Goal Setting from an Indie Author

goal_settingI work better with goals in place. I know this, so I am constantly placing expectations upon myself that are sometimes unachievable. Take my goal from last year for instance. In July of 2013, I set a goal for myself to write, edit and publish the first part to Linear Shift by my birthday in September. OK, that was kind of a bad example, because that one was pretty easy. Seriously though, I do have big dreams and big goals. So, here I am setting some pretty big goals for the rest of this year, and into the next. I have much more aggressive goals in line for next year, but I think I’ll save it for a later post.

Here is what I have planned for the remainder of 2014:

  • July 15th – Publish Linear Shift, Part 3 – 30,000 new words
  • September 30th – Publish Linear Shift, Part 4 – 54,000 new words
  • October 21st – Publish Linear Shift Omnibus – 0 new words
  • November 18th – Publish Borrowed Souls #2 – 14,000 new words
  • December 23rd – Publish Kohler’s short story Anthology – 30,000 new words
  • February 10th – Publish “New Series Novel” – 90,000 new words

Now, that all may not sound too impressive, but I do have a day job, and at times, it feels like it is all time consuming. Add to that, Summer is just around the corner, and there’s vacations and family trips, and yada yada. It’s going to be busy, let me tell you. Plus, there are going to be other things that may in fact pop up along the way. There’s talk of another anthology that I am planning on contributing to. It’s a Superhero kind of thing, with a deadline of around September. And who knows what else might grab my attention … SQUIRREL! See what I mean? OH, and the next part of Recoil!

I’d like to touch on a few things on the list above. First, Linear Shift, Part 3 was targeted for a May 31st release. Unfortunately, that had to slide a bit, and as I am in vacation for the latter half of June, the release date for it has been pushed until mid July. I am hoping that I can pick up editing changes upon my return from vacation and still publish in June, but I wanted to be practical with things, unless I got sidetracked somehow.

Second, I think there might be something else in between LS3 and LS4 in late September. I was planning on rolling right into Linear Shift, Part 4 after finishing Part 3, but I think I have a bit of flex time there as well. I might try working on the next Recoil part or begin outlining/planning the “New Series Novel” that’s planned for next year. Either way, my initial goal was to have all parts of Linear Shift published by my one year publishing anniversary on September 19th. On the above schedule, I gave myself a week and a half extension just incase.

The Borrowed Souls part is pretty self explanatory. I’ve actually partially written the next part already, and am forcing myself not to touch it until LS3 is out.

Next on the list is my own Anthology publication. If you are a subscriber of my newsletter, you’ll have read most of what’s going to be in that anthology. I am going to combine the 12 monthly shorts that I include in my newsletter, along with a handful of new stories yet to be written. I am shooting for around 60,000 total word count between existing shorts and new stuff. It should be a fun thing for everyone. I am planning on that one to come out in ebook, print and audiobook all about the same time – just before Christmas.

Finally, I am starting to think about “what’s next”. That is the “New Series Novel” at the tail end of that list above. I am going to work on a full novel this time, (instead of the serialized approach) that will be the first part of a potential trilogy. The specifics have yet to come into focus, but I am day dreaming all the time. I have a book of “story thoughts” that is pretty thick already. I may even have the story basis ready to go and just not know it.

So, there you go. To date, I’ve written around 170,000 words this year, and with the above projections, I will more than double that. On January 1st, I set a goal of writing 825 words per day, every day, which would come in at around 300,000 words for 2014. I’m more than half way there, and should have no problem surpassing that goal.

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