Hello Rebels, welcome to The Rebel Author Podcast episode 38. I’m talking to an extra special guest this week, my dad, Steven de Koenigswarter. In a twist to the show, I’ve been wanting to speak to successful entrepreneurs in a variety of industries to see what lessons I can pull from them into the writing industry. If you listen to nothing else, then make sure you listen to his rebel story at the end, it’s quite the plot twist.

Episode Show Notes – How to Build a 7-Figure Company

This week’s questions is:

If you couldn’t be a writer, what would you be?

Find out more about our guest Steven de Koenigswarter on:

His website: Thehealthfactory.com

His informational website: Nano-mineralwater.com

Facebook THF: https://www.facebook.com/thfnederland/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steven.dekoenigswarter/

Company Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehealthfactory_/

Don’t forget The Anatomy of Prose is now live, you can get it in ebook, paperback or hardback now.

Click the link here.

Order the Workbook here. 

Book recommendation: Miso Paper for Archer and Olive journals www.misopaper.com

My geometric wall paint in my office

Listener Rebel of the Week is S. M. Mitchell

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com or tweet me @rebelauthorpod

Thank you to all patrons for the support. If you’d like to support the show, and get access to all the bonus essays, posts and content, you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

The post 038 How to Build a 7-Figure Company with Steven de Koenigswarter appeared first on Sacha Black.

I spent a long time thinking I’d never be able to leave my job, so it’s a bizarre feeling to sit here and write a post about my one year anniversary of having done just that. Here are 10 lessons from one year of writing full-time.

For a long time I carried a Post-it in my wallet. An affirmation of sorts, one I looked at multiple times a day. Every time I bought a coffee or paid for something I’d see the note and run the words through my head like a mantra. It helped keep me going when times were dark and the desperation to leave the day job was strong.

Originally, I thought I’d leave work this year: 2020. Instead, I left last year and 2020 actually sees me celebrating my one year anniversary of working for myself.

Here are some of the reflections I’ve made as I look back at the last year.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: the income 

In my first year, I didn’t care what I earned. My sole goal was to survive. Which meant, not having to go back to a day job, not getting into debt and being able to pay all my bills. Well I survived, I didn’t have to go back to my day job and I didn’t get into debt, unless you count the several hundred thousand pounds I spent on buying a house this week.

On reflection, I think not having some kind of monetary aim was a mistake. It meant I didn’t focus on it and therefore didn’t try to earn anything more than whatever came to me. I coasted because I didn’t know better.  

One revenue stream in particular is responsible for 49% of my income. I’d like to change that to ensure that there’s a more of a balance across all my streams.

In my first year, my income streams include: book sales, ALLi work, freelance work, patreon, merchandise, affiliate income, and editing. 

In the next year, I want to add audiobooks and courses to my income streams as well as speaking and an investment portfolio. Oh, and a hard financial goal. I’d love to surpass my old job income, but whether I manage that in the coming year or the next one remains to be seen.

Takeaway 1: set income goals, pay attention to your finances and push for what you want to achieve.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: business basics

For a while, you can coast along doing the fun stuff. You can make shit up, play god and destroy your protagonist’s life. But eventually, you’re going to have to buckle down and build a structure for yourself in your business.

It’s the bit most of us don’t enjoy. 

• You need a mailing list. 
• You need an autoresponder. And you need to review and update it every time you create something new.
• You need a reader magnet.
• You need accounting software.
• You need a file naming structure.
• You need a website. Maybe even to sell direct.
• You need a list of all your assets and all their key information. 
• You need a system and process for writing books. It’s no good drifting aimlessly, if you want a career out of this, you need a process to ensure you finish books.

I could go on.

But the point is, there’s only so long you can coast doing the good stuff and ignoring the business bits. In reflecting on my first year, I’ve realised I’m not baaaaad at the business basics, but there’s definitely stuff I’ve neglected. I’m going to end this lesson with an analogy.

