Issue #14 January 2015
Just Setting the Goals Isn’t Enough
We often hear that time is the most precious commodity we
have. Well, that’s doubly true for writers trying to earn a living with their
craft. That’s you and me. If the genre you write is fiction, it’s even more
challenging! So, those of us who write fiction must monitor our precious time
and make it count toward completing our publishing goals. Since another New
Year is upon us, it’s time for us to evaluate the goals we set for ourselves
last year, account for how much of the goal was accomplished and set our goals
for the coming year to be both challenging, accomplishable and focused on
publishing. In an attempt to do just that, I went back to the goals I set in
January 2014. They’re below in a table, but I do want to discuss a few things
about them.
Goals Set, Accomplished & Reset
|
|||
2014 Goals Set
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2014 Goals Accomplished
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2015 Goals
| |
Blog &
Newsletter Goals
| |||
Must Read Must
See Books and Movies
|
6 blog entries
|
5 blog entries
|
6 blog entries
|
Prodigal
Writer
|
4 blog entries
|
4 blog entries
|
4 blog entries
|
Contributors’
Corner Newsletter
|
12 newsletters
|
10 newsletters
|
12 newsletter
|
Science
Fiction: An Analytical Approach
|
6 blog entries
|
Cancelled this
blog to focus on other writing; may turn this into short books to be
distributed for .99.
|
0
|
New Blog about
novel research
|
Begin &
write regular entries
|
None
|
0
|
Write &
Submit NEW Stories or Essays
| |||
12 short
stories
|
10 short
stories (may have been more, but data lost off disk in April)
|
12
stories/essays
| |
Novel Goals
| |||
Icy Thoughts
Book 2
|
Finish novel
by October, publish by December
|
Currently
contains 20,971 words – about 17% of the end product
|
Write 4,000
words per week on Book 2
|
A Long
Winter’s Night Sales Goals
|
75,000 distributed
by November
|
365 books sold
or given away free
|
Wishful
thinking, NOT a goal
|
Find & Use
Editing Service
|
Contact 2
editing service per month until finding the best match
| ||
Have a new
book cover created
|
Contact Arts
Alliance to find a suitable illustrator
| ||
Marketing
Goals
| |||
Education
|
Continue
learning & using marketing techniques
|
Completed
Digital Marketing Course: How to Launch Your Ebook in 14 Days
|
Complete
another course in marketing
|
Application
|
Use marketing
funnel to promote novels
|
None – I
really don’t understand this concept enough and don’t have the auto
responders needed
| |
Apply the
Launch Your Ebook principals to promote A
Long Winter’s Night AFTER completing the goals for it below
| |||
Author Facebook
Page
|
Build a
following by writing regular entries
|
None
|
1 entry per
week, either from the blogs, the website or something new
|
Character
Facebook Page
|
Build a
following by writing regular entries
|
None
|
1 entry per
week entered as a diary or journal
|
Goals
Accomplished, But Not Written
| |||
Author Website
|
Created author
website linked to blogs and containing a PRIVATE members only page for other
working authors
|
Maintain
weekly updates on the author website via the blogs or new info on the home
page
| |
First of all, I was pleased to see that I reached at least
some them. Not as many as I think I should have, but then, I’m pretty hard on
myself. Maybe you are, too. Just remember that we do to push ourselves, but not
to the point of breaking. We also want to celebrate our successes, too, even if
they’re small ones. So when I looked over last year’s goals and accomplishments
in the table below, I saw that of the 12 goals I set, I only accomplished four.
That’s one-third of my own goals. I immediately asked myself why I didn’t
accomplish more. I know it’s been a busy year, with many family health issues
that consumed my time. But that’s life. There’s always something to distract us
from our goals. The next thing I considered was whether the goals I set will really
help me earn a living with my writing. So I took those goals, divided them into
categories and tried to determine their importance to getting published. As you
can see, I came up with four major categories: Blogs & Newsletters, Writing
& Submitting NEW Short Stories and Goals for both my Novels and Marketing
my novels.
