| Many writers want to be outdoors more in the spring, but I’ve always been an indoor-cat myself, no matter the weather. Personally, I find myself going into “spring cleaning” mode…instead of writing.
So the question becomes, how do you keep your writing and publishing on track when there’s so much to do that’s not writing?
Schedule! Try to schedule writing time AND the activities you want to do now that you’re not snowed in. If you know you’re going for a walk after lunch and that’s happening at 12:30pm, you’re much more likely to get as much written or edited before noon as possible, instead of sitting at your desk and staring out the window longingly.
Another option is to skip relaxing or watching TV after dark, and write at night. That way, during daylight hours, you are free to jump in puddles or start your garden or whatever else outdoor-cats do. (This is one of my favorite ways to find time to write, since I homeschool my three young children. I put everyone to bed and write from 8pm to midnight, or if on deadline, as long as it takes!)
Make a word count goal. Try for 1k words a day. If that’s too much, try 500. (personally, I try to do 1K words a day on normal days except none on Sundays, and 2k or more a day when I’m on deadline. My “high score” day was 10k!) I know an author who worked a day job full time, and her goal was just 100 words a day. That got her into the habit of writing every single day, no matter what, because she was able to pull it off in only a few minutes. Most of the time, she ended up writing a lot more than just 100 words. But on days when any normal person would skip writing, she got in at least 100. She’s now had her second novel published, so it works!
Here’s the important part: once you hit your word count goal, you are free to be as spring-feverish as you wish, guilt free!
Marketing: If you have some books already self-published, spring is also a great time to do a sale to boost your book sales. If your book is priced at $2.99 on Amazon, try doing 99c or free for 5 days and list your book with newsletters and book blogs to promote it. You can even create a simple graphic using your cover and adding some text next to it like “Spring into Reading!” or “Spring Novel Sale!” Be sure to add the start and end dates of the sale. Recently I got together with other authors in my genre and cross-promoted our books on sale with a “Books in Bloom” graphic. Tweet or Facebook out your sale with the buylink to your book.
Sample Tweet to give you an idea how a romance author would promote it:
“#99cents Spring Sale till 3/27 only! Sweet romance perfect for #Spring! (put buylink here) #Coverart by @SelfPubBkCovers. #amreading”
If you tag us on Twitter as I did in this sample Tweet, I can retweet your book featuring one of our covers!
Tip: Don’t start a Tweet with a Twitter name if you want ALL of your followers to see it. Only followers who follow BOTH you AND the person you start the Tweet with (called an @-reply) will see such Tweets.
Hope these suggestions help inspire you! Happy writing, and Happy Spring!
All my best,
Shoshanna Gabriel
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New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Shoshanna Evers writing as Shoshanna Gabriel |