You can’t build a house without foundations. If you do, that shits gonna fall down hard at some point.

The same goes for your business.

You can’t build a business without the basics.  

Takeaway 2: don’t forget the business basics. Write a task list and even if you attack them 1 a month over the course of a year, make sure you do so your business is built on solid foundations.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: details matter

If you’re not a detailed person—and I’m really not—then this is one of the harder lessons to learn. Harder because if you don’t keep track of the details, it’s gon’ cost you money! A crap ton of money.

Here’s an example. This very morning. My first hardback book arrived. I’ve been hankering after hardbacks for a while. I know as a good publisher, it’s something I should have done ages ago. But money, time, and priorities got in the way.

It arrived this morning, and it’s beautiful. I mean truly. But there was something wrong. There was no text printed on the spine. Of course, I’d chosen the hardback because I wanted text printed on the spine. But idiot me didn’t check the details. I assumed they’d take the text on the spine and print it. Alas not. So now I’ve ordered a proof hardback with rush delivery and it’s wrong. Of course, that is the point of proof copies. But also—ugh. While this one error has only cost me £20, when you add them all up over time the mistakes cost.

Here’s another example, my mailing list costs me £60 plus a month. If I’d taken the time to look at the details of price comparisons, I’d have realised sooner that I could swap providers and potentially save myself over £40 a month while retaining all the same functions.

I don’t want to make excuses, but when you’re tired and exhausted, you tend to favor your strengths and not your weaknesses. Working on your weaknesses is hard, it’s tiring. But as a good business person, as a good publisher, you gotta do the hard work.

Details matter guys.

Maybe your weakness isn’t details, it’s something else. Maybe you’re not a strategic thinker, maybe you’re not a goals person. Whatever your weakness, put some time and effort into strengthening it.

Takeaway 3: don’t forget the details. Don’t be like me and in a rush to complete everything. Checked it over twice? Good. Check it a third time and then get someone else to check it for you too.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: focus on you and your projects

This is probably the hardest lesson I learned this year and the one I find most difficult to stick to. This is one I really want to focus on going into my second year.

When I left my job, I took on stacks of freelance work. I was terrified I wouldn’t pay my bills. Terrified I would have to go back to a job I hated. I wasn’t thinking about me. I was just hell bent on surviving. Make it to the end of the first year and then *some magical mythical unicorn-shaped thing that will appear and suddenly make me realise all is well*

There was no unicorn, people. There were just 365 very long days and a slow gradual realisation.

The realisation was twofold:

1. I didn’t need much money to survive.
2. If I didn’t need much money then I could take less freelance work from others and still pay all my bills and BONUS get my time back.

See, I realised my time was more important than my money. I needed my time to create the things I wanted to create. Sure, in the meantime it meant earning a little less. But in the long run, I’d earn far more because I’d have created things I can sell, things that will out last my life and provide income for my children and grandchildren. 

I knew this lesson. We all know this lesson. But there’s something very different about knowing something and then living it in practice. I suppose it’s a little like being a parent. Everyone gives you advice and tells you how it will be. You smile and nod and acknowledge their experience. But it doesn’t matter how much they say or you hear, parenting is an inexplicable journey that no second hand lesson can prepare you for.

Takeaway 4: expect to learn lessons you’ve already learned all over again. Expect to learn lessons you didn’t think you would. Know that your time is far more valuable than the money you can exchange for it.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: keep learning, learn inside, learn outside 

I spent a long time learning and studying the industry on my way to leaving my job. I consumed information, blogs, podcasts, courses. It would be easy to just stop once you reach that big goal of leaving your job. But it would also be irresponsible.

The only way to grow is to keep learning, keep changing. That means consciously, intentionally putting time and effort into studying the industry and your craft and trying to grow your knowledge.

