Down Under the turn of the numbers to a New Year is clouded
by the fact that we are all on our Summer holidays and we don’t want to think
about work... let alone make goals for the year. However Back To School sales
in stationery stores get the writer brain ticking. How can I justify getting
that shiny new journal? 2018 Goals... that’s how!
So now you have the shiny journal, the cool pen and you’ve
eaten all your Christmas chocolate. Time to make some goals. Jo Eberhardt over at Writer Unboxed has a great article on making SMART goals. This is the advice
you need for making goals that are achievable. A must read.
My Twitter feed has been filling up with crystal ball gazing
for the coming publishing year. Along with pleas for submissions to stop as
Agents and Editors get the NaNoWriMo onslaught of manuscripts that January
always brings.
To start planning for 2018 it is wise to look back at 2017
and see what worked and make plans for more of the same. Kris Rusch has a great wrap up article on what the big five publishers did last year and how this will impact publishing going forward. This is well worth a read
and a think about especially if you are or have been Traditionally published.
Mark Coker has compiled his list of what he thinks will
happen in 2018... more of 2017. However he does make a few points that seem to
be echoed everywhere. Audio still hasn’t hit its limit.... It is the fastest
growing format and now there are some real competitors in this market. Audible,
who did a lot to grow the market by hooking listeners into hearing free audio
books, may need to change their T.O.S to remain top of the heap. (If you think
that last sentence sounded familiar think Kindle and free eBooks and that
Amazon owns Audible.) Mark has plenty of other nuggets to get you thinking.I’ve finally checked out his new podcast- Smart Author- and its chock full of
great information.
Written Word Media have written a very full article on what they see coming in 2018 and how writers should be positioning themselves to
take advantage of it.
Orna Ross from the Alliance of Independent Authors has been
crystal ball gazing as well. Orna has turned her focus on how technically savvy authors are going to have to be to take advantage of new technologies and trends if they want a career that sustains them in the long haul.
These are the best of the roundups that I have seen in the
last two weeks so grab a cool drink and think about new things to learn or new
goals to make.
Joanna Penn has a great blog on productivity tips that can
give you a few new tools to try in 2018. These are all common sense goals but
maybe they can help you stop procrastinating and get those words down.
Anne R Allen has started the new year with a great post on 8 things more important than writing talent. This started a great conversation in
her blog comments. It is not enough to want to be a writer... you have to do
the work!
In The Craft Section,
4 reasons readers stop caring about your story- Janice Hardy
Best free resources roundup for writing-Angela Ackerman and
Becca Puglisi- Bookmark
100 best websites for writers- Writelife
How to present literary themes in book series- Sara
Letourneau- Bookmark
Secrets of good storytelling- K M Weiland- Bookmark
In The Marketing Section,
Publishing wide and how to do it from your website- Joanna
Penn
Selling truckloads of books - Penny Sansevieri-Bookmark
The best book marketing advice from 2017- Jane Friedman
Embedding social media in your posts- The Book Designer-
Bookmark
Street teams and how to use them- Draft2Digital-Bookmark
Shameless Book Promotion- Writelife
To Finish,
Setting goals can sometimes create stress. There is the
immediate self doubt stress... along with the-big-obstacle-course-that- life-likes-to-throw-at-you-when-you-thought-it-was-going-to-be-a-smooth-path
stress.
As you start into the New Year you need some inspiration along with all the goal setting. Orna Ross talks about creativity with Joanna
Penn. Are you filling yourself up on creative projects that don’t feel like
work?
Here’s to a fabulous start to the writing year...
Maureen
@craicer
In my monthly newsletter, coming soon, I round up the best of the
bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces.
When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing
notes. If you want to shout me a coffee just hit the hit the coffee button.
Thanks.
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