Planning to Publish
For some people, writing and publishing a book is solely a creative endeavor. Inspiration struck, a book resulted from that inspiration, and the author published that book without knowing if they’d ever do so again. For others, publishing is a job or serious side hustle. They want to publish a lot, they want to build a solid author platform, and they want to garner as many book sales as possible.
Both types are great, but if you’re looking to be the latter type of author, and you want to turn publishing into a money-making endeavor, you’ve got to include some planning in your authorial game.
We’ve talked before about how important a business plan is for authors, but now we’re looking at some questions you need to ask yourself if you’re interested in writing books for something other than a creative endeavor.
Where Are You Going?
The most important part of any plan is knowing your destination. Something murky like, “I want to make a living off of my writing,” is easy to say, but if you’re going to make a plan and work toward a goal, that goal must be clearly defined.
Where do you want your books to take you? Is your ultimate goal to write books that provide a steady stream of primary or secondary income? Do you only want to get your work out there? Or are you interested in using your books as a jumping off point for speaking ventures, including conference stages, radio, podcasts, or even television?
When you think about what authorial success looks like to you, try to define it as plainly as you can. When you create tangible goals like that, you’ll find it easier to create tangible steps toward your goal.
Who Are You Talking To?
Although each book might have a different target audience, you must first decide whom you are trying to reach. Are you going to be diving into the world of romance books, or are you going to be writing nonfiction self-help books? Where are your readers, what are they interested in, and where can you connect with them?
Building a steady author platform is key to driving book sales, especially for a self-published author. So make sure that you’re working to grow your community by creating an active, engaging online presence, getting feedback from readers, and attending conferences and events to network with fellow authors and potential readers.
Study and Map It Out
It might feel counterintuitive to write books based on trends and numbers, but if you’re wanting to create a steady income stream, you’d likely benefit by considering it.! If, for instance, you’ve decided to delve into the world of romance novels, you will want to find out what’s happening in the romance marketplace. But take into account your book production speed. If you can move quickly, you might look at what stories, settings, tropes, and trends are selling well now. If you tend to move more slowly, you might consider evergreen settings and tropes that always tend to do well.
You might also look at what direction the marketplace seems to be heading. Is a current romance sub-genre selling well enough that you can still hop on the trend, or would it benefit you to look ahead to see what trends are coming around the bend?
Once you’ve got your arms around where the marketplace is going, you can look at release dates. Try to find times when your genre does especially well, and plan your new releases off that schedule.
Of course, these are all really quick nudges to get you headed toward planning out your publishing journey. If you want to create any sort of long-standing publishing career in the world of self-publishing, it’s vital to make tangible goals and take clear steps that get you to those goals. We are always happy to help talk you through your publishing plans, but if you’re new to the publishing world, you might not know where to even start when it comes to making a business plan. That’s why we wrote, The Author’s Guide: Writing Your Business Plan: Learn How to Publish a Book and What You Need to Know Before Starting Your Writing Career.
This book will not only help you understand what you need in order to publish a book, but it will help you solidify your goals as a writer while making some clear steps to build the writing career you want. Our business plan book is available now, so don’t wait to pick up your copy today to get started on an amazing publishing journey!