Podcast: Download (Duration: 53:43 — 43.8MB)
Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More
It's the time of year for looking back at how far we have come and looking forward to what we will achieve in the coming year.
Round-Up of 2017
In the podcast episode, I talk through my round-up of 2017, which you can find in the article from yesterday here.
It includes the rise and rise of collaboration, stabilization of the indie author business model, the changing entertainment environment, and how I did at achieving my creative goals for 2017, as well as what I failed to achieve and why.
Thoughts and Goals for 2018
I also aim to empower creatives to get their words out into the world and to make a living writing – because that’s what changed my life, and I know it can change yours too. My aim is to help more writers and authors in 2018 and begin the next 10 years of our journey together.
Every 1 January, I post my goals for the year and this year, I will start with some over-arching principles, followed by more specific goals for each author name and aspect of my business. I hope it will help you consider what your goals might be, and I’d love for you to share them in the comments below.
(1) Choose your filters
“We must commit to building something new, strange to our past selves, but better, if we commit to making it so.”
We can choose what to focus on.
He also talks about the “new kinds of magic that are slowly fading into the ordinary.” This is true for authors because when I started my site in 2008, there was no international Kindle, no mainstream market for ebooks, no international print on demand, no digital audiobook market, no ability to easily reach readers. The iPhone was brand new, podcasting was in its earliest days and back then, I couldn’t see how I could make a living online.
What are you taking for granted that is actually incredible?
If you change your filter, you realise how incredibly fortunate we are to be living at this time in history.
Despite the negative news of 2017, we live in an incredibly abundant world with possibilities around every corner, if only you look out for them. Our brains scan the environment for what to pay attention to, so it’s your job to make sure you train it to look for opportunities and the positive side of life.
It’s time to take the things that have made you angry or frustrated or negative, and turn them into positive creative action.
If you have news feeds or social media or people who make you feel consistently negative, then it might be time for a spring clean of those influences. Start reading different books and blogs, listen to different podcasts (although I hope you consider mine to be positive and useful!)
Here’s one of my own examples. As much as I appreciate Facebook for the social connection and ability to reach readers with advertising, I removed it from my phone over 6 weeks ago and have felt all the better for it. Apparently, this is known as social cooling. Yes, it has a name, so it must be a thing!
I read Wired magazine, Singularity Hub, The Verge, Digital Trends, Self Publishing Advice from the Alliance of Independent Authors, which is always skewed towards positive action, rather than moaning about what’s wrong with this picture. I listen to Exponential Wisdom podcast, which gives me my tech focus, and read/listen to non-fiction books on self-development and positive thinking.
I exorcised my anger over Brexit through the political edge of borders in Map of Shadows, so now I am ready to look at it positively and move forward, rather than keep focusing on the past.
Yes, you might consider that a filter means you will live in a bubble, but I’m happy in mine and you create your life day by day, so I’m choosing a positive, happy and creative bubble. How about you?
Do you have any influences that you need to change in 2018? How will you choose your filters so the year is a positive, creative one for your writing life?
(2) Use the power of batching
When people ask me how I get everything done, my answer always involves scheduling. I schedule my time way in advance – that includes my writing time – as well as business meetings, social events, holidays and more.
Don’t feel guilty about not having time for writing. Just get a calendar, block out the time, and then actually show up for that appointment with yourself and the blank page.
But in 2018, I will be going even further.
I spoke at Youpreneur Summit in November and listened to uber-podcasters John Lee Dumas (JLD) of Entrepreneur on Fire and Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income talk about how they use batching. JLD does a daily podcast and batches all his interviews for the month into a few days, and Pat does the same for his interview shows.
I’ve been managing my time in two main chunks – mornings for creative work and production e.g. writing first drafts, editing, researching etc. The afternoons have been for the podcast, blog, business admin, marketing, interviews, speaking prep etc.
But I’ve found that to write fiction in the most effective way, I need to sink into that world for an extended period. So it would be better for me to batch 3 months of interviews into a week or two, and then have the next 8-10 weeks with no distractions, except the daily business maintenance, which I could squeeze into a shorter time frame.
So that’s my plan. I’ll be batching similar tasks together and scheduling my time differently.
How could this idea of batching help you in your writing life?
For example, the split between writing and marketing is one every author has to manage, wherever you are on the journey. If you have 1 day per week to write (or 4 hours, or whatever), could you dedicate 3 of those per month to writing and then spend the whole extra day on marketing, rather than trying to split your time each week?
If your goal is to write more in 2018, schedule your time right now for the rest of the year. It might sound extreme, but how we spend our days is how we spend our lives, so how are you spending yours?
