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Let's imagine a couple of scenarios. Writer
A wants to be a fulltime writer. She knows that in order to
do this, she needs to sell X number of articles, and sell a
book proposal a year.
Writer A knows that in addition to writing
the works, she will need to market them. Writer A creates a
marketing plan. It takes her 30 minutes on her computer. She
decides that she will send out five article proposals a week,
and she will research and write a book proposal.
She slots the time to do those things into
her daily schedule. She knows that these tasks are non-negotiable.
No matter what happens, she will perform those tasks every day.
Even on her worst day, when her car breaks down, her child needs
to go to the hospital, and she has a killer migraine.
Writer B wants to be a fulltime writer too.
Like Writer A, she knows that she will have to sell X articles,
and sell a book proposal. Writer B doesn't make a plan. She
gets started writing an article proposal. She realizes that
she needs to gather research resources, and sends out five emails.
Next morning, she downloads her emails and
is instantly depressed. No one has answered. She decides she'll
give her prospective sources a few more days to reply. She goes
on with her life. She'll get around to the writing when her
sources reply.
A week later, one of the sources gets back
to Writer B, who suddenly remembers that she was researching
an article proposal. She rereads her notes. The idea has gone
flat. She's no longer
interested in writing it.
The point of these two scenarios is that real
life is messy. It's easy to lose track of what you're doing
if you don't have the process written down somewhere. This means,
create a plan, and then create checklists and check them off
every day to make sure that you keep working the plan.
QUESTIONS TO ANSWER IN YOUR MARKETING PLAN
=> Q: What kind of writing do you want
to do and sell?
Make a list: copywriting, magazine feature
articles, novels, nonfiction books, etc
=> Q: What's the market for each type of
writing?
This section will take you the longest, especially
if you're a new writer. It doesn't help that many writers' online
discussion groups actively discourage talk about how much writers
get paid.
When all else fails, ask someone who's doing
the kind of writing that you want to do.
=> Q: What makes your writing unique?
This is a "know yourself" kind of
question.
=> Q: How much can you produce?
You must make production goals part of your
marketing plan. If you're a part-time writer, how many saleable
words can you produce a week? 2000?
If you're a full-time writer, set a goal of
saleable words produced for each day. Make this a goal which
is easily reachable.
=> Q: Create a list of target markets
This is self-explanatory. It's a marketing
database.
=> Q: How will you reach your target markets?
Email, mail, fax?
=> Q: What's your long-term monetary goal?
How will you reach that goal?
Please set a goal for three years from now,
a year from now, for this month, for this week, and for today.
You're less likely to waste time if you know that the hour you
spent on the phone cost you $90.
=> Q: How much are you making from your
writing now?
If you've yet to make your first sale, that's
fine.
If you've been making the same amount for
the past two years, that's a danger sign: you've hit a level
that's too comfortable for you. You'll need to make a concerted
effort to get out of your comfort zone.
There you have it. A basic marketing plan
that will work for you.
Good luck. :-)
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