Over the last few months I have been asked by three authors if I would mentor them. I was flattered even though I had to say no.

I use to mentor authors for free or rather I offered and offered. I wanted to help those get to where I was at the time. Not a single person took me up on it. Even if it meant me taking the time out of my busy schedule, putting in extra work and coordinating times and places not a single person raised their hands to take me up on it. Not one.

If any author who was higher up than me had reached out I would be on their front porch before their sentence was done.

I didn’t know what to make from this. So, I stopped offering. Taking a class about learning our worth I decided to start charging for my services. The minute I did that people reached out to me. Sadly the ones who I repeatedly asked over the years finally reached out not knowing I now charge. They were not happy. But I didn’t budge. After four years of trying to help for free that ride was over.

It takes a lot of time for me to mentor an author from start to end especially one who is not published yet. And more especially one who has not been published and their book is unedited. To do that means to walk away for a bit from my family and my business. That seminar taught me to hold firm and to value what I know.

It doesn’t help that some people want the magic bullet. This means they not putting in the work that one needs to do to get to the results they want. If I am going to give you that much time I do expect it back.

So, when three people asked me to mentor them I expressed it simply. I mentioned that it involved a lot of time and effort from me and a true commitment from the author. Plus that I now charge. But I did leave them with three nuggets of information that I feel is imperative to getting your book out there and making the progress I have made.

Some will appreciate it while others won’t. That’s okay. Maybe in the future those who don’t will realize what all is involved and why I had to say no. Plus, why I now charge.