I’ve been to fewer conferences this year, not because I wanted to go to less, but because: corona-gate. The ones I have been to have found me coming away with fewer and fewer lessons learned. I asked someone I respect why this was and they made the point that most conferences are pitched at beginners or middlers… that’s a word, I swear. Once you’ve been to enough conferences, you’ve soaked up the information. Then it’s about the networking. If you want to continue learning, you have to grow your circle of learning, reach into connecting sectors, look at business and entrepreneurs, look at your interests and the industries surrounding them.

My point to you is, yes, the indie world is essential, but you can learn just as much about business and making money in our sector as you can from other industries.

Takeaway 5: Keep intentionally learning. Yes, learn from inside the indie sphere, yes improve your craft, but also keep an eye on other sectors, on other models. You can learn as much from them as you can fellow authors.

***

MUSICAL INTERLUDE: 

I really believe that 80% of surviving your first year, and actually, surviving long term is mental strength and mental resilience. I didn’t know this until I wrote this reflection and saw that my lessons were split 50/50 business and mindset. Here beginith the mindset lessons.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: the leaps of faith don’t stop with ‘I quit’

For a while, I thought the only leap of faith I’d have to make was leaving my day job. Oh Sacha. Dear sweet, naïve Sacha… In the words of Ygritte, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.” If one thing is totally clear, it’s that working for yourself is a continual ‘schooling’.

See that fateful ‘I quit’ leap was huge. In some ways it’s probably the biggest leap of faith any of us ever have to take. But there are definitely other leaps of faith that crop up along the way.

From trusting your gut, deciding whether to enter into a collaboration, deciding which product to create first, or whether to end a freelance relationship, the mini leaps of faith don’t stop. In fact, they get more frequent. Though perhaps, as your confidence and resilience grows, each leap gets a little easier.

Takeaway 5: as brave as you had to be to say ‘I quit’, be prepared to use similar levels of bravery during your first year in business.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: you’re on your own, until you’re not

One of the hardest and most fulfilling parts of working for myself is the fact that yes, while mistakes are my fault, so are all the successes. I love that. Every pound I bring in is earned through my hard fought work. It makes me proud. I know that’s not for everyone. I know for some the safety of a monthly paycheck is too important. And I get it, believe me. I’m a shit load greyer at the end of this year than I was a year ago! That would be the stress. It’s stressful being completely responsible for your income. But I kinda love it in a sick, masochistic sort of way.

But all that said and done, what this life is, is pressured and isolating. I thought I’d get lonely working by myself, but actually, I haven’t at all, there’s not been time to get lonely. But then, I’ve intentionally cultivated friendships. And I’ve realised just how vital those friendships are. Spouses, loved ones, no matter how supportive they are, don’t really get it. I adore my wife and I’ll forever be grateful for her support in me leaving my job. But there’s something that she (and anyone’s loved one) just don’t get. 

You need the solidarity of a friend who’s been there, done it and worn five of the t-shirts. I’m not sure yet, whether it’s the mental highs and lows we go on, the strange slant a creative mind has or something about the weight of sole responsibility for a business. But there’s definitely a connection I need with fellow writers to just chat industry, business and writing nonsense that they understand. 

Whether you’re an extrovert who finds it easy to make friends, or not, friends, especially industry friends are vital in your first year of business. To mine, both peers and mentors, you know who you are, thank you. 

Takeaway 6: cultivate friendships, especially fellow writers or business owners. They’re more important than you know.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: Resilience 

Before I left my job, I was buzzing off the excitement of “I’M GONNA HAVE ALL THE HOURS IN THE DAY TO WRITE.”

Oh, Sacha. Oh, dear sweet fucking innocent Sacha. How wrong you could be.

Whatever you think you’re going to get time-wise, halve it and assume that half will be pressured. I’m serious. 

Transitioning took far longer than I thought it would. Even now, I don’t really feel settled because things keep changing. I’m about to move house, again. Though this time for the last time. My business model changed from heavily freelance to now much less so, that took an adjustment.

