Writer's New Year's Day 2018

 

A half decade.

That’s how long it’s been since I resolved to write and complete a story, a choice I’ve since named Writer’s New Year. We all make resolutions on 1 January every year. Often, I made writing resolutions on that date, but they faltered so I rarely counted them. But on 1 May 2013, I told myself that the scene I saw in my head—of a man, wearing a fedora, knocking on a door, being answered with bullets—was part of a story and I resolved to finish that story no matter what. I did, and it’s now called WADING INTO WAR: A BENJAMIN WADE MYSTERY.

The decision, back in 2013, was inspired by a quote whose origins I have forgotten: “A year from now, you may have wished you had started today.” By 2015, I had accomplished something else: I had formed my own company and published WADING INTO WAR. Since then, every 1 May, I take stock of things since the last Writer’s New Year. This is the 2018 edition.

The biggest change this year is that I have a plan, specifically a business plan. You see, Writer’s New Year is only focused on the writing part of things. In 2017, I learned I could produce a good quantity of words over multiple genres. As exciting as that was—and still is—I also have to focus on the business side of things. I may be a writer, but I am also a small business owner with products to sell. And one of the fundamental aspects of any company is to have a business plan. On various spreadsheets and yellow legal pads, I have composed various pie-in-the-sky ideas about publishing schedules. All were unsustainable. I needed something relatively concrete and ordered. And sustainable.

I think I have that now. You see, all during 2016 and 2017 and into 2018, I didn’t stop writing. Sure, I may have not published much, but I’ve got a backlog, a warehouse if you will. What the warehouse is allowing me to do is this: have a rather permanent schedule of publishing books and stories while learning more about the business of selling. I am fairly competent in knowing how to craft stories. I’m now needing to hone my marketing and business skills.

A few NFL head coaches plan their game strategies with a set number of opening plays. It’s to learn what the other team is doing and how well his own team performs on the field. That’s what I’m doing as I start Year Six of writing (and Year Four of publishing). I have a schedule. I have a plan. The beauty of independent publishing is that I can adjust the plan if necessary, but I’m more inclined to run the series of opening plays and see how things turn out. What are those plays? Well, read on.

Publish Fast or Publish Slow

Lots of authors write and publish fast. It’s not unheard of to have 10-15 books published in a single year for some of these folks. I know the old pulp fiction writers like Lester Dent (Doc Savage) and Walter Gibson (The Shadow) among others produced a book a month, but writing was all they did and if they failed, they wouldn’t feed their families. I’m in a different situation. I have a day job. I do not have eight or more hours a day to write. I have one, usually at 4:30am. Moreover, publishing fast yields different results for different people and genres. I write westerns and mysteries and, to date, both have seen little benefit to publishing fast.  Martha Carr tried it in 2016 and 2017 and Kristi Belcamino tried it recently, too. Both talked with Stephen Campbell of The Author Biz podcast about their experiences. I had already determined a monthly, rapid release schedule was unsustainable for me and their two case studies gave me evidence.

So I’m publishing at a roughly 12-week schedule. The only exception will be the launch of my Calvin Carter: Railroad Detective series later this year. It’s a plan, a hypothesis on my part. I will experiment and see what happens. But if enough folks like the stories I tell, I’m guessing they would be willing to wait.

Going Wide

I mentioned this is my most recent DoSomeDamage column, but my stories will be available just about everywhere (Google Play is still out of play). So if you want to read on your Kobo, your Nook, your iPhone, or almost anything else, no barrier will exist for you.

Video Channel

Yes, I’ve made a YouTube channel. My goal is to have videos for every story I publish, talking about the writing process. In addition, I’ll likely have other videos about podcasts I like, movies I’ve seen, books I’ve read, and almost anything else. It’ll be a place to talk about this I love.

Social Media

I’ve consolidated my Facebook, Twitter, web page, and newsletter into one site each. I used to have two each, one for my mystery name (Scott Dennis Parker) and another for my westerns (S. D. Parker). Now, Scott D. Parker: Storyteller is it.

I think that about covers it for Writer’s New Year’s Day 2018. I’m really excited about all the things I’ve got planned. And, a year from now, we’ll see how it all fared.