The last few weeks have been a lot of fun as we’ve covered some of the many popular outlining methods available to the author preparing to start a new project. We’ve covered a total of nine:
In a lot of ways, putting together and defining the various points on this list has felt a lot like the process of drafting my usual late-week blog post. Perhaps this is because my usual late-week blog post is the product of much planning, and planning for me often takes the form of–that’s right!–outlining. And researching. And organizing what I’ve researched into the most streamlined, most effective means of communicating possible. The product is, for me, a string of blog posts that say the most they can with as little ornamentation as possible.
I hope that at least one of the methods we’ve covered proves useful for you to try! Regardless of whether it proves useful as a great new addition to your toolbox or as part of the process of elimination in discovering what works for you. I’d love to hear about your experiences in trying one or all or any of the above methods! And next time I write, you can expect further thoughts on where to go from here–from the outlining desk to the drafting table.
Thinking of you always. ♣︎
Thinking of you always. ♣︎
Do you have ideas to share? Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments section, below.
ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Outskirts Press. The Sales and Marketing departments are composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
If you are like many writers, publishing a book is probably on your 2021 to-do list. Perhaps you even marked it down as one of your New Year resolutions! Hopefully, despite everything happening out there in the world, you’re feeling refreshed, inspired, excited––maybe a little scared or overwhelmed––and it’s likely that you’re hoping your dream won’t become another failed resolution that gets pushed to the back burner after the thrill of the new year wears off. (And after only two weeks, many of us are past the honeymoon phase already.)
Well, we are here to help. Throughout January, we will offer you tips and tricks to help you accomplish your goal of publishing a book this year––and afterward, of course, I personally encourage you to continue reading my posts throughout the year for inspiration, advice, and news that will help you become a successful author.
So let’s get started.
The first thing you must do if you want to accomplish your goal is break it down into smaller, more manageable and measurable tasks. This will keep you from feeling overwhelmed, getting side tracked, and losing inspiration.
I find it helpful to have a calendar in front of me when I complete this task, to help with setting deadlines and factoring in events that may impact my writing goals. I’ve also found it useful to separate my writing life from my bedroom and living room. Setting up a dedicated space for writing may prove difficult, depending on how your household is set up at the moment, but physically getting off of the couch is already a huge step in preparing me mentally for planning such a monumental task.
Now, let’s ask ourselves these questions:
How much time do I need to dedicate to writing each day, week, or month?
When do I want to start the publishing process?
How will I fund my project?
When do I want to complete my first draft?
How much time do I need to edit my first draft?
What tasks besides writing (i.e., researching, marketing, etc.) will I need to complete?
What will help me be successful?
Using our answers to these questions, we next need to write down small, measurable goals for our projects and put them some place we will see them often. If you need a bit of support in defining measurable goals, I can’t recommend NPR’s Life Kit podcast episode from December featuring BJ Fogg, who works at Stanford in behavioral science. (Check it out HERE.) We also have to make sure to periodically check our progress and adjust our goals as needed. I’ve been making use of both digital and offline methods to remind me of this, including sticky notes and calendar reminders on my phone.
I’d love to know, what are your 2021 writing goals?
You are not alone. ♣︎
Do you have ideas to share? Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments section, below.
ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Outskirts Press. The Sales and Marketing departments are composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
Look, summer presents unique challenges to writers, doesn’t it? By July, everyone’s deep into their vacations, children are running riot while out of school, family streams in and out in a series of reunions, and … it can be hard to continue writing.
Of course … there are remedies. And this week, I suggest trying your hand at a schedule––and then, of all things, sticking to it!
Now, those who know me well know that I’m not aways given over to structured practicalities and organizational tricks. I know how to kick back and relax, especially in summer. After all, if you work in publishing or with authors, as I do, you’ll know that victories are hard-won and well worth celebrating! So … don’t take this as heavy-handed pontification from someone who’s eminently hypocritical. I often suggest many things which I do not myself do all the time, since I’m as firm a believer in changing the habits to fit the situation as I am that success in self-publishing is the nexus of persistence, skill, and good luck.