In my first eight months of solo life, I lost one full working week every month. THAT’S TWO MONTHS OF NOT WORKING in my first eight months. Believe me, that was not through choice. Time is a fickle bitch and if you’re not super strict with your working time, it will abandon you. From family holidays to sick kids, dentist and doctors appointments, food deliveries and more. It’s very easy to suddenly have time vanish. Lesson learned. I have to be much stricter with my time. But also more resilient with both my planning and my mental strength.

Ensuring I put slippage time on deadlines and launches and project completions has helped. When I was deciding my launch date for The Anatomy of Prose, I wanted it to be the end of March. Then I moved it to early April. Never have I been more grateful for one of my friends pressuring me into a longer preorder. If you’re listening Meg LaTorre, I owe you one. No sooner did I hit the preorder go live—having given myself an extra two months of just in case—then corona virus shut the country down. Meaning I had a 6 year old around my feet 24 hours a day. Good fucking luck getting launch work done now Sacha.

I could have let that crush me. I could have thrown a tantrum and despaired knowing that I couldn’t do as much for my launch as I wanted. But there’s no point. Mental resilience is key. Just because it will be a lower key launch, doesn’t mean I stop there. Once it’s out I can keep marketing. Once the kids are back at school I can work harder.

No matter what you think is going to happen, it won’t. Life will constantly throw blockers and obstacles in your way. You’re not going to have endless streams of time for your business. I’m drowning in house and mortgage paperwork, then we’ll be packing and moving and dealing with school changes. There’s always going to be something trying to get in the way.

Resilience. 

Expect things to get in your way, prepare yourself mentally, and give yourself as much time as possible. Just because you haven’t got as much time as you planned, doesn’t mean you’ve failed or you’re business isn’t going to work. It will, you just have to be flexible and find a new route. 

Takeaway 7: Expect things to get in your way, prepare yourself mentally, and give yourself as much time as possible.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: you can’t work 24 hours a day

Transition is brutal. You go from a day structure that effectively 90% of society follows to no rules, no boss, no expectations. You’re on your own, which means you get to make your own schedule too. And then suddenly you get to do the thing you love more than anything ALL.DAY.LONG. The temptation to just continue working all day and all evening is real!

Worse, there are no boundaries. Work is home is work is home. My office is in my house so the lines of separation are blurred to say the least. Even though I’d happily work 24 hours a day, my body conks out and my family eventually strop—and rightly so.

The lesson here is that eventually, despite my best intentions to work until my eyes bleed, and pieces of my body fall off, I simply can’t. This is a work in progress. Getting the right balance is something I’ll probably always struggle with. I’m an out and proud workaholic, I love what I do, and I have big goals to achieve.

Takeaway 8: balance is hard to achieve, get comfortable experimenting and if your family tell you you’re working too hard, don’t get mad, just listen. They’re probably right.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time:  say yes until you have to say no

When I first left work, I was terrified—almost to the point of paralysis. What if I couldn’t pay my bills? What if I couldn’t put food on the table? So I took on freelance work (and a lot of it). Unfortunately, that led me to the point of burn out because I was still trying to do all the things for my business too. I ended up extremely tired and in a position where most of the time I’d worked was spent on things for others instead of writing and creating products I could sell.

This was a gift and a curse. It enabled me to grow in confidence. Over time, I realized I could survive just fine without all that freelance work. No one was going to go hungry. But if I’m going to make this work, then I needed to refocus my time on creating things that will last.

Learning to say no to quick cash is a tough one. There’s a mindset shift required; you have to value yourself, your work and your ability to make things that generate income. That takes time.

Takeaway 9: when you first leave your job, having a mix of freelance and passive income is good for reassurance and buying you time to grow your confidence, but eventually, you’re going to have to say no. And that’s okay too.

10 Lessons from One Year of Writing Full-Time: no matter what happens, this is better

In a way a lot of this year-long journey has been about survival, just getting to the end to defeat the fear. I guess it’s been a journey of empowerment.

