Monday, May 29, 2017

The Choices Authors Must Make




Authors, if they are to be successful, must make many choices as it relates to their writing, book marketing, social life, career, family and other endeavors.  What should writers use, as a filter or guide, to help them discern where they should invest their time, money, efforts, and brain power?

Here are some of the choices writers are confronted with:

When it comes to the act of writing, they need to determine:

·         What shall I write about?

·         Will I stick to one genre?

·         Should I self-publish or pursue a literary agent?

·         How much time shall I get aside to write, edit, research, and re-write?

When it comes to book marketing, they will confront these choices:

·         What type of activity should I be doing vs. hiring others to help?

·         What should my press kit and website look like?

·         Will I be active on social media, and if so, which platform(s)?

·         Should I be blogging, podcasting, or creating videos?

·         How much time will I make available for book promotions?

While writers try to strike a balance between writing books and marketing them, they still need to carve out time and energy to pursue their daily grind of chores, work, relationships, parenting and everything else.  Writers also need time to just reflect, recharge, and redouble their efforts.  So how will they go about doing all of this – and not lose their minds?

1. Set goals.  Once you know what you want to accomplish, work backwards from there.  Determine what’s important to you.

2. Identify your priorities.  Think of the steps that you need to take to achieve your goals.

3. Plan ahead.  A lot more can be accomplished when you plan ahead and set multiple things in motion so that you don’t have to rush or overcome the monumental task of  fixing things that get backed up.

4. Constantly review your progress and tinker with making changes.  Though consistency in your approach goes a long way to being successful, sometimes variety and mixing things up gives you fresh opportunities.

5. Be laser focused on what you are doing and tune the rest out.  However, be open to new things and people or you’ll get stale in your thinking.

6. Build on success.  If you are accelerating and excelling in a specific area, ride the wave and put more resources there.

7. Get enough sleep. Don’t cheat yourself out of rest and dream time.  You need a break to gain clarity and to avoid feeling burdened by a growing to-do list.

Lastly, have fun with whatever you are doing.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs 

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