OK, that’s the big themes. Let’s get into my more specific goals:
The Creative Penn website and podcast
I'll be revamping TheCreativePenn around Pathways for people through the site – for example, a first-time fiction author has a different journey to a non-fiction author with three books looking to make a living writing. This will involve more landing pages but also more ‘cheatsheet’ style resources like the new Author Website and Email cheatsheet and tutorials.
I'll be segmenting my email list so I can serve you better within those Pathways, directing people to the material that will help them the most. Now I’m using ConvertKit, this will be a LOT easier to do 🙂 Check out my tutorial here if you want to set up your own email list.
So we’re going to add two shorter videos on YouTube every week, usually less than 5 mins long and focused on Writing Craft or Business. I will record some to camera but many will be from existing videos to make better use of the existing content. I’ll also be adding these directly to Facebook as well.
I'll be developing Mini-courses on Teachable – How to Write a Novel is an evergreen course and continues to sell slowly but surely as people reach the point they need it. I’ll be adding some smaller ‘lecture-style’ mini-courses around productivity, money, author business plans, how to write non-fiction, and possibly some other topics that people need over time.
Non-Fiction as Joanna Penn
- How to Write a Novel. This is currently in draft format, so needs editing and publishing, but I definitely want to get this out.
- How to Write Non-Fiction, since people keep asking for it!
- The Shadow book (working title). I made a start on this in December, but it has no shape as yet, so it looks to be a longer-term project that needs to marinate for longer. Unlikely to be out in 2018 but I will continue to work on it.
- More non-fiction audiobooks. I’ve been able to make the production costs back within two months for non-fiction, as non-fiction listeners are not price or length sensitive. I’ve also got the podcast as a way of marketing them, so I just need to edit the older books and then get them professionally recorded. I do all my audio as non-exclusive now so I can also sell direct and on other platforms.
Thriller / Dark Fantasy fiction as J.F.Penn
My bigger goal on the writing craft side is that I want to win an award. It might not be this year as that is outside of my control, but to win an award, I know I need to become a better writer. So I’ll be going deeper into craft and story, and also submitting to more awards, because you have to be in it to win it 🙂
I’ll be thinking about my J.F.Penn brand and whether I need to pivot more towards the fantasy market given the type of books and stories I’ve been writing in recent years.
I’ve been flirting with it for years now and have even started a couple of adaptations. But this year, I’m committing to adapting at least two of my own novels into screenplays and submitting them to film/TV agents. The adaptation of the London Psychic trilogy is still being developed by a wonderful screenwriter, so hopefully, that will also be finished and submitted this year.
Possibly London Psychic #4 – since so many readers have asked for it. This is the bottom of the list though as frankly, this series falls through so many genre gaps, it is hard to know what the hell it is 🙂 Although the readers of this series say they love the books the most! I also want to write some short stories, for submission to traditional markets, and maybe another stand-alone novella.
I’m not planning on doing any more fiction audiobooks for now. Fiction audiobook listeners are sensitive to length/value for their subscription, and also are used to truly professional actors as narrators, with many big names narrating now. So I’ll be waiting to see how 2018 shapes up before deciding on any more fiction audio.
Sweet romance fiction as Penny Appleton
My intention is also to at least break even in 2018, so that will be year two for this author name.
Health
The practices outlined in The Healthy Writer have helped me so much in 2017, so I am going to double down on those in 2018.
I’ve also blocked out a week of no meetings per month, as well as the whole of December, plus I’ve scheduled more quiet time around any speaking engagements or social events, so I can recover more. This introvert needs her alone time 🙂 Hopefully, the batching method will also help with this.
I’ll be travelling more for self-development, book research, and fun, rather than for speaking. I only have NINC in Florida booked and am not intending to be doing any more than that in 2018, although I will be attending more events as a participant to focus on learning, rather than speaking.
I have investment goals and lifestyle goals that mean I want a step change in 2018 in terms of income. I’m waiting to see how that might happen so I’m open to possibilities right now 🙂
We had a step change in 2015, doubling the income for the company, so I’m ready for another shift of that magnitude.
As per the ‘filter’ idea and technology shifts above, I am leaning into the ideas that excite me, because I am not in this business to create another job, but I AM ambitious, both for my financial goals and creative goals.
Right, that’s me done! What are your specific goals for writing for 2018? Please join the conversation and leave a comment below.
View Comments (65)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1 2 3 4 Next »The first podcast episode that I've listened to this year [2018]. Looking forward to hearing your other episodes, that you produce throughout the year!
I'm just starting out, on my journey as a professional writer, so my main goal for this year is to write at least half a dozen books!
