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After wrestling with letting go of self-censorship in 2014, I am ready to embrace the ups and downs of the creative process in 2015. As Dean Wesley Smith says, “Dare to be bad,” and something good will come out of it!
Essentially, the model is: trust emergence and continue to feed the muse in order to write (which for me involves travel and research), turn those ideas into books, turn that one book into multiple products, distribute globally and reach readers through marketing, and then repeat.
Oh yes, and have a great life along the way!
That's important, as if you're not loving this, then you're better off getting a ‘real' job. No one said this was easy after all, and there are much easier ways of making a living. But if you love it, there's no better life!
I find all the aspects of being indie fun, so my focus now is more on creativity and the craft of writing to make the books better, and speeding up the various parts of the process, while still enjoying the journey. Here's how that translates into my goals for 2015.
This is what it's all about! I measure my life by what I create now and although this is a list of ‘production,' my focus this year will be on deepening creative practice as well. That's just not so measurable, and goals generally need to be measurable 🙂
- 6 books out in 2015. A combination of novels, novellas and non-fiction, all in ebook, print and audiobook formats. Three more ARKANE books, Deviance in the London Psychic series plus a minor character spinoff and two books in a new supernatural series. This should turn into 18+ products once each book is turned into the various formats.
- Narrate my own non-fiction audiobooks and publish them on Audible. I'm also looking at doing royalty split deals with other non-fiction authors and getting into ACX as a narrator as well as an author. Like anyone, I used to hate my voice, but after 4 years of podcasting, I am pretty used to it now and I get so many emails from people who like to listen to it. Narration of other people's non-fiction books on a royalty split deal will add another income stream as well, so I will announce availability after I get my own 4 non-fiction books done first.
- Translations: While this is not a primary focus, I do have Portuguese underway for Pentecost as Brazil is likely to be the next emerging market for digital. I also have How to Market a Book coming in German, as well as Prophecy and Desecration in Spanish, so I'm certainly carrying on, but not expanding too much. I am only one person and it showed this year! I will be doing a review of the translation stuff with sales data in Feb/March once I have a bit more historical information.
- Foreign rights. I actually want to sell more rights rather than exploit them myself. The translation stuff takes a lot more effort than expected, so I won't be doing so much of that in 2015. I have various things bubbling around foreign rights sales, and expect to get into this more in 2015.
Filling the creative well, education and creative habits
- Learn how to edit audiobooks for Audible/ACX quality in order to produce my own non-fiction audiobooks. See the interview with Simon Whistler for help on this and his great book, Audiobooks for Indies
- Go to the Robert McKee Genre & TV writing days in London, Fall 2015 for more story focus. I learned so much from McKee's STORY conference that I am keen to build on that.
- Continue to do courses by Dean Wesley Smith & Kris Rusch to improve my craft and writing business – you can find out more on them here.
- Travel more for research and fun! Traveling feeds my muse and gives me story ideas for my fiction, so I need more of it in 2015 …
I also feel that I need to change up my creative routines and habits:
- No apps or email before lunchtime. I've had over a year of not using email on my phone – but I have ended up checking other things e.g. Guardian app for news, Twitter, RSS feeds and other things. I sometimes check it in the morning when I am still in bed as I use my phone as an alarm. It's hard to resist “just checking a few things”! I have bought an old-fashioned alarm clock – shock horror, it only tells the time and has an alarm function with one ring tone! The mornings are for creativity, writing first draft stuff, walking with my husband and I'm also starting with Headspace for (once again) attempting to incorporate meditation in my life.
Community
- Continue to blog and podcast at The Creative Penn for another year, as well as continuing to share useful information on Twitter @thecreativepenn. My aim is to provide graduate level education and inspiration for the indie author community. I'm not going anywhere so I hope you'll stick around for another year 🙂
- I'm also intending to do more Q&A videos, so check out my YouTube channel here if you like vids.
- I'll continue to try and answer all my email, but I won't be answering basic questions like “how do I self-publish” and “how can I sell more books,” as I have all the free resources here to help people. If you have a more nuanced question, feel free to contact me!
- Be an active member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, co-hosting the monthly Q&A show with Orna Ross and contributing to the discussion, promoting quality in the indie community.
- Be an active member of International Thriller Writers, writing for the Big Thrill and organizing UK events
Income
I was intending to withdraw my courses in 2015 anyway, but the EU VAT law change for digital products pushed me to do this by Dec 31 2014, so that income stream is now over. I need to replace it, as that has been a significant portion since I left the day job. I'm not writing off doing online education again, but it's not a priority.
- Ramp up diversified income streams for my books. I'm already publishing direct on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks and NOOKPress. I am just returning to publishing through Smashwords for subscription and other minor sites. I'm finally going to get into Google Play in early 2015. Financially, I want to have my first 5 figure month in 2015. That's a stretch goal but I am putting it out there 🙂
- Move into audiobook narration for my own non-fiction as well as other people's books. The royalty split options in ACX mean this is potentially a good ongoing income stream and I believe in audio as a growth market. This will be a new income stream, albeit a slow growing one.
