When I first started this authoring journey, I had no idea what I was doing. And by authoring, I mean publishing. I started writing a couple years earlier. I decided to publish my first poetry collection on a whim in April of 2023. There were nearly 800 poems sitting in my Google drive, so I decided to do something with them. Then, while revising my fantasy novel, I had a dream for a spicy reimagining of A Christmas Carol. Within a month, I had written Carol’s Christmas Awakening and planned to publish it for the holiday season 2024. Still, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know anything about marketing. I learned how to create my own book covers. Somehow, I managed to record the audiobook version of the poetry collection, When Can We Be Soft?: Poems of Female Resilience, and I had started an LLC. Why? I couldn’t have told you.
This past year, however, was far more intentional, a true year of authoring with a purpose. I not only wanted to publish the words my brain kept putting together, but I wanted people to read them. So I started putting more effort into the packaging and the marketing. There was still no real plan, though, just a total crapshoot. In 2025, my goal is to be even more intentional, and that includes a marketing plan.
The graphic above has some of my realistic and stretch goals for this year at B. Isabel Writes LLC. I’ve also created a marketing plan for January to make sure equal billing is given to all of my books and both pen names. I’m working for consistency and follow-through. I have a 5-year plan to see if authoring is a viable career choice for me, but I have to be working all parts of the plan NOW, in year 2, if I want that to happen.