#HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST #TIME MANAGEMENT

​If you are a writer of fiction making a six-figure income or above then this post is not for you, go away and continued success.

If you are making $50,000 writing fiction, move along please because you are on your way and should be reading posts from the writer making $100,000+. Stay healthy and keep writing.

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No, this post is for those who have written and for those who want to write. For the first, this post is another aspect of the long journey ahead and for the latter, well, read the post and put the information in your satchel. Also for the latter, sit down and start writing!

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​The last 14 months I have calculated I have spent 2000 hours writing and developing stories.

Published two novels and three short stories, and read numerous articles and books about writing. I have been so deeply engrossed with the product that, like Gertrude, I forgot to give any serious thought to the marketing aspect of the craft. 

My definition of an "Indie Author," is one who says, "My story, my book, my work, my way!"

However, when I became an indie author and like any venture or dream one goes after it is of vital importance to, get ready here comes the painful part, MAKE A PLAN!

​"Oh hell," you say, "a plan, I write isn't that enough?"  Sorry, but no it's not.

 think I am more in the camp of the majority than not. I do not have an agent, or a publisher, or an editor, or a big budget. Hence, the road as a self published Indie Author, and all the pitfalls that go with it.

So I write and I write and edit and rewrite and edit some more. Finally, after hours, days, and months I am ready to publish. Hooray!!!! 

Where's the crowd, the door is open, but there is only a few browsers, where is everybody?

I can see them, I watch them walk by, but they ignore me. I feel like one of the girls standing in the window in the Red Light District of Amsterdam.

Potential customers will stop and look, but even though I might be the best and they'll have a great time, I know it, but they don't.

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Writer's have a tendency to be introverts, which means that like a life that is away from the crowd not in it. However, writing is a business, unless of course your writing for Cousin Lou or Aunt Rose, then it doesn't matter.

As a business though it's a completely different story and as a writer one has several hats they must wear.

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Think about this, you have opened a one-person shop and hang a banner outside that reads: 

                  "I AM AN INDIE
​ WRITER."

Here are some of your responsibilities:

              Employer-(Writer)
              Employee-(Writer-Gopher)
              Researcher-(Gatherer of information)
              Marketer-(Salesman)   
              Financer-(The bank)
              Creator-(The Genius that makes thing)
              Storyteller-(Dreamer)
       
Writer-(Works with no lunch breaks and meets deadlines)

Editor-(Tells the writer, storyteller, and creator that everything is shitty and drives them to improve.)
 
Blogger-(Works with the salesman to tell the world they can't live without you)

That is only ten hats, and there are only 168 hours in seven 24-hour days. Minus 6 hours per night for sleeping=42 hours.

Meals, if you can afford a steady stream of them, 5 hours. Commuting to work, if you have a job plus working, part time because we are writers, 36 hours.

Breathing, worrying, schmoozing, worrying, paying bills, worrying, thinking, worrying, happy, sad, worrying, and having dinner a mom's, more worrying. Equals 57 hours. 

That would mean as a writer if one were to spend a minimum of 4 hours a day perfecting the craft one would have invested 28 hours in that one week to complete ten various jobs.

Uh-oh TIME MANAGEMENT, without it a writer will be good at no more than four out of ten tasks.

You can write, write, write, write, write, to your heart's content, but if you want to sell, sell, sell, sell, the books you write then you need to create a marketing plan as you would any business.  

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