July, 2016 – Inaugural Issue – Continued
2. Test your assumptions about your readers with your readers
The next time you attend a writer’s conference or book conference, take time to find readers, not other writers, but readers who are fans of your genre and ask them about their reading habits. Where do they discover new books? What do they like about the genre? What books don’t they like? Do they follow author Facebook pages? What are their favorite social media pages? You made a number of assumptions about your potential fans in your business plan – now test those assumptions and find out if they are accurate or not.
3. Start reading about legal issues affecting authors.
Authors need to be realistic – we have to understand the law when it comes to copyright, publishing and rights. It is a bit scary and the easiest thing is to write and submit for publication or self-publish assuming we are such small fry no one will come after us. The truth is smart writers spend time learning and about the law. In the Writer’s Business Plan you were warned to find a good lawyer who understands laws that impact authors. Have you found one yet? If the answer is no, put that task on your to do list!
4. Find one good information source for each section of your business plan and follow their blog.
If you learned one lesson from “The Writer’s Business Plan” I hope that it was that the business plan should be an evolving document. You don’t want to write it, save it to your hard drive and never look at it again. To keep your plan up to date you need to stay current with the different sections of your plan. Continue your research. Your new information will provide you with new ideas to fine tune your business strategies and gain more readers and more sales!
5. Keep a copy of your business plan in a safe place.
Just as you spend a lot of time on your research and writing your new book, you spent time on your business plan. There is a goldmine of information there for your business and for your future success. You printed one copy for your desk, but don’t forget to print another copy (or put a copy on a thumb drive) and store it away from your office. If you work at home, then put a copy in your safe deposit box. Keep a copy in your dropbox or cloud storage account. When you update your plan don’t forget to put your new copy in the safe place. Your business plan is a valuable asset – treat it that way!