OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
I'm a goal-setting junkie and I love considering the year ahead! Look at the open road stretching before us … all those blank pages waiting to be filled … super exciting!
What we also know is that the self-publishing industry will continue to change.
We will have new opportunities in 2016, new markets will emerge and older ones will shift and doors will close. Very little will stay exactly the same.
That's exciting to me as indie authors are able to be nimble and jump on opportunities as they arise. We can adapt as the year moves on.
So do not fear, my creative friends, we shall tackle 2016 together 🙂 As I head into year 8 of this site, I can certainly say that I'm in it for the long haul!
But as ever, I like to have some goals for the year. I just reviewed my 2015 achievements, so now it's time to set them for 2016.
(1) Become a healthy author
I'm a workaholic because I love what I do. It's my passion as well as my job, my income as well as my hobby.
If I won the mega-lottery, I would still write.
I love JK Rowling for her example as a writer, because after the success of Harry Potter, she could have just hung out in her castle eating chocolate for the rest of her days … but she started writing mysteries as Robert Galbraith and I love her Cormoran Strike series.
But I'll admit to focusing on writing books and building a business over my health for the last few years, and if I'm going to be an author for the long term (which I am), then I need to make my physical body a priority this year, instead of just my brain. After all, they are actually connected 🙂
- Since I'm a goal-based person, I decided to set myself a specific task. So my goal is to complete the Race to the Stones in July 2016, which is 100km over 2 days. I'll be walking it, rather than running it, but it's still an ultra-marathon! It's booked, so that IS happening …
- In order to achieve that goal, I need to get fitter so I have a walking training program and I've seen a dietitian. It's way too easy for the coffee to become lattes, and then to add a biscuit to that … every hour! After all, I deserve it as I'm working really hard at writing! Like many of you I'm sure, I've tried a ton of different diets but over the last few weeks, I've discovered that the 5:2 diet works best for me. It's easier (for me) not to eat at all than try moderation, plus there are a ton of other benefits to intermittent fasting, so it's less a diet than a lifestyle change. If you're interested, check out The Fast Diet by Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer.
- I have a walking training plan that increases hours walking over the next six months. We've started already and I'm wearing in the new shoes … I've already transitioned to a vari-desk that goes up and down and I'm aiming to use that when I'm in the office. I also use a swiss ball instead of a chair and that got rid of my back pain, but I do need to use it to stretch more.
I will (finally) master dictation so I can lessen my RSI pain (in my right arm) which continues to flare up. Thanks for everyone's suggestions on this but I need something more fundamental. My aim is to be able to dictate as I hike, in the same way that Kevin J Anderson does. Imagine being a super fit author! That's what I want to be. I interviewed Monica Leonelle about dictation last November which got me restarted on the process, and I am finding The Productive Author's Guide to Dictation by Cindy Grigg really good for the next steps. I've failed at this several times before so I am now making it an official goal so you guys keep me accountable.
(2) Create more, become a better writer and give J.F.Penn more time
As much as I'd love to say I have a detailed production plan for 2016, I can only see about six months ahead right now. I'm also mostly a pantser and am inspired by my environment so much.
So I have lots of ideas … the question is which ones will emerge! My creation plans for this year are nebulous but at this point, I want to release 6 books and that will include:
- ARKANE #8 – Destroyer of Worlds (full-length novel) Has a pre-order of 31 March 2016 so is definitely the first to come
- Non-fiction – Psychology of writing book which has been percolating for so long
- ARKANE #9 – I have a ton of ideas for this but nothing concrete as yet
- Edinburgh book – to be titled and may end up as a trilogy, I have an idea for the character and it might be a spin off from ARKANE or stand-alone
- Plus, I'll write an adaptation of One Day in Budapest as a screenplay. I'm booked on a course for this for February. With the political situation in Eastern Europe heading far right, it's a good time for this book.
My main focus will be to switch the majority of my effort from non-fiction into fiction. Apart from the psychology book, I've shared everything I know in my books for authors now and I really want to give my dark side, J.F.Penn, some more room to expand.
To enable this, I am blocking out 3 days a week and won't have meetings/interviews etc on those days. They will be pristine fiction days 🙂 The other days will have the morning allocated to writing as usual, but too often, that has been squeezed in 2015 so I need to schedule complete days in my diary.
