Do you need a business plan to succeed as a writer?

The New Year is a good time to look at how much writing you did last year and decide if it was adequate. It is a time to take stock and organize yourself and your writing. Are you happy with your writing? One way to do this is by writing a business plan. A good plan can help you set writing goals and meet your targets. It doesn’t have to be long, but it will help you stay focused on your writing.

Start with an Objective. My objective is to help writers self-publish their books in a professional manner by providing products and services. This is what I do. Keep it simple. You can change your objective any time you want. Just be aware that even a short-term objective can be useful to get organized. Your objective may be simply to finish your book. That’s perfectly fine.

The next thing that will help is to write out your Goals. These are smaller objectives. My goals are for writing and selling books. Last year I published the Third Edition of Self Publishing in Canada and this spring my goal is to publish Self Publishing in America. My list of goals include twelve books that I want to write and publish, as well as presenting more workshops. That is a lot to do and a plan helps me stay on track.

I have a section for Publicity, which helps me keep on track of how I promote my books. My list includes press releases, blog posts, promotional flyers, social media and book events. I took the time to research what I can do and what is not useful. For example, I have had a Facebook page for Self-Publishing in Canada for years, but with the new Meta I find it cumbersome. I am planning to set up a Group instead. Hopefully I will garner more followers.

A good plan for writers is not complete with a Distractions category. It can pretty illuminating. I have a tendency for my volunteering to take precedence over my writing. I needed to give up some organizations in order to capture time for my writing. What else distracts you? For some it is jobs, children, hobbies or your social life. Not that these aren’t important, but they need to be addressed if they are minimizing your writing time.

I try to be more specific about my Goals and Distractions. Instead of stating a goal to “write more” I put down “write two hours a day during the week.” Make sure your goals are realistic for your lifestyle and they will be more attainable. If they are not, then you will have trouble sticking to them. Look at your plan as a roadmap to provide you with a way to navigate your busy life and get more writing done.

Wishing all of you a Happy and Successful New Year!

Copyright (c) 2024 Suzanne Anderson