- Continue to speak internationally for travel and income reasons. I've already been booked for PubSense in Charleston, South Carolina in March, as well as the Shetland Islands and Orkney, which must count as travel! You can find my speaking page here if you want to see me live or book me for an event.
OK, your turn! What are your creative goals for 2015? Please add a comment below and join the conversation. Let's keep each other accountable.
Top image: Flickr Creative Commons Missing rainbows by Silke Gerstenkorn, alarm clock by dull hunk, notebooks by seeminglee, piggy bank by images money
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1 2 3 … 5 Next »My biggest creative goal is releasing my debut novel (currently at my editor), including the final prep stuff leading up to it.
Others include:
- finishing the novel I started for NaNo 2014
-deciding on my second release novel and doing the revision (and preferably releasing it before the end of the year)
- write at least one new first draft novel for NaNo 2015
- write the second part of a gift story
- release at least 40 episodes of my podcast and an intro video for my YouTube channel
- more website enhancements and tweaks
- do a series of blog posts on Scrivener for Windows
- start doing monthly newsletters to my subscribers
Hopefully a very productive year :-)
Sounds great - all the best Anma!
Wow. Super inspiring to hear of all your goals!! 2015 will be a big year for you. Its great to see you focus on your writing much more in the past year and continue this. Best of luck for 2015!!
I will be finishing and publishing my second fantasy fiction novel this year. I'll also be finishing my (non writing related) degree (at last..). I decided I'll most likely take time out and not pursue that career, instead keeping my part time job to pay the bills. Then I can focus on writing even more!!
Im not sure what to focus on - more novels, or shorter works, or perhaps even some nonfiction... but I'm hoping that will become clearer in the coming months. Do you have any tips for deciding which projects to focus on? Im very conscious that this is pretty much my one chance to pursue writing as my career/business/love in the near future... so I don't want to screw up!
2015 should, in any case, be a creative year all round. Yay! :) have a good one!
Meg
Hi Meg, I think keeping the day job is a super idea, especially if you don't hate it as I did!
In terms of deciding on projects, I am as bad as anyone - I have SO many ideas right now - but once I settle on one, I make sure to finish that. The deciding is difficult though and I do have a number of outline documents I have started to keep the little things that pop into my head for other stories, while I focus on one.
I have at least 6 books to get out this year. One children's (artist just completed, yippie) three more romances, two mysteries.
I have only 39 months before retiring from full time job, and I promised myself I would only pull up my retirement page that shows status every three months instead of monthly! Lol
Finish non-fiction book on what I've learned through this writing career.
Maybe teach a couple of online writing classes.
Happy New Year! 2015 will be a great year.
Great to hear you're so upbeat TD - retirement no longer exists IMHO, it's just a chance to shift focus and do something new! All the best for 2015
Great post. My goals are, (a) polish my first novel when I get the report back from its manuscript assessment, (b) begin to send it out to agents, and (c) continue with the first draft of my second novel. Business wise, I want to write a couple more plays for my business. Happy new year.
Writing plays sounds cool :) All the best with the novel as well.
To be honest, I'm a bit intimidated by your goals. They are awe-inspiring! They are inspiring me to up my ante and expect more of myself. My goal was to publish another book - now I think I'll resolve to publish a novel and a book of short vignettes. I'd also like to learn how to get my first Indie book (published a little over a year ago) on Audiobook. I have a good friend who is paraplegic and can only 'read' books by Audio. He (and you) are inspiring me to learn how to do it. Thanks. I'll enjoy reading about your progress throughout the new year.
We all have different goals and lives so no need to be intimidated :)
On audio - check this out http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/05/01/audiobooks-acx-marketing/
You can partner with a narrator right now if you like in the US or UK.
My main goals are: to finish the three series of ebooks I have been working on. Continue with another than I started. To write, and hopefully get accepted for publication, at least 5 short stories. Write and get accepted a My Weekly Pocket Novel. Financially, to earn the same or a bit more than I spend this year. Worked at a loss the last few years.
I think a loss is acceptable if writing is a hobby, as you expect to put more money in when you're doing it for fun. If you're aiming to make a business from writing, then after year 3, it might be time to focus on lowering expenses and raising income. For me, the tipping point came with 3 books in a series, so hopefully your series will help you over the hump. All the best Julie!
That VAT change has us all scrambling, doesn't it? I'm going to sit here this morning and puzzle out new pricing.
I plan to release a novella and two novels this year. I also plan to read a lot more. Goodreads has the yearly reading challenge, and I just love making that number go higher.
I love logging books on Goodreads as well :) Satisfies the inner librarian!
Good luck on all your goals, congrats on everything you've accomplished so far and thank you for all the inspiration.
Thanks for your continued support, Gary! All the best for 2015!
"Oh yes, and have a great life along the way!" is crucial to me. Couldn't and wouldn't do it if I didn't love it.
I think this is critical for indies to hold onto - the current trend seems to be all out production with less time for living. I could write faster if I didn't do so much research, but the research (and related travel) is part of it for me, and makes life fun! We always need to remember to live first :)
Good luck with your creative writing and entrepreneurship goals. This is already one of the best blogs for writing and marketing tips!
Thanks Ben!