Those are the only really two viable options that work. Because once you choose the right option for each thing you want, you know you will get it done. That is what matters in the end.
And then you will stop looking for someone to… whatever it is that you need help with.
***