Goals for 2012

Writing my goals out last year helped me tremendously. All of what I posted on that list I wound up accomplishing. I’m hoping I can build on that momentum in 2012. I’ve been in this publishing game for ten years and I’m finally starting to see some serious progress to all my hard work. I feel if I just keep working I’ll get my big break.

My goals for 2012 include:

• Finishing up Book #8. It’s still in the rough draft stage. But I’m hoping to get it done. This one is a YA/Teen book about an African-American secret society/sorority. All I can say about it now.

• Increasing paperback sales. Last year was great for eBooks, but paperback sales have been really weak lately. If I’m going to make a living at this I need to sell paperbacks in numbers that allow me to pay my bills.

With the Amazon/Lightning Source mess screwing up the shipping of books like All About Nikki, I may have to rethink this goal and focus more on alternative ways to sell books. I really need to get paperback sales up and unfortunately most customers only buy books from Amazon in bundle purchases. I may have to do a campaign to persuade readers to buy books from other venues such as Barnes and Noble, offer them on the blog via paypal (with lowered prices and free shipping) or even auction autographed copies on eBay.

• Do More YouTube videos. These aren’t getting that many hits yet, but they are building my self-confidence about public speaking. The more I do the better I get at it.

• Try to keep up the momentum on the eBook sales front. A large percentage of the books I sold last year were eBooks. Most of my new readers came from the eBook audience. While it pays the least royalty wise it’s the fastest growing audience for my titles.

• Do another YA ebook Exclusive series. Last year’s YA ebook series was a huge success. So I definitely want to bring it back with new titles. And I’m letting everyone know right now a new All About Nikki eBook will be in the mix.

• Do more commissions. Most of the people I did page layout/eBook conversions for were happy with the work I did for them. I’m thinking of branching out to do more commissions for other authors. It may even become my primary business.

• Focus more on writing on writing. I want to do a series of articles on the basics of fiction writing so blog readers can learn a bit more about how to tell stories. Working with new writers over the past few years I realize that there are a lot of things about craft I’ve learned and mastered that new authors could benefit from.

Write more political blogs. Last year was I started writing more on harder issues in the Black community. Stuff like the myth of the Strong Black woman, The invisible Black men, and Why Black women choose thugs got a lot of hits. There will be more articles like this in the future.

Try to get a movie review in. I’m so busy I don’t see that many movies anymore. I did see Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I didn’t like it.

Now the next two are big lofty goals that will require some money to do but a brotha dreams of seeing it done:

• To get a scene from an episode of All About Nikki acted out and presented on screen on YouTube.  This one’s going to be a challenge, but I think I can do it. I just have to apply the same organizational and management skills that I have to self-publishing books.

• To get a scene from All About Marilyn acted out and posted up on YouTube. Another challenge, but I think I can do it. I really want to see what my writing looks like when it’s acted out.

I think if I can get a scene acted out and posted up it can generate interest in financing a pilot episode or even a Marilyn trailer.