I don’t know about you, but one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to get my writing life better organized which included writing more often, mucking out my office-cum-storage room, getting a business plan done, and deciding if I was going to go ahead and self-publish the first three completed historical romances in the series I had been working on before I started the Bad Carma mystery series.
So, how am I doing? Well. Umm. You see, it’s like this….
Guess it’s not hard to tell that I haven’t kept that resolution very well. HOWEVER, I do have NovelRama on my calendar, I am attending Pub-Con the end of April to find out more about both traditional and self-publishing, and I am almost finished with my WIP, which I have an agent interested in from an earlier version (requested at 2016 Gold – so needless to say, I want to go to Gold in September as well). I also submitted a workshop proposal to Gold as part of my platform building and professional development plan (you, too, can submit through the end of March!), and plan to enter the Colorado Gold writing contest again this year.
I haven’t started on my much-needed business plan even though as a coach at a Business Incubator it’s a major part of my job to help small business owners put their plans together. And I am a small business. I charge money for my writing and I intend to continue to make money from my novel(s). So as a small business owner I need to know my target market(s), my budget (revenue, expense, and cash flows), timelines for completion of work, if I intend to continue to write/sell/publish articles and short stories and to whom, and the different lines of business (books/series) that I intend to complete during the plan’s life. And since a business plan is a living document I also need to make myself go back to it on a regular basis to see how I’m doing and what modifications I might need to make.
We’re a quarter of the way through the year. Are you on track with your plans? Do you HAVE a plan? Remember, Fail to Plan/Plan to Fail.
My recommendation: Get your s**t together and Write On!
Do you have any other recommendations to kick the 2017 writing year into gear?
Funny you should bring this up today. My plan has changed umpteen times since January 1st, but my procrastination skills have been tested and found still functioning just fine. Maybe today is the day I turn over a new leaf. Maybe.
My husband is out of town and I had all these plans to write my socks off, but…. I’ve gotten a couple thousand words, did some first page edits based on a really great critique, and did a little research, so not a bad ROI (return on investment for anyone who doesn’t know the term). Come on, Pat, we can do it!
Well, I got five pages of writing submitted to my critique group and a blog post written (at the last minute) for a blog book tour. That broke my record word count for the month so far. Does that mean I’m on a roll?
Terri and Pat, you ladies are awesome! Thanks for the morning cup of inspiration!
Yes, Pat, I do believe that qualifies! Hope it rubs off on me. I procrastinated and switched out my fall/winter clothes for spring/summer instead of writing!