Making Plans

I wanted to get to this sooner, but I didn’t want it to get buried under the mass of New Year’s Resolution, Anti-New Year’s Resolution, “Boy I am *Never* going to do that again” posts.

I figured, “Well, maybe wait a week…”

One week became two and I, somehow, managed to forget that there are only 4 weeks in the average month. So here I am, mid-January, and here’s what’s on my mind at the beginning of the year:

I need to make some plans for 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok…that probably won’t end well, but I’ll file it away for later–just in case.

Meanwhile…

I need a plan for what I’m going to be writing in 2016.

Now I’ve got a couple of irons in the fire here. I’m closing in on the last possible date to hear whether one of my short stories got accepted into an anthology. If that happens, I’ll have to work with my assigned editor to polish the story even further. There’ll be a little more back and forth as we make the story as awesome as it can possibly be.

I’ve also got a full manuscript that is being considered for representation (How cool is that!) and I should be hearing from them soon. If they make me an offer…well there are a bunch of things that I’ll need to do other than writing, so I’ll just stick to the writing part here.

If they make me an offer, there may (read: “Will probably”) be an editing pass before the story goes out to publishing houses.  After that (More fingers crossed), the book will sell and there will be additional editing passes, line edits, final proofs, etc.  All that is going to take up some time.

Finally, I’m working on a short story for another anthology.  I was invited into this one, so there’s an element of “Carved in Stone” involved (as much as things can get carved in stone in the publishing industry). This means that I’m operating under a deadline. Before that deadline, I need to have that story done and as polished as I can make it, so I’m looking at (at least) a couple of revision passes, etc.

If everything turns out just how I’m hoping, I’m going to be really busy in the first part (Let’s say half of) 2016.

Now, that sounds like it’s going to take care of itself, but I’ll need to figure out priorities based on who-needs-what-by-when.  Bottom line: The “What am I going to write?” question is pretty much taken care of.

Next, I need a plan for what happens if the bottom drops out of everything?

It’s a possibility.

So here’s my plan:

Get up. Keep writing.

Ok, that’s a pretty simplified plan, but that’s the bulk of it in a nutshell.

If I were to expand on that a little bit, it would be this:

Short Story

1. I really dig the short story I submitted to the anthology. If that doesn’t pan out, then I’ll probably put it up for sale myself. Then:
2. I’ll continue to flesh out the characters and see if there’s a novel in there. I think there is.  At least one.

Novel

1. Keep Submitting.
2. Write another.

So, you see, it really does come down to “Keep Writing!”

But that’s not all of the planning I’ve got to do.

For 2106, I need to put some kind of a business plan together because flying by the seat of my pants in this arena is only going to get me so far before…

 

 

 

 

Nobody wants that.

What do I need to do?

1. I need to figure out if I’m going to be going to any conventions this year.
   (Hint: Check the Events page)
2. I need to figure out how (or if) I can sell books when I’m there. Vendor tables cost $$$ AND they also need someone there to, you know, vend. That also means figuring out how to handle all of the truckloads of cash (or credit? Can I do that?) that I’ll be pulling in as I sell boxes, upon boxes of books. Ok, there may be a bit of exaggeration sprinkled in here, but you get the point.
3. In between conventions, where can I sell the stuff that I want to Author-publish? (Amazon? My website? Other?)
4. I’ll also need to figure out how to tell if anything that I’m doing this year is actually working. Am I doing enough on Social Media to get my name out there?  Am I doing too much? Is it worth it to order bookmarks, and business cards, and book plates and when is it too much? or too little?
5. Finally, I need to figure out where, in the same 24 hours that we all get, I’m going to find the time to do all this AND write AND do the day-job thing AND hang out with the family AND on and on and on…

Sacrifices will have to be made.

I may even have to do math.

Seriously.

So how am I going to go about doing all this?

 

 

 

Sorry, there’s no magic bullet here…but there kinda is.  You see, there a bunch of folks that are already doing this AND doing it successfully.  My plan here is:

1. Ask them how they’re doing it.
2. See if that will work for me and (most importantly)
3. DO IT

There are a ton of variations on #2, but the point is that something will work for me.  I’ve just got to find it.

One last thing I want to get done in 2016 is to update this blog on a regular basis.  Now I’m not taking about doing it daily. You gotta learn to walk before you can fly and all that, but I’m thinking once a week at least is a noble goal to shoot for.

That’s my plan for the blog. One update per week even if it’s just to say, “Hey, I’m still here.”

But I think I can do better than that.

 

Time: 12:13 pm
Music: Blind Guardian – And Then There Was Silence