This will also mean more focus on developing my writing craft.
I want to become a better writer – which of course, is hard to measure 🙂 So I'll continue to read, write and take online classes, plus attend some craft conferences. I have so much to learn and it's both a challenge and a joy to do so. After all, as writers, we can keep learning until the day we die 🙂
Plus, I want to explore sales of foreign rights and not self-publish any more in translation, so I'll be joining in the Alliance of Independent Authors campaign Going Global and will share more of what happens there in the coming months.
(3) Travel more and speak internationally
Traveling is critical for my creative process. I like routine in order to write but I get my ideas from places and culture and weird things I see or experience. It's great to combine speaking with travel as it covers some of the costs 🙂
- I'll be at the Smarter Artist Summit in Austin, Texas in March (run by Johnny, Sean & Dave – the Self Publishing Podcast guys) and I'm combining that with a research trip to New Orleans, where I have been meaning to go for a very long time … expect some occult writing from that!
- I'm also speaking at the Digital Commerce Summit, Oct 13-14 2016 in Denver, Colorado so there will likely be some travel around that. We're also looking at Japan, Jordan and other options …
There will definitely be travel, that's for sure 🙂
(4) Provide a ‘career path' for authors on The Creative Penn
It's tough being an indie author. You have to learn so many new skills around writing, publishing, marketing and running a small business if you want to do this full-time.
This site now has over seven years worth of articles, videos and audio podcast episodes on all aspects of being an author of fiction and non-fiction and everything that entails, but it's still difficult to navigate. Most of the content is still free but I have books and premium courses as well.
I've tried to organize the site into the major chunks but I want to re-structure it in 2016 to be more career path focused, to help you navigate the process wherever you are in the journey.
So in 2016, I intend to:
- Redesign TheCreativePenn.com to make it easier to navigate for free content as well as books and courses
- Continue with The Creative Penn podcast weekly. Click here for the backlist of over 240 episodes.
- Write articles and make videos to fill the gaps in the ‘career path' and create more effective landing pages for sub-topics
- Potentially add some more courses. I have Self-Publishing Success for those who want to start self-publishing and Creative Freedom for those who want to make a living with their writing, but I might also do a couple on writing fiction and non-fiction.
Income goal
I'm ambitious – always have been 🙂 and I happily continue to combine art and commerce on this site. I want to prove that you can be a creative and an entrepreneur, and that you don't need a “proper job” to make a good living and a happy life in 2016!
Money is a measure of that ambition as it's more easily counted than sales figures, number of reviews or happy customer emails – much as I enjoy all those. Thank you all for buying my books and products, and for your lovely emails and tweets 🙂
If I don't write goals down, I don't even come close to achieving them. So I'm writing this down: my goal is to double my income in 2016. In order to do this, I will focus on a couple of big areas:
- Create more products – mainly books in various formats, foreign rights sales and other rights exploitation, plus expanding distribution to more retailers and countries
- Build my email list for both The Creative Penn and J.F.Penn as the size of the audience directly impacts income
- Use paid advertising to drive traffic to both products and email list signup. I heavily rely on content marketing right now, but I need to push my comfort zone a little 🙂
When it comes down to it, these are the most important aspects of businesses in general: create products people want, distribute, sell and market them. It's simple … but as we all know, it's not easy. Let's just keep taking a step every day and we'll get there.
OK, now it's your turn!
What are your creative, writing and entrepreneurial goals for 2016? Please leave them below and you'll be able to revisit them in December!
Thanks for another year of sharing your experiences and learning with us, Joanna. My goal is to put my creative production at the top – and that includes giving myself time to ‘invite’ inspiration in (I recently read Big Magic… you know what I mean!).
Income wise, I’m only in year two, but my pie-in-the-sky goal is to be full time by the end of the year. Because that’s only partially under my control, if I can halve my day-job hours I’ll consider that a goal well achieved 🙂
Part of that has been looking at streams of income, and I’m going to give my visual art practice a push this year as well in painting and illustration.
Thank you again, your advice and openness. It is very much appreciated and I wouldn’t be half as confident without your help xx
Sounds great Zee – it took me 3.5 years of working on the business part-time before I made the jump to full-time and even then it was a couple more years before the money settled into something sustainable. Cutting your day job hours in half sounds super achievable though – all the best!
