Planning for the Future
I'm going to put myself out on a limb today by publicly reviewing my plans as an author for 2020. I have been weighing my options quietly in my mind for about a month now. So, today I'll put my ideas out there because one of the best motivators is to have people holding you accountable for the goals you have set for yourself. It seems to work for people who are dieting, trying to quit smoking, and a variety of other things that we wish to accomplish. Let's see if it works for a budding writer.
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| Can this author reach her goal? books image courtesy of pixabay.com |
Not too long ago, I did a review on Kathi Daley She is another Cozy Mystery author, like myself. I really enjoy her books but the thing that kept niggling at my brain is that she published a book a month in one year. Actually, I think she did it two years in a row. So, 24 books in two years. At first I thought, wow that is impressive. Then I began to think on the lines of could I do that? Could I write and publish 12 books in 12 months. You probably see where I'm going with this.
2020 Goals For This Author
When the year 2019 began, I had only written and published two books. I had been stuck on book three for over a year. In February of this year, the block I was experiencing finally broke away and I was able to finish the third book in the Roni Rainer Mysteries series; publishing it in March. At that point, I didn't really have any set goals for writing other than I wanted to try to write everyday.
To make a rather long story short, last month I published my seventh book. Without a thought of how many books I wanted to write this year, I was able to add five books to my list of published works. If you had asked me a year ago, if I could do anything even close, I would have probably said that I didn't think so. The words started flowing and the ideas kept coming and so I wrote. Some days I wrote more than others but I did try to write something everyday.
So, my goal for next year is to try really hard to write and publish a book a month for the entire year. I'm going to ask you to hold me accountable to this declaration. I really think that I can do it. I have already figured out that in order to accomplish this I'll need to write (or at least average) about 2300 words a day. I honestly think that is very doable for me.
I have already roughly planned out how and what I will publish next year. The first thing will be a new series that I am already working on. (I'll have to have at least one book ready to publish in January.) This new series will be called the Babbs Bennett Mysteries. Babbs is older than my other main characters. She is over 65 and has temporarily moved back to her hometown to help her cousin run a book store while he recuperates from a bad fall off of an icy path. The name of the book store is Holiday Books. Holiday is the family surname and her cousin has always played on that family name by decorating the shop each month for that month's holidays. That is going to be a fun part of the creative process, coming up with titles that have to do with different holidays.
Working List of Books to Write
- January Book One of Babbs Bennett Mysteries (working title Valentine Vengeance)
- February Book Two of Babbs Bennett Mysteries
- March Book Three of Babbs Bennett Mysteries
- April Book One of Cottonwood Grove Mysteries (new series involves a yarn shop business)
- May Book Two of Cottonwood Grove Mysteries
- June Book Three of Cottonwood Grove Mysteries
- July Book Five of Roni Rainer Mysteries
- August Book Four of Cabin 9 Mysteries
- September Book One of Second Chances Mysteries (new series involves a second hand shop)
- October Book Two of Second Chances Mysteries
- November Book Three of Second Chances Mysteries
- December Book Four of Babbs Bennett Mysteries
Well, there you have it; my goals as an author for 2020. What do you think? Am I being too ambitious?
Already Published Books by Beverly Owens
- Roni Rainer Mysteries
- Death Takes a Spin
- Illegal Harvest
- The Puzzle of Talking Rock
- Missing in Beaver Falls
- Cabin 9 Mysteries
- Campground Corpse
- Untimely Checkout
- Grifter's Gamble
Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”
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