2020 goals and plans

[Lynn]

So, I have a couple of goals for 2020 I thought I'd share. :D

1. Write about 2000 words a day in 2020 (I have averaged 660 words per day so far in 2019 (total word count divided by 365) and I'd like to improve that by quite a lot for 2020.

I'm full time and I'd really like to make a bit more money this coming year. I can't control sales, but (I sure do hope) I can control the number of words I write each day. :D At about 500 words an hour, I can write about 2000 words in 4ish hours each day and that's not so bad at all, because I don't do much else with my writing time. (I don't do ads and things and really don't want to, so writing and putting out more books is a good way for me to increase my income without a lot of stress, theoretically.)

2. Write shorter books. :D

The length I most like to write and read is about 50,000 words, but my books have been trending longer and longer and really dragging me down. (My last competed novel was well over 100,000 words!) The long books take too long to finish for someone who gets distracted easily and who loses interest pretty easily too, that's not great for making writing fun. If it's not fun, why am I bothering? So it's all connected. Therefore, write shorter book is the quickest way to keep writing fun for me. :D

What are your 2020 goals or plans?

[Marti Talbott]

I need to go back to writing historical novels, which is what my readers love. I switched to mysteries and frankly, my readers didn't switch with me. I'm thinking of beginning a series starting in the early 1900s since I already have a lot of research material for that time period. It's more work and not as much fun for me, but it's the money, honey, I keep telling myself.

I need to learn how to plot better. I run out of material too soon when I don't know where I'm going, although some of my bests twists come from expectantly turning the book in a different direction. It's always such a surprise to me.

[idontknowyet]

My goal to finish by sept is 12 more books. For the entire year I would like to finish 15 books.

I plan to publish 7 books and one reader magnet.  I want to learn about ads and newsletters as well start working on them.

I want to have a newsletter group (non organic) of 1k prior to publishing, and an organic group of 300-500 by the end of the year.

These aren't small goals I know. Let's see how crazy I truly am.

[Shoe]

I hope to move a little more upmarket in 2020 with three or four books. On the side, I plan to resume writing articles ("creative nonfiction") for online and print outlets, meaning any that will publish them and give me a byline. There's no real money in it.

[Lorri Moulton]

I'd like to write the sequel my paranormal mystery, write a sequel to my spy story, and start a new mystery series (not paranormal).  There's also researching a historical romance series and maybe a series of clean/sweet fairytales.  And a few stand alones I have planned. 
I think all this will take me through 2020 to 2021 or further...but it should be fun! 

[Maggie Ann]

I want to finish the four book Victorian House mystery series. I'll be publishing book two in the next couple of days and book three is started.

I also have maybe three other series started and I'd like to finish them. One's an historical (completed book one and part of book two) and two are mysteries. I tried too hard with all three of them and was very unhappy with what I'd written. I'm a die-hard pantser and when I try to force things, my writing is stiff and boring.

[Vijaya]

I hope to move a little more upmarket in 2020 with three or four books. On the side, I plan to resume writing articles ("creative nonfiction") for online and print outlets, meaning any that will publish them and give me a byline. There's no real money in it.

Shoe, has the visibility helped sales of your books?

I did so much short stuff this fall that I fell behind in my novel writing and that's what I need to do, because the only way to get better at writing a novel is to keep writing them. Shorts won't cut it. I've been clearing my plate so that I can finish revising my historical and write its sequel too. That's the goal! Retreat and write. Thanks for starting this thread, Lynn.

[Shoe]

Shoe, has the visibility helped sales of your books?

My post may have been misleading (nothing new there)... I'm not writing shorts for Amazon or anywhere else. I used to write--and want to return to writing--2000-4000k articles for publication in online magazines. I used to be a regular contributor to several but this was way before I'd published a novel, so the bylines were very useful. This time around they could be very useful.

[VisitasKeat]

All that matters to me is my Life Average (LA) which currently stands at 263.14 words per day ever since 2018, which was when I started maintaining word stats. Since Life Average is the average of all yearly averages, and since the average yearly word count can be determined at any day of the year by simply dividing by 365 (366 for leap years like 2020), the value of LA keeps changing on a day-to-day basis. So, it's a constant companion, a fellow traveller, a guiding star, for the rest of my life. So, the higher the LA, more fulfilling it'll be for me as a writer. I couldn't write for most part of this year but I don't panic or feel the guilt as I keep looking at the value of LA.

