Showing posts with label creative goals. Show all posts

2018: My Plans For The Year Ahead

Firstly, Happy New Year! It is now officially 2018 and we have a whole year ahead of us. 365 days to fill with awesomeness. So have you thought about how you're going to fill them? I've been giving it some thought and that's what I want to share with you in today's post.

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My plans for 2018

Challenges

You may already know, I love a good challenge. Well, I have several planned for this year. I'll be updating you on my progress each week as I'll have a few on the ago at the same time. Some are reading related (2018 A to Z Reading Challenge, and Beat The Backlist), and some are writing related (several Camp NaNoWriMo's and the big one in November). You can also find my list of challenges at http://www.jolinsdell.com/p/my-challenges.html

500 words a day

I'm always busy. I have a lot of different projects going on, and juggle various jobs whilst being a mum, wife, and everything else. Needless to say I don't have much free time. I do plan to use my time better this year though, and make time for the things I want to do. One such thing is writing.

Every year I make the resolution to write more. I don't do too badly, but find I grab time when I can. This year I'm making time. I wanted to be realistic though and so have given myself a goal of 500 words a day. I'll be keeping track of this and the other habits I want to stick to this year in a habit tracker so I can clearly see my progress throughout the year.

More premades

Towards the end of 2017 my book cover design services launched, and I plan to add more happy clients to my portfolio this year.

Publishing plans

I have a lot of books I want to publish this year. Some non fiction, some children's picture books, and some novels. I also plan on finishing my serial fiction KOSMOS. It's going to be a busy 12 months.

Freelance writing

I used to do a fair bit of freelance writing in the past, but over recent years stopped. A big reason why I stopped was lack of time. I have even less free time now than I did back then so you may be wondering why I would consider starting back up this route now. The difference is that this time I have a plan.

In the past I did articles for low paying sites and so the time I spent writing them wasn't really worth it. This year I'll be targeting specific publications and websites, and higher paying markets. Again, I want to be realistic with my goals, and so I'm going to aim for one article a week (at least to start with). I'll be updating you on my progress throughout the year.

Blogging

As with every year I plan to grow my blogs. Both this one, and Writers And Authors. I'll be working more on marketing both, and building a larger readership. I'm also going to be looking into new ways to increase profits over at Writers and Authors, and will be adding some new services.

Promo Day

Promo Day will make it's annual return again this year on Saturday 5th May. You can find out more about the event at the Promo Day website. I would love to grow the event even more this year. I'm still working on ideas but already have some excellent presenters lined up for the webinars.

A healthier me

Not directly a work related goal but still an important one that will have an effect on my work. As some of you that have followed me for some time will know, I don't have the best of health. My immune system often shuts down due to allergies. Being ill is not only unpleasant, it also effects my work. It's hard to keep up with deadlines when you're stuck in bed with a temperature or a virus.

So my plan for 2018 is to be healthier. I'm going to be working out every day. Yep, work out is on my habit tracker too. I may share more insight into my work outs and the progress I make through out the year as I think it's important to take care of our bodies. It's also something a lot of writers neglect. We spend far too much time sitting around which can have a negative effect on our health. I won't be signing up for any flashy gym memberships. It will all be simple workouts that can be done from home with little or no equipment. The sort of stuff anyone can do.

What are your goals for 2018?

Things don't always go to plan

When 2017 kicked off, like most years before it, I had big plans for the year ahead. I was going to take part in the A Story A Week challenge, finish my overflowing WIP pile, and a whole bunch of other tasks, and projects. With the end of the year now fast approaching I can already clearly see that I didn't manage to tick off all the things on my list. Whilst this is disappointing, I also expected this to happen. I know you're probably asking "why did you even bother to make a list if you knew you wouldn't complete it?" Well, because I did kick off a lot of the list.

I always make an over ambitious to do list for the year ahead. It helps get me excited about all the things I'll be working on over the course of the new year. I reach for the moon, so I can at least fall amongst the stars. It's a system that works for me personally.

Looking back over my long, ambitious, list for 2017 I'm happy to note the amount of things I did do (and let's not forget, I still have a couple of months to catch up ;)). I class every single tick on that list as a success. I might not have written as many books as I had hoped. Sure, there are loads of authors out there who produced a lot more than I did. I'm OK with that. I'm not in competition with them. I'm in competition with myself. The me I was yesterday, last week, last month, or last year.

I didn't write a story every week of the year. I did write several though, which puts me ahead of where I was at the beginning of the year.