Hey, Joanna, loved the post. For the first time in ages I have set some writing goals.
1. Write a minimum of 667 words a day. That’s Approx 20,010 words for 30 days.
2. Have at least 4 short stories published in online magazines.
3. Finish writing my first novel, a minimum of 60,000 words.
Its going to be a busy year.
Joanna please keep these great articles coming.
Great goals – although I’d go for a weekly word count goal rather than daily as life sometimes gets in the way 🙂
I love your goals and the open way you always share your journey with us. Setting goals means you’re definitely more likely to achieve them, even though I just wrote a post on how I’ve changed how I do them!
I just sent yet another developing author to your site to find help navigating the “getting started as an indie” jungle. I’m so relieved to have your terrific suite of resources available to point people to.
Wanted to thank you for your clear message of diversification to all available retailers and revenue streams. After an arduous process of updating, I now have all 17 of my books out on all platforms. Hoping 2016 is an amazing year for all of us.
Much aloha
Toby Neal
Thanks Toby 🙂 I appreciate you sending people over here – and with 17 books, diversification of platforms should bring you very nice extra streams of income 🙂 I think 2016 will be when collectively the other platforms start out-earning Amazon for many authors not in KU. Happy 2016!
This year will be the year that I finish my first fiction novel (1st in the series) and my first non-fiction book. Too many years have went by with me only thinking about doing it. It’s time to do it!
Additionally, I have been building up my non-fiction platform for the last two years without offering anything for my readers to buy. My entrepreneurial goal this year would be to write a book that funnels into a course that I have sketched out.
Thanks for the motivation… Best wishes in this new year.
Sounds like some great goals 🙂
I’m going to blog my own goals as a writer/entrepreneur for the year, completely and totally inspired by this, but if you want to fast track that non-fiction psychology of writing book, none of us would complain. Just sayin. 🙂
It’s a tough one Avery – it’s a mess at the moment as there’s so much I want to say – but yes, I aim to get it out in the first half of 2016 🙂 It’s been on my list for ages …
Thanks for sharing your 2016 goals. It’s an inspiring list and shows that no matter how far you’ve come, you have to continue pushing and pushing. Non-writers don’t get that 🙂
Best of luck achieving everything on your list.
That’s why I love this as a career – it’s all a journey and there’s always more to do and learn and experience and create!
Wish you a happy new year. I always read your information!
What a great list! I’m so excited for this new year as I’ve just finished my first novel (after years as a playwright) my goal this year is to live BIGGER and more courageously.
Not letting the fear hinder the action.
I’m a bit muddled and befuddled with my goals, to be honest! They’re not very clear at the moment because I think I’ve too much that I want to do, but I don’t know if that’s me setting limits on myself either. I am 15,000 words into a new novel, and I also have an idea for a Christmas novella and I want to get more traction on my blog which is a book review blog. I have one book out that’s just sitting there gathering dust, so I want to get promoting that, which I know is more likely to come after book 2. have four kids and so I only work at night-time, so I think I just need to figure out time-management, and also get delving into the 240 articles you described above! Thanks so much for the inspiring post!
Try making two very clear goals that are measurable e.g. I will finish 70,000 words of my first draft by 30 June 2016, and then work on editing and completing the novel by 31 Dec 2016. If you have one book out, it will be great to get another out before you focus on promoting the first since readers always want more 🙂 A book review blog is great – but is a time suck, so you have to be really passionate about that. As a blogger, I know I am more proud of my books, so that has to be first priority (in my opinion!) Just my thoughts anyway!
Hi Joanna
Good luck with your dictation! I had frozen shoulders for a couple of years and had to learn to dictate both for work and my writing. I found Dragon Naturally Speaking pretty good – at least 90% accurate, but there are always those annoying things to correct afterwards. I tried a few other products, but none seemed quite as good. But that was in 2012 – there may be other good options now…
Take care of your arms/wrists/shoulders and good luck with your fitness goals. You are right, it is so important to look after your health and body as part of the journey to being an effective creative. The last thing you want is pain and illness getting in the way.
Good luck with achieving all your goals – I have set a short list for myself for this year too… Here’s to 2016!