I recommend schedules for everyone. If not for always, than for a season––and there’s no better season to try your hand at scheduling in summer, when the emotional, physical, and social stakes are so high … and very little writing is getting done anyways, so why not try a new approach? You may be writing by a pool with a mimosa at your side, but you can still work a schedule like nobody’s business, and churn out more writing than you would otherwise. Anyone with a plan can make it work!
Oh … but a plan? How do I come up with one of those?
Here’s where I get a little bit … experimental. As the first step to developing a schedule, I recommend starting a bullet journal. You have probably heard this term before, and associated it with highly neurotic, organized, possibly even OCD? people with phenomenal artistic skills. I sure did, and refused to start a bullet journal, until I dug into a great conversation at the local library with a young mother named Melissa.
Melissa bullet journals. No surprise there! But wow, she has zero artistic skills. I mean, not a single artistic bone in her body! She was a bit reticent to show me her bullet journal, since she felt insecure about the lettering and such, but I was eventually able to persuade her. And I was incredibly impressed! Melissa has gotten to the heart of what a bullet journal is all about, which is to say, she started hers with lists––shopping lists, to-do lists, etc––and by tracking the little things she does throughout the day. Then she took it one step further and started to set goals … once she knew what her days usually already looked like, and what was feasible.
That, my friends and dear readers, is the value of a bullet journal. It can eventually help you shape behaviors, yes, but first it shows you what you already do––and therefore, what you’re already good at, and maybe some areas to work on. It’s like Google Analytics, but for a person’s daily productivity!
You can put a bullet journal to work describing your days and then use the data you gather––when meals happen, what they look like, how many hours you’re sleeping a night, what your weekly and daily commitments look like and how they change in the summer––to transform or tweak your schedule just a little to squeak some more writing in. Poolside, or otherwise.
It’s all about sustainability. Radically altering your writing behaviors without a plan just isn’t a good idea––and it isn’t, ultimately, sustainable. Small changes are great, however, and over time you can build one change upon another until your summers are your most productive months, rather than the opposite! But it starts with knowing where you are, first.
If you’re looking for insight into bullet journaling, hop on Google or YouTube! There are literally thousands of them out there, but beware: many are a bit deceiving, touting life-altering effects and demonstrating uncannily beautiful hand lettering skills. You don’t have to make all the big changes at once, and you don’t need to be a gifted artist to figure out a better summer schedule by bullet journaling!
Still, here’s a quick snippet to get you started:
You are not alone. ♣︎
Do you have ideas to share? Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments section, and I’ll make sure to feature your thoughts and respond to them in my next post!
ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Outskirts Press. The Sales and Marketing departments are composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
Being a bibliophile doesn’t necessarily mean you should also exhibit traits of a hoarder. We’ve all been there, we found a book in a free bin outside the library, or picked up a book for a penny at a thrift store. Free, or nearly free, is always too good to pass up. However, if that same book has been sitting on your shelf for years now and you still haven’t touched it, or don’t intend to, it might be time to part ways with it, donating it to another free bin or free library.
Thinning bookshelves isn’t an easy task. We always convince ourselves that we’re going to read that book eventually, just not now. Or that that book we read that was absolute garbage is for some reason worth holding onto. A book on the shelf becoming a sort of notch on the belt, exemplifying your ultimate reading prowess.
The best way to begin the process of thinning one’s bookshelves is to first come up with an organization strategy. Pull all the books off your shelf and organize by category and then alphabetically within that category. Or pick a different organization method that best suits you! As you do this, come to terms with books that you need to part ways with. That DIY crochet book that you bought ten years ago with the intention to learn the art of yarn braiding should probably get put in this pile, because we all know you never even bought a spool of yarn. If you’re the kind of person who just adores reading romance novels, you probably don’t need to keep all one hundred and fifty separate books with basically the same plot lines that you plowed through in a day due to the excitement and ease with which they read.
