The Business of Writing ~ Week Four

Week 4: Career Goals

To have a career as an author, it’s ideal to consistently release novels to keep your readers engaged and waiting for your next book, and to keep your name relevant. (If you are publishing digitally, it can also greatly help with your sales algorithms.) So you’ll want to both write and promote your novels over a certain span of time and then keep the next ones coming.

I hope you’ve learned a lot so far in this series, and if you’re following other posts of ours, you’ve been inundated with tips and tricks to build your platform, write your books, and create your life as a professional author. But we understand that it’s a lot to take on at once. To have success, it’s important to challenge yourself, but in small, bite-sized pieces. And above all, to have something to publish, you have to write. Planning is key.

You want to achieve great things as an author, yes? Close your eyes and imagine where you’d like to be in your career in three years. What about after that, in five years? And in ten? For each step of the way, what will you need to do to get to that year ten goal?

Create a plan and then hold yourself accountable.

Here’s a sample plan:

For each period of time, answer the following questions: (I’d plan a one-year, three-year, and five-year plan to start.)

Product

How many books would you like to have written in this time period? (If it helps to guide you, I write two books a year. Sometimes three.)

How much writing per day do you need to do to make that happen? (As an example, for a 70,000-80,000-word book, I write 1,000 words every single day, barely missing any, or edit 4,000 every day to produce two books per year. Edits can take anywhere from3-6 months or even longer if this is one of your first books. Figure out what works for you and plan for that.)

When will you set aside uninterrupted time to write and edit? (I sprinkle it in all day, around publishing and meetings as I grow the company, but early mornings and late evenings are my golden times.)

Platforms

What social media channels do you want to be using well by the end of this time period? Remember, as you start out, less is more. There’s no use in having a social media platform if you aren’t consistently posting rich content to it and engaging with readers and other authors. Decide which platforms will be your focus.

When will you set up each one?

How will you drive engagement (highest engagement meaning comments and discussions rather than simply likes) on each of those channels? (What are you planning to post?)

Do you have a content calendar for each week with ideas?

Website

Will you have a website up and running by then?

Is your website user friendly for the reader?

Do you give readers what they need to learn about and buy your books? Things like a books page, audiobooks page, discussion guides, a blog, buy links directly to retailers, an about page, a media kit… You can see my author site here.

How will you drive readers to your email list? Map out your answers.

Connections

With how many fellow authors would you like to connect? Begin by following them on social media and actively participating in their posts to break the ice. Read their books and share your glowing reviews only. Tag them in those reviews. Then, once the two of you are going back and forth a bit, list a few ways that you can reach out to them.

Business

What do you need to have set up for your business in this timeframe? Then what? Create your goals. (See the prior lesson from last week to help you plan this out.)

The earlier you begin to build the structure of your business, the easier it is to round up all the information, and you’ll be on your way to a career as an author. Join us for Lesson 5 as we talk about the work/life balance. Happy writing!

© Jenny Hale