Hi Joanna! I only discovered you this year when I started walking again and subscribed to a dozen random writing podcasts. I immediately found yours to be engaging, informative, and entertaining, so I try not to miss an episode. (It helps with my walking, because I only allow myself to listen to The Creative Penn or Johnny, Sean and Dave’s Self-Publishing Podcast when I’m exercising!)
My goals for 2016 are pretty exciting. I’m going to finish rewrites on and publish my second novel in the first quarter of the year and my third novel between the second and third quarters; start my fourth novel in the third quarter, and hopefully have it finished and published by the fourth quarter. I will also take on more freelance projects to double my freelance income by this time next year, which will help me fund my novel-writing time.
My word count goal per week (instead of per day – what a great suggestion!) is still a bit fuzzy, because it will be different for editing than for my first draft. I think I’ll be able to pin that down after I start editing and figure out how long that process is going to take. I’m aiming for 7,500 original words per week to start, and I’ll go from there to probably 15,000 per week once I start working on the new novel later in the year.
Thank you for all that you do for creatives, Joanna! I’m exciting to see how your advice can help me shape 2016 into my best writing year yet.
Ooh! I’m excited to read your psychology of writing book. Can’t wait!
I’m glad you called these goals. I like thinking in terms of goals rather than resolutions. When I think resolution, it’s all or nothing, either I did it or I didn’t. When I think of a goal, I give myself permission to see how close I got to my goal and be proud of that.
My goal for 2016 is to get my first novel published (it’s being edited and I’m learning SO much during the process.) And also publish a short story in the same world.
Thanks so much for all the good information you share with all of us. It is so appreciated! Happy New Year!
My 2016 goals are not yet specific enough, but they revolve around being more “scrappy” (you might recognize that concept from byregina.tv!), which for me means being more willing to try, experiment, risk and possibly fail. Another big goal is to publish more, which means books but also working on my website which is currently a 3-page affair.
All this is going to have to happen alongside an international move (from the US to the UK) and a consequent massive downsizing, not to mention a re-commitment to my caregiver roles (disabled adult child and parents moving into the “need support” phase of life). So 2016 is shaping up to be a key year for me, one in which I need to step up and do some very hard work.
So thanks for the opportunity to set those goals out publicly. It definitely helps to have that sense of accountability. And by the way, now I’ve seen the Cotswold Way I want to walk it…I’m a big walker here, but am in a bit of a route rut. I want to join a hiking society of some sort and explore England on foot.
YES! YES!
As much as I LOVE your non-fiction self, I want more of your JF Penn stories!
A new series would be superb, along all those other goals.
When I heard your podcast with Liliana Hart on going big, I was thinking all along “come on Joanna, be as BIG as I know you can BE with your fiction!”
I am looking forward to your BIG life as a BIG author in 2016 and beyond!
l.
Hi Lidys, You are lovely – thank you so much for those encouraging words.
It is so much easier to help people with non-fiction than it is to write fiction 🙂 but this year I’m trying to shift the balance a little.
Back soon with Destroyer of Worlds!
I have been working on websites and writing books for the past tne years and have never been so unhealthy. I think walking, green juices and smoothies and cutting out the crap is the only way to lose weight and be healthy. Fingers crossed we are all pounds lighter and much healthier in 2016. I also love the Cormoran Strike series which is based in London where I live. Good luck with the screenplay Joanne – look forward to seeing it on TV or the cinema in 2016.
Happy New Year to you ALL 🙂
Carole
Well after reading your post, I sat down and wrote my goals for 2016, so thank you for the inspiration. As silly as it sounds, it’s already making a difference, because I feel like I have a better handle on what I want to achieve, a better focus. Let’s see how it all works out!
Do you mind if I ask you about the dictation? I heard about Kevin J Anderson and his habit of dictating his novels (I think I read about it in his Million Dollar Productivity book) but his setup is too expensive for me at this point (having someone type it all up for him). Do you use a kind of voice recognition software, or do you also have someone type it up for you? And if you’ve looked into voice recognition software, do you have one that you’d recommend?
It sounds like such a great way to work, even for those of us who don’t have RSI. I hike at least an hour a day at the moment (both for exercise and to knacker out the dog), but if I could master dictation, I could hike for several hours and get my day’s writing done – that would be awesome! I imagine it would take a while to adjust to not seeing the screen in front of you and what you have written ,though. Although it might be a great way to turn off the critical voice – hiking’s such a great way to generate ideas, I find, because the critical side of the brain is too busy keeping you from falling over the uneven terrain.
