[intoanna]

With less than two hours to go till midnight here in the UK I've decided on my targets for next year.

I have spent the last 2 months reading the boards and procrastinating but I really need to get my ass in to gear and get working!

I've begun no less (and probably a few more) than thirty ideas since I left my full time job in October. This ranges from erotica to YA to mysteries. I've started short stories, novellas and novels and I've finished exactly NOTHING.

So 2013 is the year that I have promised myself to get organised and get (self) published.

I've set myself what might look like an outrageous target but I'm confident and I'm going to give it my best shot.

1,000,000 Words published
100,000 Downloads
10,000 Sales

Rather than bore you all with the finer details of my progress I'm going to keep the tears and tantrums to my horrendously neglected blog but add to this thread periodically for those who are interested.

Wish me lots and lots of luck.

My blog by the way is intoanna.blogspot.co.uk

 

[dalya]

How many words did you do in 2012? In other words, how big an increase would meeting this goal be?

 

[intoanna]

I started on 18th October and am at a 68k word count plus another 23k of chapter plots and notes.

I also should add that for the whole of Feb I'm going to a not for profit writing retreat in Spain where I will have completely distraction free work time.

 

[Zelah Meyer]

Good luck with it!

I'm setting myself a much smaller goal of 182,500 - which equates to 500 words a day.  However, that's a minimum target, not the total I hope to wind up with.  I'm planning to start the year out doing a story start each day as all or part of that 500 words.  Then I can switch to whatever project I'm currently working on.  If that works well, then I would like to continue that throughought the year.  That way, worst case scenario, I'll have 365 story starts/ideas that I can work on in the future. 

After today, I'm banning myself from playing Lord of the Rings Online until I've published another three titles - so that's some motivation to get me going!

 

[intoanna]

You can play Lord of the Rings online?! Oh dear, I'm going to have to go find a cafe where they have no wifi or I'll be in big trouble.

 

[sarracannon]

Wow! That's a huge goal! To write 1,000,000 words a year, you have to be producing over 2500 words a day. Every day. I couldn't do it! I admire those who can, though, and wish you the best. I would warn you against setting goals for sales or downloads. I've seen several people talking about sales "goals", but since sales aren't something you can directly control, I don't think they make good goals.

A goal should always be something you can control. Production. Words written on a page. Books published. Marketing strategies. Tweets per day. Etc. Sales numbers are more like dreams or milestones you hope to achieve. You want to set yourself up for success and if you achieve the things you can control, you are successful despite sales. That's my two cents anyway.

 

[intoanna]

Thanks for your comment, you've made a really good point re the downloads and sales. The word count is the only thing I can control and I know I can achieve it as in an 8 hour day I can average 5k words plus 2k editing (on something different as I like to leave space between writing and editing a chapter).

The downloads and sales numbers will hopefully prompt me to make the most of the advice on here about various marketing and promotion techniques. I know it's not something I can control but if I hit 10,000 sales by he end of 2013 I'll feel comfortable that doing this full time is something permanent for me.

 

[sarracannon]

I think 10,000 is definitely a good milestone to set. If you can write as much as you're hoping for the year, you'll have a huge advantage! Will you be writing across several pen names/genres? Or all in one? I hope you'll come back and let us know how it's going with the writing goals!

 

[intoanna]

I've got three main genres that I'm focussing on, Erotica because I have a lot of material, YA paranormal because it's what I've read most of over the last 20 years and Mystery/detective because it's what I really love. I plan to use a separate name for each as I can't see any benefit of having it all under the same name.

I will definitely keep you updated.

 

[Kat_Kit]

That's an amazing goal...I just got inspired to think about some concrete goals for the year to come!
Best wishes. 

 

[A. S. Warwick]

Best of luck with that goal.

I'll be lucky to make 365,000.  Barely will have the time to write, let alone market etc.

