Getting Ready For 2016

At the end of this week it will be Christmas and just a few short days later we will be ringing in the New Year with thousands of different celebrations around the world. I am excited as I look not only back over the past year seeing all of the things I have accomplished and learned but also as I prepare for the year to come. I am hoping to take all I have learned and start putting plans into action. The first step of this of course is coming up with the plan.

Earlier today I went to my local library and raided the shelves in search of books about business plans and marketing strategies. I was able to locate five that I am hoping will be helpful in creating a pathway to being even more successful in the coming year. A number of things on my list include items I am unfamiliar with but that is one of the main reasons to include them. By continuing to learn I will hopefully continue to advance.

I need to create a website which is one of the things I am most concerned with. I do not know how to make a website nor stay on top of it but I know that I need to in order to grow my brand. Branding is another aspect I need to work on. Once I have established the website and figured out how to maintain it with updates and specials I will focus on building my brand. I am currently an Indie author and I intend to keep that aspect for my charity writing but I am hoping to also break into traditional publishing for my novels.

Building a platform and having an established audience is tremendously important so I am going to be looking into seminars and conferences that focus on building brands, marketing strategies and networking so I can broaden my reach. Part of the marketing is going to be learning how to do promotions and specials along with teasers from my already published books. I have a number of anthologies working on collecting submissions as well so that will be an area to continue to grow.

The last major aspect will be finishing current works that I have begun and picking two to three new books to complete next year along with the ones I have finished that will be going through the editing and submissions processes. These are also areas that while I a familiar with, I need to fine tune my skills. I am thrilled to be moving forward I am just curious how the journey will go.