Career Planning for Authors... #WWoW!
Author R. Ann Siracusa talks about Career Planning.
When I signed up to write this blog, I thought a lot about the insights I might share with other writers that would be useful. There are many things I've learned over the years, and most of it you've probably already heard. The one topic I'm really passionate about is preparing a Career Plan. This is a very condensed version of a class I give. If, after reading this, if you want the full information and worksheets, contact me.
WHY PREPARE A CAREER PLAN?
Every writer/author should prepare a career plan because it helps you to clarify what you want out of writing and to make informed choices about your career.
● You need to know where you're going in order to get there.
● Writing is either a hobby or a business. Both are okay, but you should know what it is to you.
● You need to know what you’re striving for in order to make choices.
● Writing takes commitment and requires sacrifices; it requires large investments of time, emotions, money, energy, and self-esteem. You need to know how much you are willing to invest.
● A plan is a guide for decision-making.
● You need goals and measurable action steps to measure your progress.
GUIDELINES
Your career plan is for you―you never have to show it to anyone. And it will change over time. Put your plan in writing and keep it where you can see it. It will help you keep focused. When preparing your plan:
● Be brutally honest with yourself.
● Tap your emotions.
● Visualize it.
● Be specific
● Be realistic. You may win the first contest you enter, or you may sell the first thing you write and send out, but you may not. Most of us don’t. Tailor your plan to what it real.
● Keep it simple.
● Reevaluate and revise at least once a year.
CONTENTS
There are three basic steps to any kind of planning. Ask yourself these three questions.
● Where am I now? –Assessment of the current circumstances;
● Where do I want to go? – Statement of Vision and goals;
● How do I get there? – Action plan with specific actions and measurable milestones in a time frame.
STEP 1 - ASSESS YOUR CURRENT STATUS
Assess where you are in terms of skill development, what you need to learn, experience, etc. The questions that are pertinent are related to where you are in your career. Be brutally honest with yourself.
● Personal Motivation - What motivates you? How long have you been writing seriously? Why do you write?
● Commitment - What is your personal commitment? Are you willing to give up other parts of your life to write? How many classes have you taken? How many pitches have you made?
● Productivity - How productive are you? Do you constantly increase the number of words you can write?
● Professional Activity - Are you a member of a critique group or writing organization such as RWA? Mystery Writers of America? Are you active? Do you attend conferences?
● Presence on the Web – What is your presence on the web? What social media sites do you belong to and are you active?
● Roadblocks - Write six things you perceive as keeping you from achieving your goals as a writer.
● Strengths – What are you best writing skills?
● Weaknesses – What are the areas in which you need improvement to your writing skills?
After working through these assessments, write down where you believe you are in your career and what areas you need to strengthen.
STEP 2 – WRITE YOUR VISION AND GOALS
All of us have general goals, but the more realistic and specific they are, the more likely you are to achieve them. Think about these things and do some serious soul-searching.
Career Purpose Statement
● What is your career purpose(your inspiration for writing)? - What is it you want to tell the reader and/or contribute to society through your writing?
● What is your life purpose? - (Heavy stuff, right?) Why do you believe you are on the earth? If possible, try to integrate career purpose and life purpose.
● What do you believe? What is important to you? – What are your hot buttons in real life? What are you passionate about? What moves you and makes you angry, or cry, or excited?
● What do you like to read? - What are the underlying themes you like to read about? What draws you to them? Write down five themes/hooks that never fail to move you.
● What do you like to write about? - Write down five topics or themes that show up regularly in your own work. Write three verbs (e.g. inspire, challenge, entertain, frighten, etc.) that best describe the impact you want to have on your readers.
●Who is your target audience(s)? Identify your target audience as specifically as you can. (Such as children in high school getting ready for college, or Women who were married a long time and then lost their spouse to death or divorce, etc.).
●Now write your Career Purpose Statement. It will read something like the following examples: 1) To entertain readers with a much-needed escape when life get tough, or 2) to inspire women to follow their dreams; or 3) To give hope to young people about their futures.
Ultimate Career Goal
● Write down your initial idea for an ultimate career goal or career vision.
● Now, make the statement more specific and note tangible end results.
● Add the emotion and incorporate how you will feel when you read the statement.
● Add visualization. When you achieve this career vision, how will it impact you?
Author Brand
Your Author Brand is not only a tag line or a catchy slogan; it is your reputation, your voice, what your write about, your public image, what makes your work unique from everyone else’s, everything about you.