I was in the unfortunate position of not enjoying my day job. I spent a long time struggling to stay positive because of that. And it’s probably why a lot of the first year was spent shrouded in fear; fear of being broke, fear of having to go back, fear that I’d fail.

I’ve reached a point where I know that no matter what happens, no matter what I have to do to earn money, for me personally, this life is 100% better than anything that came before. Leaving work really solidified what’s important in my mind. When I look back at who I was and how crippled I was, mentally, physically and emotionally, I know nothing can be that bad again. I won’t allow it. I keep this photo—which was taken on one of my darker days in the office—as a reminder. As a short sharp slap to ensure I practice appreciation and gratitude, even on the hard writing days.

Takeaway 10: no one said this was easy. But it is fun. It is play. This is the best job in the world, and it’s worth every millisecond of rollercoaster. It’s worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears it takes to get here. So keep driving forward, keep learning, keep pushing and at some point, take the leap of faith and say, “I QUIT.”

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Six Months Full-Time Writing

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We both know it, though neither of us will admit it. It might possibly, probably be the reason I have 22,000 words of a novel on ‘How to Be Productive’ and it’s also – ironically – the reason I’ve neither finished it, nor published it.

Sigh.

Most of you will know I left my job back in May. It’s been… Turbulent shall we say. Something akin to a giant steroid-injected rollercoaster of ‘da-fuck-am-i-doing-itis’ and blindingly hysterical euphoria.

In my more lucid moments, I’m come to realise how much I’ve got to re-learn. Like, time management.

You’d think, what with being a grown ass woman of thirty something years, that time management would come naturally by now. After all, I’m a driven and ambitious lady, I’m a kickass lion-roar-for-breakfast kinda gal. There’s no fucking about, I get shit done.

Except that, apparently, I don’t anymore.

I mean, I did. I had to in order to get where I am. I didn’t quit my job with zero clues where my income was coming from. I knew… sorry, KNOW, where my income is coming. And yet, for some reason, I work and work and work, and shit is not getting done.

It’s a lesson. It’s a revelation. It’s a fucking paradox.

If In Doubt, Read

I don’t take this stuff lying down. In an attempt to ‘sort my life out’ I’ve been reading self-help books by the dozen. Not only have they helped shift my mindset, I’ve had somewhat of what you’d call an epiphany on the time management front.

The specific book in question today is Girl, Stop Apologising by Rachel Hollis go get in on Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

Something major stuck out to me.

Get Rid of Your To Do List

The first is that I’m going to do away with my to do list. I know. Shocking. But fear not my productivity ninjas, I’m not, NOT having a list. Christ, I’d hyperventilate a lung out if I did that. What I am doing though, is reframing it.

I’m finding more and more that this working for yourself business is 90% mindset, 10% gritty persperation. The trick to mindset is all universe, maraccas and philosophical fooey for another day. The tangible trick Ms Hollis gave me produced a slack-jawed Sacha manically flipping the pages and drooling over the simple and blindingly obvious technique.

Henceforth, chuck your ‘to do’ lists in the fuck-it bucket. Why?

“The average woman’s to-do list is approximately 319 items long, which means you’re never going to get through it anyway.” Rachel Hollis, Girl, Stop Apologising p.189

Now, whether or not she’s being sarcastic on the ‘319’, I’ll never know. But honestly? It doesn’t matter. It struck a chord with me because my to do list actually is about 319 items long. Now, for the last lord knows how many years, I’ve prided myself on these ridiculous ‘to do’ lists. Claiming that having a longer list drives me on harder. And sure, there’s some truth in that…

There’s also a royal waft of Horse Shit. Can you smell it?

Let’s be real here, folks.

Where’s it left me? With a shitty broken mindset and a serious case of bitchin burnout.

The Results List i.e. How to Be More Productive

What y’all need, is a results list.

Don’t be narrowing your eyes at me, I see you all squinty and sceptical because how in the shitsticks can a ‘results list’ which sounds suspiciously like a ‘to do’ list make you more productive?