What you’re looking for when you’re thinning the shelves is what books actually inspire you to be a better writer. By all means, if you’re trying to write DIY books or romance novels, the above paragraph certainly does not apply to you. However, if you’re a fiction writer or a children’s book author, stick to a bookshelf full of authors you draw inspiration from. As fun as smut can be, we all know a truly beautiful or classic book when we see it. I love being able to walk over to my bookshelf and pick up a copy of Emerson’s Essential Writings and see what I underlined or highlighted from it when I was in college. When I go home to my parent’s house though, and am confronted with the books I store there, I am always amazed to find the strange books I hold onto–from a distance of course–that mean almost nothing to me. If you’re not lucky like me and have parents who you can outsource your hoarding to, put those books in a “bring to my parents house for ‘storage’ box”…wink wink. If that box just so happens to make it to a thrift store or other type of donation center…so be it!
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com
So, you’re an author. Writing is your business, right?
Well … hopefully. The problem with being an author, particularly a self-published author, is that the real work is a solitary activity, taking place at home or in another not-a-standard-office-environment workplace, and is oh-so-easily interrupted by the ordinary vagaries of daily life. Anyone who works from home can attest that it’s difficult to keep home life and work life separate!
So how can an author make writing a business, with all of the peculiar challenges authors face?
Draw up a business plan.
Whoa, whoa, a business plan?! Isn’t that for people who are, like, starting a bakery or a coffee shop or maybe a lumber yard? Yes. But it’s also for you, the indie author. You have to prioritize making a business plan if you want to make a profit off of your writing. There are plenty of small-business handbooks available through your local public library, so I won’t go into great detail for you here, other than to say you don’t need to be afraid of the spreadsheets … you just have to be willing to bow before the truths they present to you. If the spreadsheets and the business plan requires you to sacrifice certain luxuries in order to make a good go at becoming a profitable self-publishing author, that’s what you’ll need to do. In most cases, however, a business plan will simply help you figure out which services you ought to pay for, and which ones you ought to train yourself to manage. Like bookkeeping, or website design. It will help you organize your author-related budget and separate it from your personal, regular budget, articulate your needs and your vision, and filter out distractions. I promise, this is the best possible thing you can do, whether you’re just starting out or midway through your career!
Figure out your brand.
What do you want to be known for, as an author? Are you going to be recognized for some sort of narrative through-line to your works, a passion for author advocacy, for your engagement with your audience, or something else entirely? (Hint: you can be all of things, and more.) Your “brand” is as much a product of your personality and your priorities as it is the actual physical product you publish on the page.
You can probably name a couple of brands off of the top of your head. Starbucks, Wal*Mart, Toyota … and when you think of these brands, what do you think of? Their visual presence, like their logo and their website or smartphone app? Or perhaps the little jingle that plays during their commercials? Now, what about authors? Which ones spring to mind as having distinctive presences out in the world? Terry Tempest Williams? Ann Rice? Stephen King? Figure out what draws you in, and what you can feasibly do as a creator in order to tap into the same strengths.
Find your market.
Have you spent much time thinking about your ideal reader? This isn’t a simple thought exercise, it’s an important part of delivering your business plan into the world without undue complications. Spend a few hours researching and drawing out characteristics and qualities you think of when you contemplate who will or ought to be drawn to your work, and then brainstorm ways to reach them which you can manage in a regulated, sustainable, and protected way.
Protected? Yeah. As with all other new things, it can be hard to build new muscles and tap into new markets, because such things rely on habitual, scheduled curation. Statistically speaking, readers are far more likely to subscribe to your social media accounts, blog, and email newsletters if they know they’ll get updates regularly—even on the same day each week. You absolutely must protect such habits from the encroachment of daily distractions! Otherwise, they’ll go the way of all other resolutions. And if you want to treat your work as an author like a business, that’s just not going to help much.
If you’re feeling frustrated with your attempts to put together a business plan for your writing, get in touch! We’d love to hear your stories and help you face the challenges ahead with the best possible resources at hand. We’re here for you.
You are not alone. ♣︎
ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
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