A Self-Publishing Journey: The Plan

Now that we know what we are doing we need a plan of action. If you missed last week’s post about our self-publishing goals in 2017, you might want to go back and check it out.

Step two is to outline how next year is going to go. It can be as loose as a month by month goal or as detailed as a daily planner. However, we do need definitive deadlines. A concrete deadline makes it easier to visualize how much time we actually have left and gives us a goal to shoot for.
I started by planning a very loose monthly guideline that looks like this:

Jan-Mar: Writing
Apr: Build author platform, start blog, figure out social media, build email list
May: Edit rough draft
June: Send 2nd draft to someone else to edit
July: Make suggested changes and edit once more.
Aug: Research self-publishing platforms, compare, contrast, ebook vs. print, choose publishing platform, design cover, format manuscript, send out advanced reader copies, etc.
Sep: Publish your book, begin marketing strategies
Oct-Nov: Evaluate and adjust as needed, do NaNoWriMo, or just write a short story for fun
Dec: Plan 2018, maybe a year of writing short stories…
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I gave myself three months to write a 60,000 word novel because I am writing some of it by hand and because my writing time has been severely limited since I became a mom this past year.

As you can see I left everything pretty loose in the monthly outline but then I did a more in-depth weekly outline for blog posts because I knew if I didn’t I’d forget or get lazy and stop posting. I don’t want that to happen so for all the fun ahead, here is your comprehensive roadmap for our journey. Check back here to see what’s coming up ahead of time. I’ll update this list of posts as we go along.

12/10/16: A Self-Publishing Journey: the Beginning
12/17/16: A Self-Publishing Journey: The Plan *You Are Here*
12/24/16: Finding and Choosing an Idea
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In order to do both the blog and still keep my own self-publishing goals I decided to write a very manageable 700 words per day. I’m setting myself up for success from the beginning. I can write 700 words in 10 minutes. You want your goal to be similarly manageable whether it’s a word goal like mine, or a time goal like writing for 30 minutes minimum. Make sure it’s something you can do when your dog gets run over and your house burns down on the same day.

Now for the goods. I created a free printable for you to declare you goals and to help you plan out how you will achieve those goals. There are two sizes. One is a 5x7 card and the other is business card sized so you can stick it in your wallet.
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2017 New Years Goals 5x7 Card
2017 New Years Goals Wallet Sized

Once you’ve printed it out, stick it somewhere you’ll see it everyday. The fridge, your bedroom door, your locker, your cubicle, the more public the place, the better. That way your support system (or enemies) will be able to see it and hold you accountable and you’ll see it and be reminded that you need to write that day if you haven’t already.

So are you committed? Do you know what you want to do in 2017? If so, don’t forget to comment below. I’d love to hear what you’re tackling this year. And don’t forget to come back next week to discuss choosing an idea for your story.

Printable designed on Canva using the invitation template: Yellow Stars Baby Shower Invitation (Portrait) by Kim Tomacruz from Marketplace Designers