Stop that.

Listen up.

“…if you’re anything like me [and I am like her] back in the day, you’ll spend your entire work time doing the easiest items on your to-do list, simply so you can have some items crossed out.” Rachel Hollis, Girl, Stop Apologising p.189

Sweet Jesus of small mercies, I am so like her. That juicy dopamine-nectar fills my body hard when I cross off a task. Nnnnggh. It’s glorious, it’s addictive. It’s also totally fucking pointless.

Responding to 80 emails might make my anxiety feel better, but it does fuck-nothing for my bank balance. So here’s me calling myself out. No more working on other people’s agendas, no more ‘busy’ work.

What are you [Sacha] going to create today that will take you closer to achieving your goals?

Because that’s what this is about. That’s why I left my job, it’s why I moved house, changed my son’s school, risked everything to follow the dream.

What’s The Difference Between a Results List and a To Do List?

I’ll tell you.

A ‘to do’ might contain things like:

• Upload new versions of Keepers to Kobo
• Reduce inbox to below 100 unread emails
• Schedule tweets
• Do more AMS ads

And so on. All important work. All work I have to do. But none of it is taking me closer to my goal. I can’t sell more books unless I write more books. I can’t sell courses if they’re not written.

A results list should be highly specific:

• Create 3 slides and write the transcript for those three slides on your conflict course
• Record those three slides
• Write 1000 words of Anatomy of Prose

Those three tasks would actually get me closer to being able to publish and sell my writing course. Once those things are done I can do the ‘busy’ work. Results are specific and push you toward your goal. Maybe yours would be ‘write 2000 words before 2pm’. Maybe it’s ‘edit four chapters by lunch tomorrow’. Doesn’t matter. But they should be project specific and tangible. Don’t leave yourself any room for backing out or saying you’ve ‘half done it’

You can’t half do 2000 words. And hush now all the smart arses saying 1000 words is half of 2000. I KNOW THAT, GET BACK IN YOUR PEDANTIC BOX.

The point is, either you write 2k or you don’t. End of.

If you want to achieve a goal, it’s not just about working hard, it’s about working hard on the right things. Apparently, I only just learnt that.

How to Be a More Productive Writer, Entrepreneur & Business Owner #indieauthor #selfpublishing #IARTG #ASMRG #writingcommunity
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The Burnout Bitch: writers beware

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But here’s the thing, if you’re an indie author, then the only thing that matters is what you want, what you think, and what you decide.

It’s almost mind-boggling. There aren’t many decisions that are just ours any more. Sometimes I swear societies need for control has gone insane, it’s like their trying to control every single breath we take.

But not as indies. We stick our fingers up and give the corporate conglomerates a big fuck you. Our writing is the product of our minds and our minds only. It’s yours, and no one else can have it, or tell you what to do with it.

But that also means you’re on my own. Where you take your stories is up to you, as is the marketing, the business, the strategy, and the publication.

I’ve said this before, but next year is big for me. I’ll be publishing my first and second, and hopefully third and fourth books. It’s been an excruciatingly slow road to get there and I don’t want to fuck it up now I’m this close. I don’t want to go into to next year disorganised, unplanned and not knowing what I’m doing.

So cut through the crap, and make 2017 you stop listening to everyone else and do it your way. If you do anything, then use these three simple tools and make 2017 your year.

TOOL 1 – SMART GOALS

I know. I know. You don’t like goals. You like going with the flow, you’re a free thinking, harem pant wearing creative hipster. It’s okay, come here, let me cradle you with my tiniest violin of sympathy.

Seriously now. If you want to achieve anything, then you need to know what it is you want to achieve. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how do you know whether you’ve been successful?

But sometimes, defining what you want to achieve is half of the problem. I use SMART to help me define my goals.

S – Specific – here you need to outline what it is in, in a very specific way, that you want to achieve.

A goal that isn’t specific: I want to ride my bike a long way

A goal that IS specific: I want to ride my bike 48 miles to the nearest lizard brothel house.