Professional Image
● Personal Physical Appearance - How you look, dress, and your overall physical “tone”
● Personal Physical Manner - The manifestation of how you feel about yourself
● Personal Speech - How you speak. What you say and how you say it
● Written Words - What you write, on paper, in novels, in interviews, e-mails, blogs
● Non-Personal Physical Appearance - The appearance and impression of your website, your stationery, your business cards, your advertising, and all things that represent you and your product
STEP 3 – PREPARE AN ACTION PLAN
So, now you know what you want your ultimate career to look like. This part of the plan is identifying the steps you must take to achieve your goal.
Remember, the key to an action plan is setting specific realistic goals that are measurable within a specific time period and that you have control over.
If you’ve finished several novels but never sent any of them out, you are in a different place than an author who has won several contests, had several full manuscripts requested, and has rewritten a novel to correct the flaws an editor or agent has pointed out. Authors who just sold their first book are in a different place than authors with several books published.
Start with where you are now, and eat the elephant one bite at a time. However, each action step should move you in the direction of your ultimate goal and should build the author brand. Be honest with yourself. The action plan you develop must be feasible and must take into consideration your constraints in targeting your goals.
Start with your five year goals.
● Write your realistic five-year goals.
● Prioritize your five-year goals - Your five year goals will be fairly general.
● List the action steps that must be taken to achieve those goals. – Your action steps will be about as general as your goals.
Now, go to your one year goals, and keeping in mind where you want to be in five years, prepare goals for the first year.
● Write your realistic one-year goals – Be specific and detailed here.
● Prioritize your one-year goals – “If I could do only one thing on this list during the year, what does it have to be?” Then look at what's left and go through the same process. This will give you a list of what is most important.
This doesn't mean you work on goals one at a time. All of them are important, but sometimes they have to occur sequentially. The priority list is a tool to help you manage your resources and career. If something comes up that affects available time, money resources, etc. (such as an illness), you know where to cut…from the bottom of the list. If your available time is cut in half, you drop the last goal or do less work on it than the higher priorities.
● Write realistic action steps (what do you have to do) to achieve your one year goals – action steps must be specific, have a time frame, and a measure of success…and they must be something you can do yourself.
● Monitor your action plan as adjust as necessary – At least every four to six months do an update of the action plan and measure your progress.
Contact me: If you would like more information, e-mail me at punkyc@pacbell.net and put WoW! Wednesday in the title. Or contact me through my website at http://www.rannsiracusa.com/blog. I'd be happy to send you the information and worksheets.
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Goodreads Breathless Press Buy Link
When I signed up to write this blog, I thought a lot about the insights I might share with other writers that would be useful. There are many things I've learned over the years, and most of it you've probably already heard. The one topic I'm really passionate about is preparing a Career Plan. This is a very condensed version of a class I give. If, after reading this, if you want the full information and worksheets, contact me.
WHY PREPARE A CAREER PLAN?
Every writer/author should prepare a career plan because it helps you to clarify what you want out of writing and to make informed choices about your career.
● You need to know where you're going in order to get there.
● Writing is either a hobby or a business. Both are okay, but you should know what it is to you.
● You need to know what you’re striving for in order to make choices.
● Writing takes commitment and requires sacrifices; it requires large investments of time, emotions, money, energy, and self-esteem. You need to know how much you are willing to invest.
● A plan is a guide for decision-making.
● You need goals and measurable action steps to measure your progress.
GUIDELINES
Your career plan is for you―you never have to show it to anyone. And it will change over time. Put your plan in writing and keep it where you can see it. It will help you keep focused. When preparing your plan:
● Be brutally honest with yourself.
● Tap your emotions.
● Visualize it.
● Be specific
● Be realistic. You may win the first contest you enter, or you may sell the first thing you write and send out, but you may not. Most of us don’t. Tailor your plan to what it real.
● Keep it simple.
● Reevaluate and revise at least once a year.
CONTENTS
There are three basic steps to any kind of planning. Ask yourself these three questions.
● Where am I now? –Assessment of the current circumstances;
● Where do I want to go? – Statement of Vision and goals;
● How do I get there? – Action plan with specific actions and measurable milestones in a time frame.
STEP 1 - ASSESS YOUR CURRENT STATUS
Assess where you are in terms of skill development, what you need to learn, experience, etc. The questions that are pertinent are related to where you are in your career. Be brutally honest with yourself.
● Personal Motivation - What motivates you? How long have you been writing seriously? Why do you write?
