I'm thinking about New Year’s resolutions and my writing goals. I already have my
publishing schedule for this year and deadlines set by my publisher, but what
about my goals for managing my career as a writer?After I received my first publishing contract I quickly discovered that the business of writing involves so much more than writing a publishable story! In fact in a hyper-crowded marketplace, marketing can make all the difference.
This year I decided one of my NYE resolutions should be to consciously manage my writing career, including paying more attention to marketing.
Sounds easy, right? For me, it isn’t
because I have a day job that’s demanding in terms of time, emotional and
physical energy (a private speech pathology practice which I own, work and
manage!), a family to love, enjoy and organise and a home and several animals
to look after, and friendships to enjoy and nurture. No different
from most other writers and my health is pretty good, yet I find it a juggling
act and I confess that I don’t always catch all the balls I throw up into the
air, so what can I do better?I'm told I need to spend time daily both writing and setting aside time to attend to ‘author-ly business’. I can’t write every day, but this year I’ve resolved to either write and/or attend to some of the business of writing on a daily basis. This should also help me focus on my writing career more.
Every minute spent marketing—whether it’s through
social media, blogging, newsletters, book signings, organising
pre-launch promotions, answering emails from readers or organising promotional merchandise—takes time away from writing. It’s
important to continue the momentum of promotion from one book so that it flows
on to the next. So I’m going to try to find a better balance. In 2019 I hope to find more time to develop my writing as a business.
Anybody got any good tips to help me along the way?
What are your writing New Year’s resolutions?
Love to Love: Meeting goals I've set.
Love to Laugh: When things go wrong and I can't meet those goals (it's either laugh or cry!)
Love to Learn: About how to improve my approach to managing my writing career.
