A friend of mine who is a lawyer opened her own practice a few years ago. It took her a few years, some real effort, and some sacrifices, but it’s thriving now. She’s told me countless times that I’ve got to have a business plan if my writing goals are going to work out. Research backs her up — people who write down goals and the steps to achieve them are more likely to get where they want to go. Even if their goal plan is jotted on the back of a napkin.
I resisted that idea for a long time. I can’t know when I’ll take off as a writer, I said. I can’t know when my novels will hit it big. It could be years, or never, or tomorrow. How can I write a business plan around that?
My lawyer friend’s advice? Plan what you can. You can plan how many pages per day you can and will write. You can decide who you will contact to publish your work, how often, and when. If you’ll publish yourself, you can decide when and where; how you’ll advertise, if you have any budget, where you’ll get cover art, everything that you do have control over.
I dragged my feet still, but a few weeks ago, I did in fact sit down and think of my goals. My first book is up. It took longer than expected, but the next one should go more quickly. So when do I want that one up? It should be a few months at least after this one, and the next one should be at least a few months after that. I have about 100 more pages to write on the next one, about 50 or so on the one after that. How many pages do I tend to write a day? Honestly, less than one. That puts me at 150 days minimum before the rough drafts are finished. And editing and formatting will take longer. I’d like to get them out a wee bit quicker than that. So what can I do?
If I can push it and try to get at least one page per day, that gets me at least on my timeline, instead of prodding at it hopefully. If I can do better, even by a half a page a day, that cuts my time til next publication down quite a bit. Ideally, I’d like to have both books up before next fall, so that within a year I have 3 out for sale and can get going on a 4th.
Funny thing. When I decided that doing one page a day was the new minimum, I got really revved up and excited. I started cranking out 2 a day. I wasn’t able to sustain the momentum, but it did give me a nice head start. I have (mostly) been able to stay on top of 1 page a day since then, so I’m already a bit ahead of my goal.
And despite my biggest fears, I have sold a handful of books so far. Not enough to quit my job (yet!), but a handful. It can only get better from here!
At least, that’s the plan. 😉