 

[MPTPGV]

I'm with you.  I've got more than 100K words planned out for this month alone more than a dozen erotic stories, meanwhile my novel is coming out, and I'm publishing six non-fiction book--all branded and part of a series.  My goals slightly bigger and I'm happy I'm not the only crazy person on this board.  My aim is 12 Novels, 60 Erotic stories between 5 and 20 thousand words, 30 to 40 non-fiction sourcebooks between 10 to 20 thousand words and 3 non fiction books at 50 to 70 thousands words.  All together 1.5 to 2 million words.  I've always been accused of being ambitious.  In seven days with the new writing system I've found by Rachel Aaron 2k to 10k, I can produce in 8 hours roughly 15 to 17 thousand words, and I can do that day in and day out, with multiple short books--did 76 thousand words in those seven days.

I'm very excited about this year.  I've studied branding, marketing, and web design.  I'm just going to write, edit, and market everything I can until I've written everything I have to say. 

 

[Justawriter]

I'm with you. I've got more than 100K words planned out for this month alone more than a dozen erotic stories, meanwhile my novel is coming out, and I'm publishing six non-fiction book--all branded and part of a series. My goals slightly bigger and I'm happy I'm not the only crazy person on this board. My aim is 12 Novels, 60 Erotic stories between 5 and 20 thousand words, 30 to 40 non-fiction sourcebooks between 10 to 20 thousand words and 3 non fiction books at 50 to 70 thousands words. All together 1.5 to 2 million words. I've always been accused of being ambitious. In seven days with the new writing system I've found by Rachel Aaron 2k to 10k, I can produce in 8 hours roughly 15 to 17 thousand words, and I can do that day in and day out, with multiple short books--did 76 thousand words in those seven days.

I'm very excited about this year. I've studied branding, marketing, and web design. I'm just going to write, edit, and market everything I can until I've written everything I have to say.

What are non-fiction "sourcebooks"?

 

[Lisa Grace]

The 1 million is doable, but is huge.

The sales and downloads are a dream, not a goal. You can't control them. Trying to control something beyond your ability is not a goal.

Shoot, I'm giving away a book semi-permanently free and I still haven't been able to get a million people to download it!

 

[MPTPGV]

What are non-fiction "sourcebooks"?

A sourcebook is a term I've heard in the internet marketing niche. It's books that pull together a bunch of quick and clear information in usually under 100 pages. They're non-fiction books that skip all the storytelling. They're becoming a bit popular, because people don't have time to read 400 pages of the Wheat Belly or 350 pages on The Atkins Diet, they want to know what do, what are some tricks to enhance it.

So, in short, they're short books that are all information.

 

[DarkScribe]

With less than two hours to go till midnight here in the UK I've decided on my targets for next year.

I have spent the last 2 months reading the boards and procrastinating but I really need to get my *ss in to gear and get working!

I've begun no less (and probably a few more) than thirty ideas since I left my full time job in October. This ranges from erotica to YA to mysteries. I've started short stories, novellas and novels and I've finished exactly NOTHING.

So 2013 is the year that I have promised myself to get organised and get (self) published.

I've set myself what might look like an outrageous target but I'm confident and I'm going to give it my best shot.

1,000,000 Words published
100,000 Downloads
10,000 Sales

Rather than bore you all with the finer details of my progress I'm going to keep the tears and tantrums to my horrendously neglected blog but add to this thread periodically for those who are interested.

Wish me lots and lots of luck.

My blog by the way is intoanna.blogspot.co.uk

Why?

Why make the word count the most dominant criterion? It is meaningless in and of itself. Only the quality of a person's writing matters, not the quantity. I have never understood people who relate output - by word count - to prowess or creativity as a writer. Why not aim to make every word you write the best it can be and ignore the word tally? That would be far more likely to bring success. A word count has no meaningful value, not from the point of view of establishing yourself as a writer, nor as a road to commercial success.