I didn't manage to finish writing my serial fiction KOSMOS. This I'm really sorry about. Like I said though, the year isn't over yet... and I'm not giving up. Sometimes life gets in the way of even the best laid plans. I'm just having to reschedule, and change my plans a bit. I'll tell you more about that next week.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.– Confucius #quote #QOTD

One of the things I'm most proud of doing this year, is finally launching my book cover design service. I've already got to work with some great authors, and hope to add many more to my client list. I've been having loads of fun creating new premade covers, and trying out new genres and styles.

I'm really pleased with the launch of this new service, but I've also learnt a few lessons in the process. I spent a long time planning for the launch (which happened on 1st October this year), including an extended beta phase to work out all the details in the months leading up to the launch. I planned. I still had to rework things, and make changes to my set up. So you see, even when you research, plan, study, and then plan some more... things might not go to plan. Things came up that I hadn't considered when I initially worked out my pricing. I'll go into more detail about what goes into creating a cover and what you're paying for when you buy one in another blog post soon as it's an important topic, and will be useful for those of you considering ordering a book cover (whether it's a premade or a custom design).

I wanted to do a lot more marketing and promotion this year too. I did interviews, was hosted on various sites, etc... but not as much as I'd planned. I'll be doing a big blitz in December to help improve on this though. A virtual book tour for ALL of my published books. I'm putting together a mega media kit packed with info about all of my books. I'll let you know more details about the tour soon, but if you're interested in hosting me on your blog, or even on one of your social media profiles, please get in touch.

So you see, this year has been full of successes, and failures.... but it's not over yet. I still have time to tick a few more things off that list.

How was your 2017? Did you reach all your goals? What plans do you have to tick more off your list before the end of year? Let me know about your successes and failures of 2017.

One of the things I loved most about this years Promo Day was how real everyone was. Everyone was sharing tips, tricks, and strategies, but all without sales pitches and promises. They were honest and down to Earth.

As creatives we love the freedom to express ourselves, and that should happen in all aspects of our work. Whether we're writing, drawing, or marketing and building our brand. In fact, when we step out of the mainstream mould that's when the magic happens.

This morning as I was checking my emails I read one I'd received from Regina from http://byregina.com/ (she has some awesome stuff on her website by the way, and I highly recommend signing up for her newsletter). Well, this mornings email was entitled "Don't leave the Matrix just to join an internet cult". It really hit home as it backed up some of the points raised during Saturdays Promo Day event.

"Don't let someone else define your world and your life for you."

It can be so easy to get sucked into the tunnel of advice that we forget about our own goals and feel like we're doing something wrong. We get obsessed with figures and spend our time searching for ways to increase our followings and feel bad when we don't get the results we've seen others get. Why are they getting awesome results when we're doing the same things and seeing nothing?

I'm guilty of being sucked into the tunnel, and I'm sure that you are too to a certain extent. Well, it's time to change that.

I'd love to be making 100K+ a month (heck, I'd like to be making that in a year!), but it's not realistic. Sure there are people doing it. They are usually very vocal about their success too. They pull you into their "friends" group and offer advice on how you too can see results like theirs. When you don't though you feel bad. You feel confused. You feel like you're doing something wrong....

Guess what? You are. You forgot about the most important asset you have. YOU. If you love what you do, and share about it with genuine enthusiasm people will feel your vibe. By not falling into the mainstream mould you stand out and people appreciate your uniqueness.

Our goal is not to fit in, but to stand out.

Stacey Keith talked about how her Facebook community grew without having a specific strategy in mind during our live panel discussion during Promo Day (You can watch the whole video chat here if you missed it). She mentioned how she just posts about things that interest her, and how she has never really thought about technical online marketing strategies like hashtags. She just keeps it real, and guess what? She has a large, and very interactive community.

We need to think less about statistics and sales that can make us feel inadequate, and concentrate more on what makes us happy. This is why I'll be making some changes over the coming months.

- I'll be spending more time writing my books. My works in progress somehow slipped down my priority list and ended up being neglected.
- I'll be organising my content so you can find what you need faster.
- I'll be doing more webinars and e-courses (both free and paid) as I love helping people.
- I'll be redesigning my monthly newsletter.
- I'll be making more premade book covers. I love doing these! I can't believe I waited so long to get started.

Do you ever feel like you've been pulled into an internet cult?

Making 2016 Awesome: Creative Goals for the New Year

Those of you that know me a little will know that I love the word "awesome". I don't set goals for good, or even great. What I want to reach is awesome, and that's just want I'm aiming for in 2016; for it to be even more awesome than the years that came before it.

You may also know that I love a good challenge. I'm very goals oriented, and the idea of a whole year ahead gives me that butterfly feeling in my stomach as I buzz with excitement about all the new possibilities and opportunities ahead.

My goals for 2016

1) Be a healthy worker.

