The above graphic is very busy isn’t it? Well that’s the life an authorpreneur has to bear. Back in the day, the only requirement an author had was to write. Their publishers and/or agents would’ve taken care of everything else; all the marketing, promotion and publishing. But the paradigm has shifted.
In today’s publishing, an author is responsible for the marketing and promotion of themselves and their book(s). Hence the importance of the book proposal, business plan and using social media.
If you’re not selling yourself, who’s going to sell you?
A former college classmate told me a few days ago how he agreed with some writers that social media cuts into their writing. And I agree with that opinion too only if one does not know how to manage their time. Yes, publishing standards for authors aren’t the same as they were in the old days but that does not mean you have to stop writing. You can take writing breaks but you can’t stop writing. There must always be another book that you’re working on waiting in the wings.
So it’s important to have some writing goals. You can commit yourself to write a number of words a day. eg 500 words a day or 1,000 words and maybe even 3,000. If you’re in a good writing flow, it’s perfectly fine to go over your daily writing goal. However, if you’re like me, busy with work and children, you can squeeze in some writing before the children wake up by waking up earlier. Afterwards, you can continue your normal morning schedule of getting yourself and your children ready for work and school or daycare. You can have lunch at your desk and use your lunch hour as a one hour writing session. Then there is the time after the children’s been put to bed and all other nightly errands are out of the way to have a writing session before bed. You can do either one or all three (I do the last two as much as I can) as your daily writing goals. Or you can wait for the weekend to write if you’re not the type who views the weekend as some kind of chore fest and can actually get some writing done.
What are your daily and/or weekly writing goals? In the link below, author of Lionhead Kris Noel created a post on his author tumblr site about weekly writing goals.http://krisnoel.com/post/95306523004/your-weekly-writing-goals
PS. I mentioned the importance of marketing and promoting in the last few posts but forgot to mentioned something very important. You don’t want to fall into the trap of shamelessly plugging your book(s). The main ingredient in successful marketing and promoting is finding like minded individuals, individuals who’ll benefit from your advice/tips/concerns and forming rapports with them. At the end of the day, personal heart trumps shallow connections.
PSS. If you want to share the images above and below, or any other images designed by me, please credit this site.
PSSS? Here’s some extra links on managing your blog and social media updates and writing tips:
Ernest Hemingway 7 Tips On Writing Fiction
10 Blog Content Ideas For Authors…
How To Spend Less Time Coming Up With Blog Articles
Paving My Author's Road 