What a difference a year makes!

​Exactly one year ago, I made a choice.
 
After years of hoping someone else would swoop in and take charge of my dreams, I decided to move forward on my own with my writing.  I decided to stop messing around.  I didn’t want to be part of a writers ‘fantasy camp’ mentality any longer, so I started my own company.
 
After googling “How to write a business plan,” I wrote out the following goals:
 
Short term goals:
1)     Publish my novel, The Last Good Day.  Put it in front of an audience.
2)     Learn the industry further and develop a company that is able to, through my work as I’ll be the only employee, get a book out and in front of its audience.
3)     Execute a marketing plan that makes sense in terms of the money I can spend and the audience I want to reach.
4)     Learn how to discipline myself with the needs of the business and those of being a writer-write like a professional and run a business like a grown up.
5)     Do not let any of this get in the way of my role as a parent/husband/friend/family member
6)     Make $1 profit.
7)     Generate interest in the next story.
 
Long term goals:
1)     If I’m good at this, I will create a space that I can not only put out my own works, but I can support the work of other writers both within and without the bounds of my own family.
2)     Make back the money I am going to invest.
3)     Be a model for my children on how one can grow over time and learn how to do the things we want to do in our own way.
4)     Believe in myself.
5)     Have an article about me in Wooster Magazine.
6)     Be interviewed on Fresh Air by Terry Gross.
7)     Appear as a speaker at the WDC and be in a position to tell all of the people like me that it’s possible.
8)     Be that guy that knows how to do this.
 
Overall Purpose:
To publish good books.  To tell good stories.
To give ear to voices that one might otherwise miss, in the great
disquiet of our modern world.
 
I’ve accomplished some of those, not all, but overall, it has been a remarkable year. I’ve accomplished a lot and I hope to do more.  I hope that I learn to work smarter as well as harder.
 
2018 saw four books hit the market with my name on them. I even sold some. People asked me to sign them. I was invited into classrooms to talk about writing and publishing. My books were featured in my alma mater’s bookstore. I’ve made some new friends in the business and have learned a lot from them.  I have so much more to learn.
 
That said, if 2019 is anything like 2018 was for me as a writer, it’s going to be a pretty fun year.
 
Beyond the books, it’s been a pretty remarkable year for my family and we find ourselves looking forward to an exciting year as a family with some fun travel planned, despite the impact of the current government shutdown.  More on that in future posts.
 
I still don’t know how it will all play out long-term, but it’s what I did and I’m glad I did it.
 
We are playing a long game here. Thank you so much for reading and for your support. It makes more of a difference than you know.  Full promotion on book #2 in the Avery & Angela Series begins soon, so please check it out now before prices change HERE!  
 
Happy 2019!