A FABULOUS LITERARY LIFE - AND THE BRUTAL LOGISTICS BEHIND IT

The thing about work life balance as an entrepreneur is that it doesn't quite exist. Work seeps into all the fabric of your life, and there isn't really blocked out personal time, because personal time can be any time you decide it is. Like today. It's a random Wednesday afternoon, I've just had a hot lunch of chicken soup while watching TV, and the accounting ledgers I've been sitting with are now closed until Monday. I'm blogging instead. But on the flip side, I spent all of Saturday, right before father's day, working and not hanging out with my dad. 

I once wrote, in an old article, that time freedom is my greatest luxury. There are days when it also feels like my biggest nightmare, not having the comfort of hard structure that other people have. Everything is an open lacing of work and play, weaving around each other without a safe, predictable pattern. 

Last week was spent in chaotic prep for a book launch. For context for the new readers, I founded a publishing company called The KREST House. Days, leading into hours, before the launch I was organizing stock of the books, the decor, the logistics. The Monday before, I'd had the company banner delivered from Cape Town, where my team on that end had used it for several events. The paypoint machine was supposed to arrive with it. That box had gotten lost at the courier warehouse, was only located on Wednesday night, shipped on Thursday, and recieved on Friday just in time to be set up for the launch. The morning of, the author sent me a completely revised list of discussion points as his interviewer. 

Behind every fun, sparkly post of a book event - what I wore, where I went, what I ate - is a life often operating on nail-biting schedule. 

Before Saturday, there was the Constantia Literary Festival. 

The Time I Woke Up at 3 AM in Durban, to Spend the Day in Cape Town, and Be Back in My Bed at Home by 10 PM 

For major festivals, we often have a 6 month lead time. This time is used to submit titles for inclusion, prepare sales logistics, branding etc. The organizers of the Constantia Literary Festival reached out to me 3 months ahead of the event. And don't get me wrong - this event was so immaculately prepared from their end, that I almost couldn't believe it was their first time putting together an entire festival! The workflow on our side was doubly compressed, though, and not to mention there was simultaneous prep for Comic Con Cape Town (and two book signing events with Exclusive Books in Cape Town). It was a time when it felt like everyone across the country needed something. Mind you, I'm based in Durban. 

The next challenge was booking flights on a budget. I'd been given a R2,000 travel honorarium from the festival, since they'd asked me to come all the way from KZN to do 2 talks. Honestly, I didn't mind the confines of the amount. Authors in South Africa are generally not paid at all to appear at literary events, so I was very appreciative that they  thought to allocate a little something to make my journey more comfortable. I used the R2,000 to purchase flight tickets on the annual FlySafair sale. I was lucky to get them - people waited for hours in a randomized online queue to buy sale tickets on the airline website. At the height of the USA-Iran war, the 2k ordinarily wouldn't have even covered a one way flight to Cape Town. My good luck, I was plucked from the queue and ushered into the website just in time to get a round trip for R1,800. Yet again, everything had unfolded on a knife's edge. 

But even with just weeks to go, I couldn't yet look forward to the event in peace. An order from the Exclusive Books store supplying the festival had come through, and - I don't even know why I was surprised at my luck - they ordered more book copies than we had available! So in the nick of time, I placed a rush print order, had it delivered to me, sent it off to the Exclusive Books branch based in Cape Town, and it arrived just days before festival set up. If the supply chain is sounding convoluted, that's because it really is. 

The way the book copies for festivals work:

- a festival reaches out to publishers to supply them with authors for the stage sessions

- the publisher submits suitable book titles and authors for the festival to consider 

- festival organizers ultimately decide which authors they want to put on stage

- a bookstore is selected to be the point of sale for the festival

- the organizing committee gives the bookstore a list of authors and their titles that have been selected

- the bookstore then reaches out to the relevant publishers and purchases copies of the selected books from them, to resell at the event 

So, after the hullabaloo of logistics, it was finally the day of the Constantia Literary Festival. I had to wake up at 3am because my shower, hair wash, and make up routine takes 2 hours. On the cusp of winter, it was dark and cold. I shivered my way through the motions of getting ready. I drove myself to the airport while the stars were still out. And this was only the beginning of a mad rush of a day. 

The flight from Durban left late. I arrived at the vastness of Cape Town International Airport only in time to sprint into my Uber in my heels (I'd used Ubers's pre-booking function, the night before, to make sure the ride would already be waiting when my flight landed). I had a woman driver, which, in the chaos of the day, felt like safety. She delivered me to the venue with minutes to take a few deep breaths, snap my stage charm on, and begin. The first session was a panel on following creative careers in South Africa, conducted by myself, my company's head of operations, and our social media manager. There was the customary flummox of people with additional questions and calls for business cards when we were done. Another few minutes breather, then my second session. This session was a memoir writing workshop I conducted solo. The level of engagement at this session was through the roof. When the insurgence of aspiring writers came at the end, my operations head had to join me, and we split up to make sure everyone got their questions answered. By the end of it all I only had about an hour and a half to traipse around the festival. 

Airport. Boarding. A nearly 2 hour flight to land in a very rainy Durban by 9pm. Driving myself - in the dark, again - back home. Shower; bed. 

When I laid my head on my own familiar pillow that night, having woken up on it 16 hours before and traversed 3 cities in that time, I won't lie - my body felt like it didn't want to go through this again. 

Two days later my book Creating Literary Art: How to Weave a Tapestry of Words into a Perfectly Publishable Book became the #4 bestseller at Exclusive Books Cavendish, based on sales made from the festival. And I remembered something all ambitious people go back to on their journeys: that a hard day doesn't really mean I don't want the large life I am building. 

As the famous piece of prose goes:

What a privilege to be tired from the work you once begged the universe for.

What a privilege to be overwhelmed by growth you used to dream about. 

What a privilege to be challenged by a life you created on purpose. 

And what a privilege to outgrow things you once settled for. 

Written by Keli H, author and literary artist. Quintessentially Keli is her personal editorial archive on style, authorship, art, and inspired living. More articles at keli-h.com