 

[KristenDaRay]

I'm not sure what I would want my word count to be by the end of 2013. I just know that I want it to look like this:
January: Gemini of Emreiana (Novel) out
April: Altered (Novella) out
June: Gemini series (Heir of Emreiana) out
Sep: Altered  book 2 out ( not sure on a real name for book 2) out
December: Gemini series (book 3... once again don't know a name yet) out

Can I do it? I don't know. But that is my goal.

 

[MPTPGV]

Why?

Why make the word count the most dominant criterion? It is meaningless in and of itself. Only the quality of a person's writing matters, not the quantity. I have never understood people who relate output - by word count - to prowess or creativity as a writer. Why not aim to make every word you write the best it can be and ignore the word tally? That would be far more likely to bring success. A word count has no meaningful value, not from the point of view of establishing yourself as a writer, nor as a road to commercial success.

For me, it's an accomplishment of getting my mind to work that fast. Writing is a solitary activity and stories come easy for me. though I struggle sometimes to create active prose, this is always in the rewrite phase. For me writing and publishing millions of words in a single year would be the ultimate rush. Mash production at it's finest. Also, I have over 200 hundred outlines for erotic stories. I have over 200 outlines for novels under three names. I have 5 Serials outlined from season one to season 5 or 7 in some cases for 3 pen names.

Parts of my millions of words will go to blog posts, articles, press releases, all in an effort to promote my work digitally. Not to mention emails to blogs. youtube videos and more.

I'm determined to make this my year, which means putting all my effort into it. Writing fast doesn't mean taht you write badly. Nora Robberts had years where she put out 12 novels in a single year. James Patterson is producing 13 novels or something like that this year according to Brian Williams. The fact is that Quality Quantity is the new thing to massive success. The freebies won't be nearly as powerful as they were even six months ago, forget two years ago.

Also, my original teachers were published romance authors, who would produce 7 or 8 books in a year, and write a million words a year that were published.

 

[DarkScribe]

For me, it's an accomplishment of getting my mind to work that fast. Writing is a solitary activity and stories come easy for me. though I struggle sometimes to create active prose, this is always in the rewrite phase. For me writing and publishing millions of words in a single year would be the ultimate rush. Mash production at it's finest. Also, I have over 200 hundred outlines for erotic stories. I have over 200 outlines for novels under three names. I have 5 Serials outlined from season one to season 5 or 7 in some cases for 3 pen names.

Parts of my millions of words will go to blog posts, articles, press releases, all in an effort to promote my work digitally. Not to mention emails to blogs. youtube videos and more.

I'm determined to make this my year, which means putting all my effort into it. Writing fast doesn't mean taht you write badly. Nora Robberts had years where she put out 12 novels in a single year. James Patterson is producing 13 novels or something like that this year according to Brian Williams. The fact is that Quality Quantity is the new thing to massive success. The freebies won't be nearly as powerful as they were even six months ago, forget two years ago.

Also, my original teachers were published romance authors, who would produce 7 or 8 books in a year, and write a million words a year that were published.

I did not suggest that fast writing automatically translates to poor writing. I write very quickly - it is how I make my living. When I write I worry about the word count for one reason only - layout.

What I am saying is that when we achieve anything it usually means that we reach a set goal. If the goal was to produce a word count, not a novel, success will not benefit you as much as it would if the goal was to write a great novel.

The only "massive success" with regard to Indie writers is to be traditionally published. You are not likely to find that "quantity" will aid you there. The only thing that will provide success is an exceptional novel. The word count or the speed at which it was written will have no influence. The editor who approves or dismisses your work won't care if you took ten years or ten days - s/he will only be concerned with the result. With very few exceptions, the more time and care you take when creating something, the better the end result.

 

[MPTPGV]

I fully understand your points.  You make good ones.  I have a specific understanding of how long my novels are going to be, because I outline them so much detail that I know the page numbers and the word count. Since I publish mostly on kindle, page count means little, and it is word count.  Like I said, I use word count as a way of pushing boundaries and creating a challenge for me to rise to.  I do extensive editing and rewriting of all the books to make them all the best writing possible.  But, there's something about writing to a goal that's fun to do.