[Marti Talbott]

All that matters to me is my Life Average (LA) which currently stands at 263.14 words per day ever since 2018, which was when I started maintaining word stats. Since Life Average is the average of all yearly averages, and since the average yearly word count can be determined at any day of the year by simply dividing by 365 (366 for leap years like 2020), the value of LA keeps changing on a day-to-day basis. So, it's a constant companion, a fellow traveller, a guiding star, for the rest of my life. So, the higher the LA, more fulfilling it'll be for me as a writer. I couldn't write for most part of this year but I don't panic or feel the guilt as I keep looking at the value of LA.

I try not to think about words per day. Some days are 2000, some days 200, some days 0. I think more in terms of turning out a novel every 3 months if I can.

[Vijaya]

Shoe, has the visibility helped sales of your books?

My post may have been misleading (nothing new there)... I'm not writing shorts for Amazon or anywhere else. I used to write--and want to return to writing--2000-4000k articles for publication in online magazines. I used to be a regular contributor to several but this was way before I'd published a novel, so the bylines were very useful. This time around they could be very useful.

I understood correctly. I also write for magazines and wanted to know if it impacted your book sales. As a reader, I often discover writers through their magazine work.

[Lynn]

All that matters to me is my Life Average (LA) which currently stands at 263.14 words per day ever since 2018, which was when I started maintaining word stats. Since Life Average is the average of all yearly averages, and since the average yearly word count can be determined at any day of the year by simply dividing by 365 (366 for leap years like 2020), the value of LA keeps changing on a day-to-day basis. So, it's a constant companion, a fellow traveller, a guiding star, for the rest of my life. So, the higher the LA, more fulfilling it'll be for me as a writer. I couldn't write for most part of this year but I don't panic or feel the guilt as I keep looking at the value of LA.

I began keeping a daily word count in August 2012. My average words per day for all time since that day is 565 words. :D

I also keep a spreadsheet that breaks it down by year and month, so I can say that historically December is a so-so month for my wpd average but this year I've managed to do a bit better for December than usual. :D January is the month I have to watch out for. That is consistently the worst month for my wpd average across the board, every year.

2020 will be different! :D

Overall, my worst months are January, June, and December, and by a large degree, so it's not even in question if that difference is significant.

[Shoe]

As a reader, I often discover writers through their magazine work.

Me too. If I like their magazine pieces, I always look for their books.

[VisitasKeat]

All that matters to me is my Life Average (LA) which currently stands at 263.14 words per day ever since 2018, which was when I started maintaining word stats. Since Life Average is the average of all yearly averages, and since the average yearly word count can be determined at any day of the year by simply dividing by 365 (366 for leap years like 2020), the value of LA keeps changing on a day-to-day basis. So, it's a constant companion, a fellow traveller, a guiding star, for the rest of my life. So, the higher the LA, more fulfilling it'll be for me as a writer. I couldn't write for most part of this year but I don't panic or feel the guilt as I keep looking at the value of LA.

I try not to think about words per day. Some days are 2000, some days 200, some days 0. I think more in terms of turning out a novel every 3 months if I can.

You must be having an excellent Life Average!

One good thing about not maintaining word stats is that there is no inner tension. Apparently there is relaxation. But that act of negligence may soon turn into escapism. There won't be self-accountability in the face of consistently good sales and celebration. And when sales droughts happen, one starts speculating about the vagaries of one's own performance because of the lack of measurement.

But yes, higher LA doesn't necessarily imply higher publishing rate. Not all words written gets published before getting an organic storyline and acceptable levels of editing. So, the percentage of words published for a quarter, year, decade, or life, matters.

[VisitasKeat]

All that matters to me is my Life Average (LA) which currently stands at 263.14 words per day ever since 2018, which was when I started maintaining word stats. Since Life Average is the average of all yearly averages, and since the average yearly word count can be determined at any day of the year by simply dividing by 365 (366 for leap years like 2020), the value of LA keeps changing on a day-to-day basis. So, it's a constant companion, a fellow traveller, a guiding star, for the rest of my life. So, the higher the LA, more fulfilling it'll be for me as a writer. I couldn't write for most part of this year but I don't panic or feel the guilt as I keep looking at the value of LA.

I began keeping a daily word count in August 2012. My average words per day for all time since that day is 565 words. :D

I also keep a spreadsheet that breaks it down by year and month, so I can say that historically December is a so-so month for my wpd average but this year I've managed to do a bit better for December than usual. :D January is the month I have to watch out for. That is consistently the worst month for my wpd average across the board, every year.