● Commitment - What is your personal commitment? Are you willing to give up other parts of your life to write? How many classes have you taken? How many pitches have you made?
● Productivity - How productive are you? Do you constantly increase the number of words you can write?
● Professional Activity - Are you a member of a critique group or writing organization such as RWA? Mystery Writers of America? Are you active? Do you attend conferences?
● Presence on the Web – What is your presence on the web? What social media sites do you belong to and are you active?
● Roadblocks - Write six things you perceive as keeping you from achieving your goals as a writer.
● Strengths – What are you best writing skills?
● Weaknesses – What are the areas in which you need improvement to your writing skills?
After working through these assessments, write down where you believe you are in your career and what areas you need to strengthen.
STEP 2 – WRITE YOUR VISION AND GOALS
All of us have general goals, but the more realistic and specific they are, the more likely you are to achieve them. Think about these things and do some serious soul-searching.
Career Purpose Statement
● What is your career purpose(your inspiration for writing)? - What is it you want to tell the reader and/or contribute to society through your writing?
● What is your life purpose? - (Heavy stuff, right?) Why do you believe you are on the earth? If possible, try to integrate career purpose and life purpose.
● What do you believe? What is important to you? – What are your hot buttons in real life? What are you passionate about? What moves you and makes you angry, or cry, or excited?
● What do you like to read? - What are the underlying themes you like to read about? What draws you to them? Write down five themes/hooks that never fail to move you.
● What do you like to write about? - Write down five topics or themes that show up regularly in your own work. Write three verbs (e.g. inspire, challenge, entertain, frighten, etc.) that best describe the impact you want to have on your readers.
●Who is your target audience(s)? Identify your target audience as specifically as you can. (Such as children in high school getting ready for college, or Women who were married a long time and then lost their spouse to death or divorce, etc.).
●Now write your Career Purpose Statement. It will read something like the following examples: 1) To entertain readers with a much-needed escape when life get tough, or 2) to inspire women to follow their dreams; or 3) To give hope to young people about their futures.
Ultimate Career Goal
● Write down your initial idea for an ultimate career goal or career vision.
● Now, make the statement more specific and note tangible end results.
● Add the emotion and incorporate how you will feel when you read the statement.
● Add visualization. When you achieve this career vision, how will it impact you?
Author Brand
Your Author Brand is not only a tag line or a catchy slogan; it is your reputation, your voice, what your write about, your public image, what makes your work unique from everyone else’s, everything about you.
Professional Image
● Personal Physical Appearance - How you look, dress, and your overall physical “tone”
● Personal Physical Manner - The manifestation of how you feel about yourself
● Personal Speech - How you speak. What you say and how you say it
● Written Words - What you write, on paper, in novels, in interviews, e-mails, blogs
● Non-Personal Physical Appearance - The appearance and impression of your website, your stationery, your business cards, your advertising, and all things that represent you and your product
STEP 3 – PREPARE AN ACTION PLAN
So, now you know what you want your ultimate career to look like. This part of the plan is identifying the steps you must take to achieve your goal.
Remember, the key to an action plan is setting specific realistic goals that are measurable within a specific time period and that you have control over.
If you’ve finished several novels but never sent any of them out, you are in a different place than an author who has won several contests, had several full manuscripts requested, and has rewritten a novel to correct the flaws an editor or agent has pointed out. Authors who just sold their first book are in a different place than authors with several books published.
Start with where you are now, and eat the elephant one bite at a time. However, each action step should move you in the direction of your ultimate goal and should build the author brand. Be honest with yourself. The action plan you develop must be feasible and must take into consideration your constraints in targeting your goals.
Start with your five year goals.
● Write your realistic five-year goals.
● Prioritize your five-year goals - Your five year goals will be fairly general.
● List the action steps that must be taken to achieve those goals. – Your action steps will be about as general as your goals.
Now, go to your one year goals, and keeping in mind where you want to be in five years, prepare goals for the first year.
● Write your realistic one-year goals – Be specific and detailed here.
● Prioritize your one-year goals – “If I could do only one thing on this list during the year, what does it have to be?” Then look at what's left and go through the same process. This will give you a list of what is most important.
This doesn't mean you work on goals one at a time. All of them are important, but sometimes they have to occur sequentially. The priority list is a tool to help you manage your resources and career. If something comes up that affects available time, money resources, etc. (such as an illness), you know where to cut…from the bottom of the list. If your available time is cut in half, you drop the last goal or do less work on it than the higher priorities.
