Tag: Checking in on Goals

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90 Days Goals: Q3 Check-In-2018

Goal Setting 90 Day Check in Hello Lovelies, For those who recall, at the beginning of 2018 I set some very public author goals for the year using the 90 day plan. And revised and tracked them in Q2. Can you BELIEVE it is already time for the Q3 author goals check-in? Man, this year is really flying! Here’s a refresher of my goals: I’ve put my progress in italics at the end of each section a bit to show where I am with these goals.
  1. Publish 4 books in 2018—The Survivalist Bible Serial launched (I have the first part of the serial in an anthology with M.L.S. Weech, and it will release in October), Clear Angel Chronicles 3, Hell School 2, and Hell School 3. (I’ll be honest, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to write with everything going on. As it is, I will be pushing my luck to get Hell School: Sophomoric Sadness finished and released in December. So I am taking out Clear Angel Chronicles 3 and Hell School 3). Survivalist Bible: Genesis will launch in October as part of M.L.S. Weech’s POWER of WORDS anthology and that is coming along perfectly. Survivalist Bible: Exodus is pretty much done, just needing line edits, and Survivalist Bible: Levi is almost finished. Hell School, I need to pick up the pace on. 
  2. Increase my social reach by 50%. This one is a bit messy for you to see in action. I created a lovely graph in Excel (that I am not going to share, because it’s really not that lovely) with my starting point for each of my social media platforms’ current reach. I will track each stat weekly. This is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. I’m actually not going to mess with this one because it’s a good goal. I’m just going to have to work harder because I haven’t really been working on this goal the last 90 days, so I’m a bit behind. It’s impressive how much I’ve been able to catch up by working on this weekly. 
  3. Re-release my specific previous 5 titles that fit the OWS brand under OWS as part of my partner contract. This is already in progress and shouldn’t be too difficult to finish. Hell School should be coming in May, Angel’s Dance in June, and both books in The Hunters Saga are underway, so this is looking good. Hell School: Fresh Meat is releasing this month, thanks to Rebekah Jonesy. I’ve honestly lost track of the others, but Jonesy is on top of it! I know she is still planning The Hunters Saga to be re-released in October, and Angel’s Dance will probably be this month or next. But I have been so busy with everything else that I’ve really been trusting her to knock this out. She’s been pretty busy too with all the awesome books coming out through OWS. I don’t know how she finds the time! 
  4. Expand my OWS-U course offerings by one course each semester. Ah, did you know about OWS-U? It is this awesome venture that we are doing to provide masterclasses to authors on topics that will help them grow as an author-preneur. I am all for having at least one of my goals focused on giving back. The first semester starts in February, and I am teaching two of the five courses being offered.  A lot has changed about this goal, as we’ve decided to go with Teachable and offer the courses year-round, rather than by semester. I am still looking to add 2 more classes to the line up this year, though. The courses are re-releasing on Teachable this month with an awesome promo sale July 15th of Buy 1 get 1 1/2 off. Don’t miss it! I’ve already started developing The Business of Authoring, which will hopefully be added to the lineup in September, but man, creating courses around everything else we are doing is tough! I am hoping to have another course by December, but still trying to narrow it down between three that people are asking for. 
  5. Increase my book sales by 25%. I hate setting monetary goals. Truly, I do. But they are important. I probably should set this one higher, as my sales took a hit when I joined the OWS executive team back in July 2017. But we’ve got a lot of goals going on with OWS as well, so I want to keep this attainable. This will be easier to attain once we get the books up on OWS Ink. I am sitting at about an 8% increase right now. Definitely could be better. 
I am definitely on track with Q3 to achieve most of my author goals for 2018.
90 Day Plan Q 3 Check In
90 Day Plan Q2 goals and Check-In
  My 90 Day Year- 2nd Quarter Author Goals Report
  1. Preparing The Survivalist Bible Serial for publication– I am totally on top of this and feeling really good about it.
  2. Track Social media reach– I’ve been checking in weekly on this (mostly) This got way bigger than I expected because I am also doing it for OWS Social Media, so am tracking 13 different accounts! But each one has seen growth in both followers and engagement. I am pleased with the progress and hope to see it keep growing. 
  3. Get Angel’s Dance and Hell School: Fresh Meat re-released through OWS and onto Ingram Spark for distribution into bookstores. This actually works towards goal 3 and 5. Once they’ve been re-released through OWS-U, I can start marketing them again! Fortunately, Ingram Spark is running a special promotion in July for Camp Nanowrimo so we will be able to achieve this, no problem!
Now time to set some goals for 3rd quarter.
  1. Plan and execute tours for the books I have re-released through OWS- I will plan a week long tour for Hell School to re-fresh it’s SEO as soon as we get it on Ingram Spark, and a tour for Clear Angel Chronicles as soon as Angel’s Dance is back up. I will also look at doing local book store promotion in August as I should be all healed up from surgery by then.
  2. Keep Building that Social Media Platform- I will keep using the social media tracker, though pairing back to once a month because I am re-launching my website on WordPress and that will have me quite busy this month.
  3. Write 2K words a day on my WIP- Man, being a publisher has you running so many different directions and I am really bad about getthing my word count in on MY projects. I am going to start making writing my first activity of the day before things get hairy, going back to the way I was doing it when I had a full time job, because being a publisher is MORE than a full-time job and my authoring dreams are kind of getting pushed to the back burner.
It’s never too late for you to join the 90 day plan. What are your goals for Q3? Share with us in the comments below. Until next time, Keep Writing  
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90 Day’s Author Goal Second Quarter Check-in

