Taking Stock

It's now officially autumn, and the leaves here in northern Ohio are beginning to fall. Soon, my front yard will be covered in discarded oak leaves and I'll be scrambling for firewood.

This is the time of year I like to do a look back over the year and see where I'm at in this writing journey and where I'm headed. My yardstick contains several components:

1) October is one of the months during the year where royalty checks are issued. There will be one more issued when the books are closed for the year in December, but March and October are the biggies. I like to compare this year's checks with last year's and see if I've made any headway. If not, I need to explore ways to provide an additional revenue stream.



2) I check my swag to see if I need to order any more bookmarks, business cards, etc. Have I promoted myself enough?

3) Has my supply of my books dwindled to the point where I need to order more? Do I need to plan more public appearances next year?

4) I take a look at my book project folder to see if I'm able to mark anything off that list and update accordingly. Do I have any more compelling story lines to consider for next year?

5) I also look at my five-year plan, which gets extended out by a year each time. It's a good benchmark to keep me on track. Am I accomplishing the goals I've set forth?

Even though it's technically not the end of the year, it is the end of the year for my business, more or less. Before the craziness of the holidays happens, I can reflect on what I've accomplished this year and what even bigger things I can do for next year.

How about you? Do you take stock of your career at the end of each year? Do you make plans to do things differently in the coming months?

Ghostwriting As An Income Stream

For the past month or so, I've been involved in a ghostwriting project. I finished a 30,000 word Regency novella for them on Wednesday of this past week. Why, you may ask, did I want to do it?

There are several reasons, actually, other than the fact the pay isn't too bad.

First, writing for the Regency market is a fairly new experience for me, so anything I can write in that vein helps me in my own endeavors.

Second, I look at the work as if it were a foster child. I nurture and care for it while it's in my possession, but once it's ready, I pat it on the behind and let it go.

Third, my own work, anything I put my name on, goes through a very rigid set of edits and rewrites, which I don't need to do with these works.

Fourth, I don't have to promote the work, thereby saving me time and money. I don't obsess over sales numbers, try to figure out where to get the best bang for my advertising dollar, I don't need to chase down reviews, or any of the other things that come with promoting my own work. I don't know what happens to it after I let it go.

Last, I'm not obligated to give input on a cover, or to pay for it.

I can't say I do it with no regret, despite all these benefits. I get invested in the characters and the story lines and do wish I could keep them for myself. I hate working under a deadline, too, although I do it a lot.

But then, I don't have to wait six months for a royalty payment on books that were sold nine months to a year earlier. I get paid as I go, each time I turn in 10,000 words, and it shows up in my bank account within ten days. Will I do it again? Maybe not right away, but sure, I'll do it.