In November of 2018 I decided to take a break from blogging. I had so much going on at the time something had to give and that something ended up being blogging. Here we are in February—almost March—and I’m finally getting back to blogging. You might have noticed a few things have changed. Not having to worry about blogging every week allowed me to not only to have a new logo designed and redesign my website, but it also allowed me to really focus on writing and creating a publishing schedule and marketing plan for my books.
I recently sat down and wrote out a business plan to really lay out what I want and what I expect from my writing career. I laid out short term and long term goals. Doing this really helped me get things in order and gave me a new perspective on my writing career.
I had originally planned to release book one in my fantasy series this month. At least that was the plan in May of 2018. Due to several things that were out of my control, and the fact that the series I was working on at the time has been indefinitely shelved, I won’t be publishing this month. In fact, it will probably be closer to the end of the year or even next year before I release a book.
Believe me, no one is more disappointed in this than I am
In the mean time, I’m going to be writing like a mad woman and trying to get as many first drafts finished as possible. Ideally, I would like to have six full-length novels ready before I publish the first book. The reason being, I’m not a fast writer so doing it this way will allow me to rapidly release the first three books in the series and set up pre-orders for book four. Rapidly releasing books helps to boost visibility on certain platforms. Another benefit is that I will be at least three books ahead of what’s being released so I won’t have to rush a book in order to meet a deadline. As I will never put a book out that I’m not happy with, this allows me time to make sure I put out the best book possible. And, it also allows me to be able to have a coming soon page with release dates for the next books.
It means taking longer to publish the first book, but I want to give myself the best chance with my career. And I believe that doing things this way will do that. It will also allow me to layer in information as I go. As an organic writer I don’t plot, so often times there are things that happen in say book two that I want to be able to go back to book one and foreshadow. Or I will get to book four and realize that something I said in book two is screwing up the direction things are going. So it will allow me to have a more cohesive series overall.
Book one is finished and about a third of the way done with book two. I also have several scenes for book three written out and I have a general idea of what’s going to happen in that book. Not to mention copious amounts of notes for future books.
The other thing is, it will also allow us to get moved and have me be a little more settled before I jump into publishing full tilt.
This isn’t my first time so I know how much work goes into publishing behind the scenes. A lot of authors hire out cover art, editing, and formatting. I do everything myself except for editing. I started learning to do cover art around 2010 and a few years later got into formatting. I don’t recommend new authors do their own formatting or cover art unless they’ve spent at least a year practicing on a daily basis. It took me almost two years of learning photoshop before my stuff was even close to ready for viewing. I’m one of those people who is super critical of my own work and I’m willing to work hard to acquire the skills I need. Even if I plan to hire someone else to do a job I still think it’s important to have a good understanding of what goes into building a cover, designing an interior, designing a website, etc. It ensures you’re getting what you pay for, as well as keeps you from having unrealistic expectations. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a client come back to me after the job is finished and say, “I want just this one little change. It shouldn’t take but a few minutes.” That “little change” then ends up taking me four hours and costing them more money than they want to spend. Why? Because it might seem like a simple thing to them, but in reality it’s not.
Because I do everything myself, I really need a enough time to write the book, edit the book, design the cover, design the promotional materials, put together the media kit, set up marketing, format the book, upload to the retailers, promote the book, etc, etc, etc. And since I don’t like to rush, as it usually ends up with me making avoidable mistakes, having multiple books ready allows me the time I need in order to keep from getting overwhelmed or burnt out. It also makes it easier to transition into hiring out certain aspects in the future if I chose to do so. Most cover artists and editors are booked out months—sometimes years—in advance. So that is something else I have to take into consideration. I would rather delay my initial release to set up a sustainable business model rather than have to possibly take a break somewhere down the road to wait on someone else’s editing or design schedule.
But as I said, doing things this way means I’m focusing on writing, writing, writing. The more books I can get finished this year, the better.