2020 will be different! :D

Overall, my worst months are January, June, and December, and by a large degree, so it's not even in question if that difference is significant.

565 is a decent and tangible value, something worth aspiring for. And you must be writing fairly clean first drafts at that rate. Clusters of scenes must have formed clearly in your mind before they started raining as words. I presume you didn't suffer burnout and staleness since 2012. Also, your keyboard must be thanking you for your gentleness. You seem to maintain the correct pace in this writathon!   

Since your bar graphs highlight December, January, and June, then that very fact means you will approach these months consciously. The perks of having solid data!

[VanessaC]

For 2020 I am planning to finish my current series - book 3 is almost there, currently with my beta reader, and it's going to be a six book series, so three more books to write and release in 2020. Do-able for me, if I keep focused. Currently plotting books 4 - 6, and have mapped out a release schedule I should be able to make.

I'm also dipping my toes into advertising - just started working on some more Amazon ads (in KU, so this made sense) and so 2020 will be a year of marketing and advertising experiments.

[Simon Haynes]

In 2020 I want to write books two and three in my Victorian ghost series first up. Then Hal Spacejock 11, followed by Secret War 3 (space opera).

I'm thinking of calling time on most of my series at that point. I'll continue with Hal Spacejock for sure, but I'll look around and decide what next. It's refreshing starting a new series, and doubly so when it's a new genre.

I'll be aiming for a book every 6-8 weeks, so they'll keep me going for the first half of the year. I'll also be flat out renovating my new house and landscaping the gardens/growing vegetables/planting fruit trees.

* 'new' = 'new to me'

[TimothyEllis]

Not sure I have goals for 2020, but do have plans.

2019 was about writing the sequel to my first series my fans wanted, and to complete universe building, in preparation for wherever my ideas go in the future. So its been an ordinary year as far as sales and reads have gone, given its mainly been fans supporting it, with little new attraction.

2020 will see a new series of Spacemage books, paralleling 2019's series, along with several in the current series.

But interestingly, as the year winds up, I've had a completely new idea for a contemporary urban fantasy, which is trying to come through as I'm half way through the first new Spacemage book.

So Midshipman Spacemage will be first for the year, but where I go from there is something of a wait and see which book takes my head over.

[Joe Vasicek]

I'm going to focus on reading more in 2020.

At first, I was going to set a goal to read 100 books next year, using Goodreads to keep track. But since so many short story singles are up on Goodreads now, thanks to epublishing, I'm wondering if perhaps I should set my goal higher and just include short stories. I've already decided to count each month's issue of Locus Magazine, which I read cover to cover.

[DCRWrites]

My goals are low: Finish the current novel and then go wide with the Doc Vandal series.

Get started on DV book 7 and start thinking about how far to take the series. I have enough ideas to take me through to book 10 at least but I don't write that fast so I'm not sure how far I should really go. I also want to get back on the web copy bandwagon so I can bring in more money apart from fiction and then throw some into ads and promotions.

[LilyBLily]

I'm currently writing a women's fiction novel, and I would like to beat it into shape and publish it in 2020. That's asking a lot of myself since usually these kinds of stories take me years to revise into decent shape.

I intend to release one more book to finish a fantasy series. It's done but it needs more revising. After that, I don't know. I have several half-completed novels in various subgenres, but I'm not convinced I can sell any of them as stand alones. Maybe one of them if I turn it from a romance into women's fiction. The subject of that story really doesn't lend itself to a series. Toss a short romance out there by itself and it sinks like a stone. At the moment I don't want to commit to a new series of any type.
 
I have a pressing life project that regularly distracts and exhausts me a couple of days per week. I have several family history projects that I've barely started. I have seasonal volunteer work. I have paying work. That's actually quite enough to keep me busy until it's time to start mowing the lawn again. Then we'll see what I want to write next.     

[lea_owens]

I want to have at least four novels out in 2020. I'm finishing a 100k one this week, so that will be the first, and there's an 80k fifth book in my kids' series almost complete, that's #2. The third book is already at 60k and is only just started so I'll split that into a trilogy. Oh, that's five books. OK. Five books for 2020. Hmm. And another romance. Make that six.

And double my writing income. I've only broken four figures one month this year ($1,500), and I hope to cross that threshold every month. Still a long way to go, but it's a goal and I'm planning.