Oh and good luck with the Race to the Stones! That’s quite a challenge! I’m doing a three day hike in the Himalayas later this year. It’s only 60k, so much shorter than yours although probably more ups and downs 😉 I don’t think I could do an ultra-marathon – good on your for taking it on, and good luck with the training until then!
Hi Celine, I’m glad it helped 🙂 In terms of dictation, check out this interview http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/11/02/dictate-your-book-monica-leonelle/ and Monica’s book which has options for the tech side. All the best!
This is my favorite time of year as a writer! I love focusing on my plans for the upcoming year! This year I will be focusing on helping novice writers navigate the ever-changing waters of freelance writing, and I will be working on a new novel, an epic that spans the ages from WWII through the celluloid age, civil rights, women’s lib, and the technological revolution.
Joanna, I appreciate how detailed your goals are. Mine are more general, and I am still working out the details (and obviously running a little late). I focused so much on my upcoming content marketing series that I neglected to write a great post about my plans. I like how you used “nebulous,” I too have a truckload of ideas, and too little time to accomplish them all! That said, I am so excited to see all our work come to fruition in the year ahead!
Great post! You have some fantastic goals for 2016. I particularly like that health is number 1. I hope you manage to get yourself ship shape, fit and happy in 2016. I hope the dictation works out too (is it possible for your RSI to ease over time?). I read the linked blog post and it sounds like a fascinating way to use walking time productively. I also need to get healthier this year (I spent most of last year ill/sedentary so am not in a great way right now!) so I might try this one. I miss walking/hiking a lot. What better way to encourage both writing and walking than twinning them! 🙂
Good luck with all your projects, fiction and non, and your travel. I hope 2016 will be a productive and adventurous year for you… and I hope you hit that double income goal! Looking forward to hearing about all your adventures.
My goals for 2016 are simple: Write. Publish. Repeat. (Now, where have I heard that phrase before! 😉 ) Want to publish a minimum of 12 projects (some main projects, some diversifying income streams based on main projects), but currently I have 20 scheduled by June so that’s awesome.
I also want to double my income – but realistically make a £1000 a month because that would enable me to justify leaving my day job. I’m getting more and more desperate to. I don’t know if you’ve worked in retail and can appreciate how utterly soul destroying it is at times. In 2016 I’m finding ways to secretly write at work to stay sane 😉 (currently armed with a bluetooth keyboard for my breaks and a little notebook to write at the till!)
That’s only 500-600 colouring books a month so realistically totally achievable. Just need to keep producing, but also figure out how to market better on facebook, twitter etc. and make/use videos for advertising.
Here’s to a life changing 2016!
I have an ambitious set of goals for this year but I’ve spent several sitting on my procrastination chair and stuff happened in 2015 which made me realise I had to start acting instead of wishing. So I have five Works in Progress (70k ish in length) which I’ve been tinkering about with for several years. I have a 3 monthly plan to revise, edit and publish my self.
Linked to that I’m going to create my publishing press, but I’m not concentrating on marketing, I want to develop and hone my craft and this daisy chain publishing plan should hopefully do that!
I also have thirty dirty short stories drafted for NaNo 2015 all based on fantasy prompts. I’m going to select some of them for short story competitions in the genre and others may become longer pieces, who knows.
I want to blog but I can’t compete with the brilliant blogs – like yours- in terms of offering great advice and support so I’m going to take a more personal route about my writing ‘journey’ and I hope to inspire other writers like me to take the plunge and just have a go.
For my non writing life, I know I should probably have a fitness goal but my year old springer takes me on a daily walk so that’s enough for me. I want to improve my Italian (having lived her for 8 years!) and I really want to progress some family history research I started.
So no time for procrastination and lots of action! Feeling very positive for the first time in a long time 🙂
5 works in progress at 70k?? then I expect 5 finished novels by the end of 2015 🙂
I love reading your goals and how motivated you are. You inspire us all and prod me out of any inertia that I may experience.
Today is the day now that my four week summer holiday (southern hemisphere) has finished that I am sitting down to plot out this year. Reading this has helped galvanize me into action.
Here’s to a great 2016.
Cheers from Nz