M – Measurable – How are you going to know you have achieved it or track whether you are on track to achieving it.

Let’s say you want to double your website traffic – define that, how much is double? Or maybe you want to hit 376 views an hour or eleventy hundred a week. If you haven’t set a measurable goal, you won’t get a sense of achievement.

A – Achievable – How are you going to achieve it? – what’s the action you’ll have to take.

Let’s say you have two goals:

The first is seducing Harry Potter’s right nipple for a ballroom Tango within a week.

The second is collecting the nasal hair from 800 Eastern European slugs in two days by taking a flight to the Ukraine the day before and then working with the prestigious slug universities experts in their slug farm to collect the nasal hair. 

If you don’t know HP then it’s probably not going to happen within a week. It’s not that seducing his right nipple is impossible, more that the time constraint makes it impossible.

BUT even if you didn’t live in Eastern Europe you’ve said how you’ll get there and you have help to achieve it, so even the two days doesn’t seem so impossible. This is an achievable goal…!

R – Realistic – Is it actually an achievable goal? You’ll know if it’s realistic by taking into consideration everything else in your goal.

Lets say you want to double your annual website traffic in a week. Umm. If you’re getting 100,000 views a year that’s going to be unrealistic. If your annual total views is 4, then it becomes much more realistic.

T – Time – How long do you really need to do it?

I’m terrible with time, I always put unrealistic time constraints on myself, so next year, I’m trying to be better behaved.

Here’s an example of one of my goals: Publish my non-fiction Villains book by the end of spring by ensuring I prioritise that writing over any other task, getting beta feedback in January, an editing slot in Feb/March, a cover designed at least a month prior to launch and writing my marketing plan three months in advance.

TOOL TWO – THE BUSINESS PLAN

But I just paint beautiful pictures with words, and express my creative love for life through the weaving of flowery stories… Why do I need a business plan?

Well, ask yourself this: Do you want to write full-time and your creative pursuits to pay your bills?

If the answer is no, then no, you don’t need a business plan. But if your answer is yes. Then you absolutely do need one.

If you want to write full-time, and want your writing to pay your bills then what you got ain’t no creative hippy love bullshit. It’s a goddamn writing business. OOHRAH

It’s not a hobby folks. It’s a fucking company, and don’t let anyone tell you different. Your books are assets and your mind is a freaking beehive of money-making potential. TREAT YOUR WRITING LIKE A BUSINESS. Because you can’t grow your money-making writing potential unless you’re treating your writing like a business. If you got a business, you need a business growth plan.

Angela Ackerman has written a cracking guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog on business planning. I took her free download and tweaked it to suit me – I tweaked the columns to ensure I had SMART in the table, and now I gots me a bidness plan yo. I suggest you gawjus folks do the same.

TOOL THREE – THE MARKETING PLAN

Now, some people have some vague idea of a marketing plan, others don’t have a clue at all.

But the biggest mistake I find when talking to people about marketing, is the lack of vision. The focus for a book falls on the launch, then, when it’s over, it poofs into book heaven. Forgotten, discarded in place of the next book project’s 3 month launch period.

No, no, no, no.

Why would you do that? These books come assets, can give you income for life. Why would you focus on just the first three months of its life? It’s still an infant, a dribbling, snivelling newborn incapable of walking let alone bringing home the big bucks.

Think big people. Think really big. When you create a marketing plan, don’t just focus on the launch. Focus on its lifetime. Now okay, that’s a bit overwhelming, so just focus on one year at a time. Write your marketing plan for a year. Then, when that year’s over, write another fucking marketing plan because guess what, your book can STILL make you money.

Here’s a template I made just for me you.

How are you going to be a smarter author in 2017? Let me know in the comments.

That’s it for another week folks – Next week I have an announcement… so stay tuned.

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The post How To Be A Smart Author in 2017 – 3 Simple Tools appeared first on Sacha Black.