If you're just starting out, that's a helluva goal :) All the best!
I hit Thanksgiving and was in danger of burning out. My 9-5 job, which I don't like, hit critical mass after a year, and it spilled over on the writing. It was changing, and I didn't reset what I was doing with my writing. So now I'm in reset mode with new goals:
1. Write longer fiction. I have the tools in place now to overcome some of the problems I've had with writing novels. Under that, I'm going to start out with just a simple goal of 2K words a week, which is eight 15-minute writing sessions. There were some job changes that may help alleviate the chaos, so right now I'm sticking my toe in the water to see what's going to work around it. I'm expecting that to evolve.
2. I'm also looking to get books out in paper. Because of the job, I haven't been able to spend the mental energy to learn how to do a paper cover, so I'm going to pay to have that done.
3. Having more fun. I broke my foot at the end of February and was housebound until early May. After that I didn't do much that was fun, because I was bouncing from work to "I need to write" or run errands. Any time I popped up that I needed to do something fun, it felt more like mandatory fun than actual fun. So I'm in reset mode for that--and it has to be free or inexpensive.
4. The final goal is working on a hidden money block that I discovered. I veer from not doing enough for myself to doing too much (which is a pattern I experienced growing up). So I want to rebalance that. I'm in a very expensive area, so this will be critical to me being able to eventually write full time.
Some other changes I'm doing now is ordering some things online. I was loathe to do it because of the additional cost of postage, but once I weighed the amount of time I was spending running the errand, it cost more than the time I was spending on the errand.
So a lot of changes!
Hi Linda,
That last point sounds related to your (4) on money - as valuing yourself and your time is so important for a 'wealth' mindset. All the best for your 2018 reset!
You're right...so much of it is actually tied to the money side. Fate must be telling me to pay attention now!
Great podcast as always ... although I listened to it while writing a gunfight and then had to go back and listen again when I realised I hadn't given you my full attention
In 2018 I will
Indy Publish my novella "Honest intent" (Dusty Miller #1) and my novel Darkest storm (Dusty Miller #2)
I will write and possibly publish "Cold Fury" (Dusty Miller #3) (getting this out may carry over into 2019)
and I will start my Battle of Britain book/WW2 series with 'Gladiators' which I intend to Indy pub in 2019 to coincide with the 80 year anniversary.
I also need to decide what to do with my first book After the Wave - Its more or less finished but I've held it back to focus on the Dusty miller series. I may put it out there, or I may wait as yet undecided.
I am also looking at a non fiction project 'Writing Fighting' (series) - a guide to various forms of combat and weapons for authors since there is so much out there even from multi million name authors which is plain wrong. If I decide to run with this I'll also aim to put WF#1 out during 2018.
On top of all that I also need to build my author platform, get the website up, set up book funnel and mail handling accounts and so forth - the idea is that Honest Intent will be perma free - though as yet i'm undecided between free to everyone and free to mailing list subscribers.
And probably a whole host of other stuff...
Lots to get your teeth into there, Peter!
That's the cut down version - Originally I was going to also pub After the Wave and write a novella prequel for mailing list only and write a sequel as well, and look at starting a podcast to go with writing fighting .... then reality bit me in the bottom with the realisation that I have to work a day job and I can't do everything.. I'm only 44 (for 5 more days) there's plenty of time.
I also wrote down all my book ideas - when I got to 36 realised that I need to pace myself.
I do wish I'd started writing earlier - although my first two abortive novels were utter crap so its just as well that I didn't.
My goals are not wholly defined yet. I have just finished reading Business for Writers, and I am working my way through specific goal setting. My main goal is to finish my current novel. It is being completely redrafted at this moment in time. And I might try my hand at a few short story competitions, but they won't be the forefront of my plans. I will mostly be working on my Author Website too. I am narrowing down my focus!
I hope you found the book useful, Ingrid - and finishing the novel is a great goal!
Thank you sharing your goals & insights, Joanna! Both practical & inspiring, as always. Your goal to become a better fiction writer this year particularly resonated with me.
I'm an indie author writing science fiction & fantasy. Here are my own writing & publishing goals for 2018:
#1 Continue to improve my writing craft and processes, including a better, more focused use of my writing time (around my full-time job) and banishing procrastination.
#2 Finish and publish the next two books in the Sand Runner series. (YA SF. Book 1 is already out, book 2 is with my editor, and book 3 is in outline right now.)
#3 Finish and publish the first 3 books in the Magda series. (MG magical realism. I have editor's comments on what will become book 1 and 2, and an outline for book 3.)