I looked at the blogs and newsletters I had been writing and
determined that SciFi Analysis was a
useless tool to get me to my goal. Likewise, the new blog about researching my
novel seemed a useless tool. Both of these goals were nixed for 2015. However, Must Read, Must See, Books and Movies
has proven to be a useful tool to help me know what a reader is looking for in
a novel and therefore how I should alter my own writing to make it more
appealing to potential readers. Prodigal
Writer and Contributors’ Corner
are both essential to keeping me focused on my own writing goals. You see, as I
try to motivate you and keep you focused, I’m also doing it for myself.
Next I looked at my writing goals for Writing &
Submitting NEW Short Stories/Essays. I did submit 10 of the 12 stories from my
goal. It may have been more than that, but I lost my “Writing Tracking”
spreadsheet when my flash drive got erased in April. Writing & Submitting
is an essential goal for getting your name out to the reading public, so it has
to stay for 2015. Notice that that goals we’ve discussed so far are written
with measurable outcomes. However, my Novel Goals for writing the next Icy Thoughts novel are NOT written with
a detailed, measureable outcome…maybe that’s why I didn’t accomplish it. So, I
broke the larger goal of “finishing the novel” into an easier to measure weekly
goal. With this more focused goal, I could easily have any novel finished in
six months. By July, I should have Book 2 completed, if I maintain the writing
momentum. The goal of 75,000 Sales for A Long Winter’s Night, though focused on
a specific number, was unreasonable. It was really more wishful thinking than a
true goal. Any increase in sales will only result from better marketing
practices, which takes us to the next set of goals.
The Marketing Goals were a bust! I only completed one of the
goals. I finished the online course about launching an ebook and I plan on
taking another course this year either through the Digital Marketer or through
the Office Team website (since I’m still listed as an active member). Applying
the marketing funnel was vague and unrealistic, considering that fact that I
really didn’t understand how to apply it and I didn’t have the tools needed to
use it. That goal will have to wait a while longer. The goal of using Facebook
may end up being the best marketing tool, but I HAVE to actually write
something on the pages in order for anyone to read them and become interested
in my books. So I made the goal measureable: one entry on BOTH the author page
and the main character’s page per week. With this specific goal, I will know
immediately whether I am accomplishing it and whether Facebook is actually
working to promote me as a writer. On the up side, I did get my author website
set up even though I didn’t list it as a goal. I’m happy about that because my
hits per month are actually growing!
Now that you’ve seen how I set my goals and analyze their
effectiveness, I hope you have learned something you can apply to your own
goal-setting efforts. I hope that 2015 is the year that you make a breakthrough
in your writing goals. I also invite you to join us at Contributors’ Corner for help with your editing, encouragement with
your writing and the challenges to keep you on task. Which reminds me, we have
a new Writing Challenge for you!
Writing Challenge #14: Write, Edit, Submit!
Start your New Year out right by selecting one or both of
the contests listed below. Write your piece, then submit to us by January 19th
so we can read it and help you smooth out the wrinkles before you submit it to
the publisher.
Writing Deadline: January 19, 2015
Your piece will be shared in the February Issue of Contributors’ Corner, where we’ll help you polish your writing
before you submit it. You’ll have your response prior to the contests deadline
so you can make the changes you agree with.
Fee: None
Genre: Fiction
Words: 5,000 or less
Pay: 1st Prize $3,000, 2nd Prize $300, 3rd
Prize $150
Due: February 13, 2015
To be published in the October 2015 issue of Playboy Magazine
WAGS REVUE 2015 WINTER CONTEST
Genre: Fiction, Essays, Poetry
Words: 10,000 or less for fiction & essays, 10 pages or less for
poetry
Pay: 1st Prize, $1,000, 2nd Prize $500, 3rd
Prize $100
Due: February 28, 2015
Fee: $22
Until next quarter, live well, love fully and write with all
your heart!