I'm a workaholic by nature and, as I love what I do, I often forget to have down time. I get so caught up in my ideas and projects that I then get forced into taking down time because my body says it's had enough. Seriously, you know how Facebook has that memories feature where they show you stuff you posted on that day in the past? Well, every year my posts from November to February show I'm always ill. I kid you not. It's gotten so bad that it's now considered a yearly tradition. I'm not limited to just the winter months either. My poorly functioning immune system crumbles on me at random points through out the year too.

I think we can all agree that being ill is no fun so, my first goal for 2016 is to be healthy. I'll be scheduling in down time to make sure I don't get burn out, and making sure I do more exercise and eat better too.

As my job as writer and illustrator means I spend a lot of time sitting down (something the experts tells us is bad for our health), I've decided to nurture my goal-junkie personality and set myself the challenge of doing at least 20 minutes exercise a day. The type of exercise will vary to stop me getting bored, so I could end up going for a jog, doing some yoga, or playing Dance 4 or Zumba on my Wii ( I have a feeling the latter will happen more regularly than the others do).

2) Create more

I have more than enough ideas for projects I'd like to work on. My biggest problem is often picking which ideas to go with. Having such a big list of ideas can work against me too though. I sometimes end up wasting time picking an idea or getting side tracked by new ideas that finishing projects can be difficult.

I'd like for 2016 to be my most productive year yet, and so have been working out a schedule for the projects I'd like to complete this year.

Projects I'll be working on this year

This is a rough list of the books I hope to release during 2016.

Non fiction

- From Idea to Published Book

- Quick Tips for Authors

- Pinterest Perfect (Writers and Authors Guide to Social Media Book 2)

- Facebook Fabulous (Writers and Authors Guide to Social Media Book 3)

Children's Picture Story Books

- The Bedtime Book

- Christmas Activity Books [I'm still working on a title for this series of books].

3) Income Goals

I made the decision to make creativity a career and that means I need to be making money doing it. I'm also quite ambitious and dream big.

Despite having had some success over the years (thank you all for all your help and support with that btw ;)), I feel like I've only dabbled until now. 2016 is the year that stops. No more dabbling. It's time to turn myself into a prosperous business. Show me the money!!! haha, seriously though, it's time for me to move up a level, or three, and start making some real money.

I have several plans to help me achieve that goal:

- Create more books. Both my own projects and collaborations with clients.

- E-Courses. I've been working on these for a while now and this year will be launching several.

- Blogging. I've been blogging for years but didn't look at it as a business in the past. That changed in 2015. It stopped being just a hobby and turned into a business. I'll be developing http://writersandauthors.blogspot.com more this year and maximising its earning potential.

Another important decision I've made to help me reach my income goals this year is to stop doing freebies. I don't mean I won't offer stuff for free. I love giving away treats. It's my way of saying thank you for all the love and support you show me. What I mean is that I'll stop letting people take advantage of me.

When you work in the creative field people often feel like they can ask you for freebies. Whether it's drawing something or writing an article, you're giving away your value time (which could be spent earning money for doing the same thing). Time is money. Why is it that people think it's Ok to ask you to draw a picture for free, or write an article for free? Would they go into a clothes shop and take a top expecting to get it for free? or to go to a restaurant and eat for free? No they wouldn't. So why should your product be any different. And no, saying they want to "sample" your work first doesn't cut it either. Would they get the top from the clothes shop by saying they wanted to test it so they could consider buying a full outfit in the future? Would they get given a free plate of pasta if they said they'd consider coming back and ordering a 3 course meal on another day? No they wouldn't. Ok, rant over. The point is this; I'm going to stop under valuing myself and my work, and stop letting people take advantage of my good nature.

Do you get people expecting to get your creative talents for free?

This leads me on to the next point in my income plan; Paid guest blogging.

I love writing articles for other peoples blogs and publications. It's a great marketing strategy too as it gives me the chance to reach new audiences. I will still do some guest blogging for free (like I said, it's good marketing), but I'll be concentrating on writing more articles for pay this year.

So to sum it all up...

What I want for 2016 is for it to be a healthy, productive, and lucrative year.

What are your goals for 2016? What changes will you be making to make sure 2016 is awesome?

2018: My Plans For The Year Ahead

My plans for 2018

Challenges

500 words a day

More premades

Publishing plans

Freelance writing

Blogging

Promo Day

A healthier me

Things don't always go to plan

Making 2016 Awesome: Creative Goals for the New Year

My goals for 2016

1) Be a healthy worker.

2) Create more

Projects I'll be working on this year

Non fiction

Children's Picture Story Books

3) Income Goals

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