Publishing with Purpose: Three Tips for Setting Your 2024 Goals as an Author
It's that time where we begin to make plans for the upcoming New Year.
Personally, I love setting new intentions, new goals, and getting a better idea of what I want to accomplish. But I know this can be a rather difficult task (or, let's be honest, a dreaded task) for many authors.
So I wanted to share three tips to help set you up for a successful 2024.
Reflect on your year.
There's so much we can learn from the past twelve months. Before you move forward to 2024, think through what you did in 2023.
What worked?
What didn't work?
What were some accomplishments (big or small) that you are proud of?
What are three of the biggest lessons you learned?
We always want to learn and grow from our wins and misses. Take note of those and apply them to your 2024 plan.
Focus on the first three months of 2024.
Five years ago I had a mapped out my entire year (literally every detail) that I wanted to accomplish. It took me DAYS to plan. But three weeks into January, it all came tumbling down and I had to scrap everything. I felt like I had completely failed - and the year had just started.
Now I only plan out three months at a time. It's less overwhelming, it presents your goals in smaller and more doable chunks, and you can make adjustments quickly.
You can absolutely set big goals more than three months out (like your release date or launching a website) but making the actual plans to accomplish those goals can be broken up into smaller timeframes.
Focus on one goal at a time.
When it comes to writing and marketing a book, there's a lot to juggle and we are often pressed for time.
Here's a process that I would highly recommend:
Write down all of the things that you want to accomplish to get them out of your head.
From that list pick three.
Then from that list of three, pick one to focus on.
Take your one goal and list out the steps that it will take to accomplish that goal.
Now take those steps and assign them to a certain day or week on your calendar to do the tasks.
This will help you to focus on one task at a time and empower you to get it done faster (and with better quality!) because you aren't focusing on 27 other goals at the same time.
Focusing on one goal at a time doesn't mean those other goals will be ignored, you'll be able to focus on them later.
It's so much easier to know where you're going and how to get there when you have a plan. It applies to planning a trip as well as planning your writing and book marketing. :)
So set aside an hour to put these three tips to work. It's easy to apply and it will provide the structure that you need to create a doable plan for 2024.
And to help you make 2024 even more productive and successful for you and your book, I have the perfect solution.
Join us in The Author Circle - our exclusive membership for fiction and non fiction authors!