[spin52]

I just try to sell more books and make a little more money each year than I did the previous one. So far it's worked. So for 2020, I'm going to write at least two more books in my Victorian mystery series, which is my best selling one, and possibly another time traveller mystery, which is my worst selling one but hey, it's fun to write. I may try another Victorian series, this one set in the 1890s, with the children of my current Victorian characters as the protagonists.

[dgcasey]

My goals are to finish four novels this year, including the final novel of my fantasy trilogy. Of course, I already have another fantasy trilogy in the works, so I must be completely insane.    

[TimothyEllis]

so I must be completely insane.

Phase 1 complete.

Begin phase 2.

[Vijaya]

so I must be completely insane.

Phase 1 complete.

Begin phase 2.

     

I was cleaning the kitchen late last night...and realized it was almost midnight. I put aside the mop, got a new notebook out. I'm happy to say I began 2020 with writing!
Happy New Year all!

[DCRWrites]

so I must be completely insane.

Phase 1 complete.

Begin phase 2.

     

I was cleaning the kitchen late last night...and realized it was almost midnight. I put aside the mop, got a new notebook out. I'm happy to say I began 2020 with writing!
Happy New Year all!

I did too—lying in bed with Babylon 5 in the background and Scrivener on the iPad.

[Lorri Moulton]

Babylon 5   

[notthatamanda]

I'm late to the party sorry but here goes:

Publish one book in the spring and one in the fall, both with print and with audio on at least the first one.

Get an undetermined number of my other books into print.  Not committing to a number on that, I need to do read aloud on them and a couple are 180K each.

Hopefully make more money this year than I did last.

Happy New Year everyone.

[Jeff Tanyard]

1.)  Publish book 4 of Wheel of Fire.

2.)  Publish book 5 of Wheel of Fire.

3.)  Become proficient at CPC ads, or at least don't lose money with them.

4.)  Gross more than I did in 2019.

5.)  Write a Christmas story.

6.)  Make detailed outlines for books 6 and 7 of Wheel of Fire and sketch out the next series.

[sandree]

Finish my second book in the Aride universe. Figure out why I’m having so much trouble finishing that book.

Then decide if I want to keep writing. I’m on the fence right now. I’ve never done something that had such a slim chance of making any money - ever. I know the advice is to write more. But I’m not someone who can write something popular or write to market. I’ve never fit into the mainstream of anything. I’m pretty sure that whatever I write will be out of the box and hard to market. Like I said - I’m on the fence - teetering...

[Post-Doctorate D]

My plan is to finish this space opera I have been writing for too long.  I had hoped maybe before the end of January, but it seems doubtful I'll manage that unless I can manage to boost my daily word counts.

After that, I don't know.  I'll see how, or if, it sells.  It'll be my first book that fits in an actual well-defined category so I'm curious to see if that will make any difference in sales.  Seems doubtful.  My last book, which I thought for sure would get some Halloween sales which is why I released it just before Halloween, did not.  Even subscribers on my list aren't buying anymore.

I suspect that selling books is going to be like selling anything else online anymore.  Amazon has such a stranglehold on books and Google/Facebook have a stranglehold on online advertising for everything, that sales belong to those who can afford to drop a ton of money on advertising.  Today's Internet is a far cry from the 90s and early 2000s Internet where even tiny websites had as much chance of competing in the marketplace as the big box stores.

Anyway, I'll see how it goes.  Maybe the space opera will be the last book I do.  If sales from my books can't even cover the copyright registration fees, I think it may be time to pack it in.  I may just focus on my newsletter and serialize my stories in it.

[Jeff Tanyard]

It'll be my first book that fits in an actual well-defined category so I'm curious to see if that will make any difference in sales.  Seems doubtful. 

In my opinion, that should make all the difference in the world.  No guarantees, of course, and YMMV and all, but writing books in the popular genres rather than in niche genres is the single best thing you can do to boost your odds of success.

[Lorri Moulton]

(Snip)  I may just focus on my newsletter and serialize my stories in it.

Dan, you can always do both.  I serialize my short fairytales, then publish them.  I use them later as free books or for sale. 

[Post-Doctorate D]

(Snip)  I may just focus on my newsletter and serialize my stories in it.

Dan, you can always do both.  I serialize my short fairytales, then publish them.  I use them later as free books or for sale. 

If I just do them in my newsletter, I don't have to worry about formatting, covers or blurbs.