● Write realistic action steps (what do you have to do) to achieve your one year goals – action steps must be specific, have a time frame, and a measure of success…and they must be something you can do yourself.
● Monitor your action plan as adjust as necessary – At least every four to six months do an update of the action plan and measure your progress.
Contact me: If you would like more information, e-mail me at punkyc@pacbell.net and put WoW! Wednesday in the title. Or contact me through my website at http://www.rannsiracusa.com/blog. I'd be happy to send you the information and worksheets.
R. Ann Siracusa's Author BIO
I’m
a California girl who earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from UC
Berkeley, then went immediately to Rome, Italy. On my first day there, I met an
Italian policeman at the Fountain of Love, and the rest is history. Instead of
a degree from the University of Rome, I got a husband, and we’ve been married going
on fifty years. In Rome, I worked for as an architect and planner for a land
development company for several years until we moved to the United States. I’m
now retired from a 37+ year career in architecture and urban land use planning,
and spend my time travelling the world and writing. I love to hear from my
readers.
Website Twitter FaceBook Google Circles
Goodreads Breathless Press Buy Link
Just
Released... Book
2 in Tour Director Extraordinaire Series
ALL FOR A FIST
FULL OF ASHES
By R. Ann Siracusa
A young
tour director and a handsome spy take a fast-paced romantic romp through Italy
in pursuit of a lost grave, an assassin, and a once-in-a-lifetime love.
BLURB
I'm Harriet Ruby: Tour Director
Extraordinaire. At least, I thought I was worthy of that title, until...
My first mistake: Agreeing to
conduct a private tour of Italy. Fourteen Italian-Americans from New Jersey?
All family, for three weeks, with four teenagers? What was I thinking? Fate
responds to my engraved invitation by placing one of the family members under
surveillance as a suspect in an assassination plot. And who is assigned to the
case? None other than my favorite drop-dead-gorgeous spy, Will Talbot.
My second mistake: Allowing Will
to coax an invitation from the family matriarch to join the tour.
And that was just the beginning.
The matriarch, searching for the unknown location of her mother's grave so she
can bury her brother's cremated ashes (which have been smuggled into Italy
wrapped in Cuban cigars), and her quirky family members sweep through Italy
leaving chaos, hilarity, and danger in their wake.
EXCERPT
Still standing inside the terminal with one hand on the door, I prepared to push it open, when an intense shiver skittered up and down my spine. I tingled all over and heat zinged to every to every erogenous zone, a sure sign of Will Talbot's presence in the airline terminal.I hadn't seen him, but I didn't have to. When we're in the same space, he and I exchange a flow of energy, and my body's reactions said it all. We had a way of speaking to each other without talking.Will was my...well, he's...hmm. Now, here's the thing. Will Talbot and I had this incredible, overwhelming physical attraction and a no-strings agreement to get to know each other better and see if the rest of our relationship could catch up with our lust.Since he lived in Spain and I resided in Rome, we only got together every two or three weeks. We hadn't progressed much beyond the lust stage of "getting to know you," but there seemed to be a lot of other stuff going on between us, which neither of us had figured out yet.Excited, I opened the door and stuck my head out. "I'll be there in a few minutes, Mario," I yelled, my voice tinged with anticipation, trying to keep an eye on the terminal at the same time. "Please, get everyone on board. Thanks."He cocked an eyebrow and grinned. Mario knew about Will and me and, like I said, nothing surprised him.Stepping back inside and away from the entrance, I closed my eyes and waited. I sensed Will's approach and the closer he got, the more my girly parts tingled with anticipation.Even though I expected it, I gasped when he placed his warm hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face him.
Don't
miss the free read short story – FIRST DATE
First Date - Download Link
First Date - Download Link
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Great post! It has a lot to think about. :) Love the #Wow posts.
ReplyDeleteexcellent post!
ReplyDeleteThis really made me think about some things I'd never stopped to consider. So happy you were my guest, Ann!
ReplyDeleteMost of us who aspire to becoming authors, give little if any thought to the actual steps other than writing the book. Then the call comes and we realize how ill-prepared we are for this journey. Ann has given us a map to follow and it makes the journey so much less complicated. If only I'd listened to her earlier.
ReplyDeletesuch helpful information.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon this post. It's very helpful and a great practical guide. I've been a bit lost in how to launch my new career. Thanks for sharing girls. Best wishes, Noelle.
ReplyDeletewww.noelleclark.net