Do you want to write?
Make a plan to write. 1) What are your goals (both long-term and short-term)? 2) What are the steps you need to take to reach your goal? 3) Develop a REALISTIC schedule to complete those steps and work towards attaining your goals. 4) What’s next?
A sample plan might look like this: 1) Long term goal — to make writing a full time career; Short-term goal — to write/complete a historical novel by the end of the year. 2) Research the time period my novel is set in; develop character dossiers; develop my plot; write. 3) In order to work around my full-time job I will work at writing for two hours every night and double that each weekend day. I might add a possible timeline in as to when my research should be done, etc. 4) Connect with a publisher and help with marketing my book. Sell books. Begin the next novel.
Your goal(s) can be as individual as you are — you will write whatever your passion dictates. Depending on the subject matter of your book and whether it is fictional or fact, research goes a long way to making it authentic. Everyone has a different schedule and responsibilities so be realistic in setting a specified time to work on your book; allow time for setting up an author platform. You chose (or should have) writing because you want to so don’t stress yourself with unrealistic time expectations because then you will burn yourself out and make you detest the idea of writing. If necessary be flexible and revise your writing schedule; perhaps you had a job change, different commuting time or other life alteration. Not accounting for unforeseen emergencies, you have the most control of your activities to this point.
Querying publishers means that you have to give up some of the control, you can’t make a publisher want to publisher your book. You can, however, eliminate some of the reasons not to; follow submission guidelines as closely as you can, make sure that you are submitting to the right market for your genre and style. The fastest rejection will come if you don’t respect a publisher’s guidelines. It may take multiple queries (make sure simultaneous submissions are permissible with each publisher you query) before you find a home for your book; self-publication is also a viable option but difficult to be successful at for a new author who is unfamiliar with the publishing industry.
Don’t wait for an acceptance and certainly not publication before making sure that you have a substantial author platform. Get on social media sites and your own blog-pages and begin promoting your work and yourself. Let people get interested in you so that when your book is available, they will WANT to see what you’ve written. Not only will you be building an audience, but you will also be showing a potential publisher that you are willing to work at promotion.
Finally, what’s next? Build a marketing plan. Find venues that will host you (online and in-person); invest in promotional materials (stick to a realistic budget that you can afford); create a street team (fans who will help you spread the word); and sit down and write your next book.
Writing Exercise: Work up a rough plot outline for your chosen writing project. You may change the story as you write it and allow the characters to “interfere”, but get a clear idea of the story premise and ultimately where you want to take it (i.e.: a happy-ever-after, a moral, set-up for a sequel, etc.)
Writing Prompt: List all of the reasons why you want to write in one column; then list all of the reasons you shouldn’t write in the next column. Find/write a one-to-three word response debunking each of the reasons NOT to write; if necessary pretend this list belongs to someone else whom you want to encourage.
Challenge Assignment: Write a DETAILED plan for your next writing project. Elaborate on your goals. Set at least two workable time schedules that will be easy for your needs. Create a schedule for promotion and marketing as well. Within a budget, research SWAG and other promotional supplies that would be a good fit for you.