#4 Finish, submit, and publish at least one short story with a Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)-recognized market, as well as join the SFWA and hopefully attend their meeting in May 2018.
#5 Finish and publish 2 more coloring books. (Your podcast inspired me to try it and it has been a lot of fun, since I can listen to podcasts & audiobooks while I'm drawing the designs, "recharging" between my writing sessions.)
#6 Update my author website and figure out what I'm doing with my newsletter, since I dropped the ball on it in 2017 and, to be honest, I'm hoping to find a better way to stay in touch with my readers.
That's my main goals for the new year. Thank you for your podcast, Joanna, and best wishes for a creative, productive & happy 2018!
Thanks Vera - and I'm so glad you find designing the coloring books fun - we must remember to have fun in our creative life!
Hi Joanna. I started listening to your podcasts (on youtube) this year as I researched "how to" become a self-published author. So much valuable information, and inspiration. I just wanted to thank you.
My goal is to self-publish a prequel to a series I am planning, as well as the first installment of the series. The genre is eluding me at the moment. Suffice it to say there are elements of family saga and magical realism, and paranormal romance, even (I hope). The final product will determine the genre so I am not stressing on that too much.
It is very early days for me; what I really want to convey is how much listening to you and everything you put out there about health, the business aspect . . . everything . . .has inspired and informed me on my journey to becoming a self-published author. I cannot thank you enough.
Thanks Davanna, and I'm thrilled that the podcast is useful on your author journey! I'll be here every Monday for 2018!
2017 was both my most successful year to date in terms of writing income and the absolutely worst year I've had for the actual writing since I started. This was primarily due to factors completely beyond my control, but also to my failure to conquer the mental fatigue and stress from those uncontrollable events.
My writing goals for 2018 are:
1. Publish two novels, one from each series (that's a lot for me as I write long historical fiction).
2. Publish extra materials to use as lead magnets or bonuses for my email list.
3. Make reading, research, and studying craft far more of a priority this year. I pretty much abandoned all 3 in 2017 as I went into firefighting mode.
4. Exercise regularly! That's a writing goal. I need a healthy body.
Hi Jane,
On the flipside, if you had a good money year even if you had a 'bad' production year, then it sounds like you're being hard on yourself! Part of being a 'successful' fulltime writer (IMHO) is being able to have down times physically, while still making the same (or better) income.
It sounds like you've had a hard year - Kris Rusch calls them 'life rolls' - and they WILL happen. So be kind to yourself, too!
I hope 2018 is less firefighting - all the best!
Batching interviews! I learned so much from this episode, but the concept of batching my podcast interviews in the future so I can spend more time writing my crime novels is invaluable. My 2018 goals are to continue hosting my FBI case review show and to publish two books (one which I had planned to release in 2017). You have given me the key to make sure these happens. Thanks for all you do for inspiring new authors!
FBI case review show ? Could you share a link (if Joanna doesnt mind) ?
Thank you so much for sharing! I don’t usually have trouble seeing the positives in life but the last few weeks have been hard on me. I actually started keeping up with you again because you are such a positive force and you help keep me thinking that way. So thank you.
No worries - I'll keep you positive in 2018!
Happy New Year, Joanna! It was excellent kicking off 2018 with your podcast.
It's been an interesting couple of weeks looking back on last year and setting the goals for 2018.
The plan is to write four books, with a stretch goal of a fifth (my goal was six last year and I only did four, so this year is about trying to be realistic but having the stretch goal as well to push for).
The plan is three gay category romance co-writes with Will (the first draft for one of those will wrap up by Jan 10 and I don't count this in the four for the year since we wrote two-thirds in 2017). One of the books with Will is slated to be self published. Plus the fourth (and what might be final) installment in my YA cyber thriller series. I also want to start up a new gay romance series that I'll self pub.
Dragon has revolutionized the way I get first drafts done. I'm coming to the end of the second book I've done with Dragon and I've gotten into the mode of dictation in the morning before the day job starts. In the evening, I return to the transcription and clean it up. Later, with the draft, done, I can go back and revise. It seems a good process so far (better than the first book I did with Dragon where I had to clean up the transcription and revise at the same time).
I feel like Dragon makes the writing goal--including the stretch-- entirely possible this year.
Meanwhile, the rest of the time focused on the writing business will be to continue to market (and always learning on that score) to grow the audience so as the backlist grows the business gets more stable.
As always, thanks for all your inspiration. Looking forward to writing and learning lots in 2018. Happy New Year to you and Jonathan!
Sounds like dictation is going really well! Amazing stuff :) Wishing you and Will all the best for 2018.