When I’m working with a new client, whether consulting on publishing a book or developing an author brand, we always begin by establishing goals. Why is this important? Because knowing your purpose for writing your book will allow you to develop a joyful and sustainable marketing plan.
Knowing Your Purpose for Writing Your Book Helps Determine Your Goals
Many people want to write books, and some do. But being an author is hard work. So, ask yourself, why? What is your purpose for writing your book? Knowing your purpose and establishing clear goals will help ensure that you develop an effective roadmap and a strategy for achieving success.
In my experience, when authors don’t clearly understand their why, they tend to take on too much. They lose sight of their goals, and their message becomes unclear. Doing too much is messy, ineffective, and exhausting.
Why Are You Writing Your Book?
Some people just want to get their ideas and stories out into the world. Or they simply want to attain the status of published author. Others want to launch themselves into fame, or further their career goals by establishing themselves as experts in their field. Some choose to write only one book, while others plan on publishing many more in the future.
All these aspiring authors will have different goals, requiring different strategies and levels of effort to reach those goals.
If you’re writing a book simply to feel accomplished, or for a limited audience, and have no real ambitions beyond that, that’s perfectly fine. But if your purpose for writing your book is to go after bigger goals, you’ll need a plan and a strategy.
You’ll need to:
- Know your purpose
- Define success
- Maintain realistic expectations
- Stay within your budget
- Understand your audience
- Know where you stand
What is Your Idea of Success? How Will You Fulfill the Purpose of Writing Your Book?
Ask yourself: What does success look like for you? How are you making an impact? More importantly, how does the world view this successful you? Are you famous? What do you get up in the morning and dedicate your life to accomplishing? How do you feel about it?
Once you have a clear picture of what success looks and feels like, work backward along your success line and visualize the milestones that you will need to meet to achieve that success.
What items might be on your roadmap?
- Building a mailing list of fans?
- Publishing more books?
- Speaking at industry conferences?
- Contributing articles to well-known magazines in your field?
- Giving a TED Talk?
- Appearing on well-known podcasts?
What are You selling? You, or Your Book?
Is the purpose of writing your book to establish a fan base and write and sell more books? Or is your book going to sell you? In other words, are you hoping to use your book to establish yourself as an authority and grow your career or brand?
Although having a solid author brand helps even fiction authors thrive, that brand will be much more important than the book if you’re writing it to sell yourself. Will you be focusing on selling your books or selling yourself? Is your book your business card?
Are Your Goals Attainable? Does Your Purpose for Writing Your Book Match Your Ambitions?
There are very few overnight success stories when it comes to publishing a book. Even if you write a masterpiece, it’s not going to sell itself. After the hard work of writing a book is done, the even harder work of selling it begins. In today’s publishing landscape, even authors with whole teams behind them have to work hard for success. How hard are you willing to work? Are you prepared to adapt and refine your strategy if needed? Are you in it for the long haul?
There are things you’ll need to consider so you can set realistic goals, and create a sustainable plan for success, however you define it.
What is Your Budget? Consider Your Time, Money, and Emotional Bandwidth
You’ll also need to consider your budget. But your budget is not just about money, it’s about time and, even more importantly, it’s about your emotional bandwidth. This means you need to consider how much time and energy you’re willing to put into reaching your goals. The bigger the purpose for writing your book, the more energy you’ll have to put out. This effort has to be sustainable too, because it’s a long journey.
When it comes to money
How much money can you comfortably invest? Get acquainted with both the low-budget and the high-budget investments. Once you have a dollar amount in mind, you can budget for the things that will help build your brand, or market your book, in stages.
When it comes to time and emotional bandwidth
How much time do you have to invest? Ask yourself how you want to spend your time. How comfortable are you with performing, or learning about the various tools available to you: blogging, social networking, podcasting, writing, video, speaking? In other words, discover what gets you excited and brings you joy.
Contrary to popular opinion, you do not need to do it all. If you choose to employ methods that exhaust you, then those methods, and the time you spend doing them, will ensure that you never reach your end goal because you’ll end up broke, fatigued, and burned out.
Know all aspects of your budget, and stick to what is comfortable—remember, this is a long-term plan.
Placement: Who is Your Audience and What is Your Domain?
If you want to reach your audience, you’ll need to know them. Where is your audience? What social platforms do they hang out on? What magazines do they read? Where do they get their news? Knowing your target audience means understanding their needs and desires. Identify what your audience needs and how you can serve them. If you know what they need right now, you can provide value for the long term.
It should also be noted that your book will not be for everybody. You need to know who, exactly, it is for. So, if the purpose of writing your book is to reach everyone, your goals will likely fall flat. Know your audience and write for, and appeal to, that audience. Focus on success in your domain.
Is Your Plan Sustainable? Does it Bring you Joy? (You don’t have to do it all.)
For your plans and goals to be successful, they need to be sustainable. Remember, success won’t come overnight, and if you’re expecting it to, you may find yourself frustrated.
Ultimately, knowing your purpose for writing your book will help you define your goals and build a sustainable plan for developing your author branding and marketing efforts.
Remember, you’re better prepared for success if you know what it looks like for you. Know your limits and expectations, and be prepared to put in a long-term but sustained effort. Because the process should be joyful, not draining.
Part of your platform-building and marketing strategy will include creating content and having a strategy for that content too. What does that look like for authors? Read this MCM blog on the topic.