Q2 Check in

Hello Lovelies,

For those who recall, at the beginning of 2018, I set some very public author goals for the year using the 90 day plan. Well, life fell apart a little bit for many reasons, not the least of which is that I am dealing with a back issue that probably will need surgery and left me laid up for the first month of the year and is still significantly limiting my work time. Then there were a host of business-related issues for Our Write Side (I’m sure you’ve noticed our blog has been a bit sparse of late. No worries, we’re regrouping and getting ready to bring you more great content!) that come with explosive growth, which I had not anticipated. It’s slowed me down, but it hasn’t stopped me! I hope this is how each of you responds to adversity in your own life. Don’t let it throw you off kilter and quit. It happens to all of us, and it’s a great opportunity to revise and reconfigure your author goals. So, we’re doing that today. Here are the goals I set for 2018. In italics, I am listing revisions for the 2nd quarter. 

  1. Publish 4 books in 2018- The Survivalist Bible Serial launched (I have the first part of the serial in an anthology with MLS Weech, and it will release in October.), Clear Angel Chronicles 3, Hell School 2, and Hell School 3.  (I’ll be honest, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to write with everything going on. As it is, I will be pushing my luck to get Hell School: Sophomoric Sadness finished and released in December. So I am taking out Clear Angel Chronicles 3 and Hell School 3)
  2. Increase my social reach by 50%. This one is a bit messy for you to see in action. I created a lovely graph in Excel (that I am not going to share, because it’s really not that lovely) with my starting point for each of my social media platforms’ current reach. I will track each stat weekly. This is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. I’m actually not going to mess with this one because it’s a good goal. I’m just going to have to work harder because I haven’t really been working on this goal the last 90 days so I’m a bit behind.
  3. Re-release my specific previous 5 titles that fit the OWS brand under OWS as part of my partner contract. This is already in progress and shouldn’t be too difficult to finish. Hell School should be coming in May, Angel’s Dance in June, and both books in The Hunters Saga are underway, so this is looking good.
  4. Expand my OWS-U course offerings by one course each semester. Ah, did you know about OWS-U? It is this awesome venture that we are doing to provide masterclasses to authors on topics that will help them grow as an authorpreneur. I am all for having at least one of my goals focused on giving back. The first semester starts in February, and I am teaching two of the five courses being offered. A lot has changed about this goal, as we’ve decided to go with Teachable and offer the courses year-round, rather than by semester. I am still looking to add 2 more classes to the line up this year, though.
  5. Increase my book sales by 25%. I hate setting monetary goals. Truly, I do. But they are important. I probably should set this one higher, as my sales took a hit when I joined the OWS executive team back in July. But we’ve got a lot of goals going on with OWS as well, so I want to keep this attainable. This will be easier to attain once we get the books up on OWS Ink.

My 90 Day Year- 1st Quarter Author Goals Report

  1. Preparing The Survivalist Bible Serial for publication– I already have the first three serials ready to go to the editor. I will focus on 2,000 words a day to get this finished up in the first 90 days.
  2. Track Social media reach– I am not going to do much on building this right now. Too much other stuff going on. So I will just focus on tracking this first 90 days of author goals.
  3. Get Angel’s Dance and Hell School: Fresh Meat re-released through OWS and onto Ingram Spark for distribution into bookstores. This actually works towards goal 3 and 5. Once they’ve been re-released through OWS-U, I can start marketing them again!

Ha, ha, ha, didn’t hit these author goals. Well, I did get some of part of them. Survivalist Bible is coming along. I now have 6 sections ready for the editor. I need to figure out what to do with the cover because of adding it into MLS Weech’s anthology as well as losing my graphic designer. Sigh So that will get added to this quarter of author goals. Angel’s Dance and Hell School are on the schedule for this quarter. Re-edits are done and it’s just a matter for formatting them and re-releasing. Hell School is even getting a new face for the cover, courtesy of Rebekah Jonesy!

And my happy social media tracker is sitting there waiting for me to use it. Which I will use and will report back next quarter, at the ACTUAL BEGINNING OF THE QUARTER, hopefully 😉

How are your New Year’s Resolutions and author goals coming? Did you try the 90 Day Plan like me? Tell us in the comments below.

Until next time,

Keep Writing!