Most authors wait until the new year to think about goals for books and themselves.
Don’t. Get out your crystal ball, shake it up, and gaze into it. What worked this past year? What didn’t? If you have the magic wand, what would you like NEXT year to do for you … for your book? Whatever it is … you need a plan.
No author plans to fail; what they do is fail to plan.
-Snappy Sassy Salty
When I completed Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers, it was woven with quotations to kick-
start and propel you forward. If you are going to succeed in this writing, authoring, publishing arena, you need to be kick-started and refueled to propel your forward. Most of us have resolutions at this time of the year, loaded with good intentions. By mid-January, they begin to dwindle.
Stop … don’t go down the dwindle and disappear path … a path that is all too common for too many authors follow. First, start with realism. Not pie-in-the-sky … reaching to stuff that is more fantasy and fiction vs. “yes, this can happen” approach. Becoming a Kindle best-seller is totally possible; being a best-seller on Amazon is totally possible; getting in front of media is totally possible; having an awesome book event is totally possible; speaking at an event and selling lots of books is totally possible. Is being on the New Times best-seller list possible? Maybe … probable … hmm, not so sure. Necessary … no.
If you don’t know where you are going, you’ve chosen to go nowhere. Any road will do.
– Snappy Sassy Salty
Being realistic is critical to tying in with success for you and your book. It’s goal setting time …
To set you and your book into a positive book strategy mindset for 2015, here are a eight key tips that I used in one of our Blogs…if you missed it, it’s new. If you read it, it’s the perfect time to review.
1 Be realistic. You might want your book to sell 20,000 copies … do you have a GamePlan in place to initiate and support it. Do you have the time to support it? Do you have the energy? Do you have the network? If not, perhaps it’s not a realistic goal for you right now.
Stop living your fears … live your dreams. If you believe your book will be successful, it’s the first step. – Snappy Sassy Salty
2 Determine if your Goals are measureable and make them so they are. Don’t be vague or up in the air. Put numbers, facts by them. Don’t say “Get on TV” or “Sell more books.” State what TV show you will get on … how many books you will sell (a special amount of percentage increase).
3 Get a Goal Pal … someone you connect with once a week…a someone who will help hold you accountable and be an encourager as well.
4 Create a visual Goal Board. Write yours down.
5 Create an Action Plan for you and your book. Once you get these in writing, “ahas” happen. It is also a crucial and realistic checkpoint.
6 Review as the year flows. Tweak here and there. Stay on track.
7 Revisit your Goals. Record your accomplishments as the year progresses. It keeps you “goosed” and IDs what’s working … and what is not.
8 Celebrate when you achieve a Goal. And here’s the fun part… you design the celebration around what you want to do.
Ta Dah! Here’s to reaching all of your personal and book marketing goals in 2015! We have lots planned for you this year, starting with next month. Authors need eBooks in their mix, big time. What’s yours?
Everything “e” in the book world is the topic for the January 6th Saturday Mornings. Note: unless identified with a different date, Saturday Mornings will be held the first Saturday of the month. There are none in May because of the Extravaganza (May 7-9), during the summer months and December.
Instagram and Pinterest is hot, hot, hot and those who attend January’s Tech Tool Box on January 13th with our geek pros will have at the end of the session their accounts set up and running.
Managing Your Social Media without Going Nuts is what the January Monday Evening Salon on 
January 12th is all 
about that will contain a composite of many of the top tools to be using for your authoring and marketing and the #1 one to manage it all.
And, there’s a Webinar Gold planned and of course the Author Circles 
that many of our out-of-Colorado members are quite active in … not to mention our weekly radio show, Author
Podcasts
U-Your Guide to Book Publishing with over 200,000 downloads of the podcast each month.
Wake up. Kick ass. Repeat. Don’t you love it?
–Snappy Sassy Salty
Get tuned in so you and your book can be tuned up!
If you are looking for FREE author and book coaching … call in to Judith’s Author Monday Mornings at NOON Eastern each Monday. The number is 218-632-9854; Access Code 1239874444 … have your questions ready–there’s a full hour to ask and listen.
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