Why This is THE Most Important Time of Year For Writers

It's now November.

Boy has this year flown.

As far as writing goes I haven't achieved everything I hoped this year, but I came pretty darn close.

And since it's now less than 2 months to the end of the year, this is the most important time to plan what I'll be doing next year.

Starting my plan early will give me plenty of time to think things through.

It also is a brilliant time to look at everything I want to finish by the end of this year too.

If you never map out a writing and publishing plan for the following year, I can highly recommend doing so.

I find that I work much more efficiently if I have a plan and a timeline for everything I need to do. It frees up my thinking time so that I can concentrate more on my writing.

I don't have a set plan for  2016 yet, but I do know at least one thing that I'll be doing for the rest of 2015 and that's promoting my book, How to Quit Smoking - Without Giving Up Cigarettes, because thanks to New Years resolutions, this book is always an end of year best seller.

And it's available as a paperback book, as well as a Kindle and PDF, so it also makes a great Christmas gift too.

Another good reason to start promoting it early.

What will you be doing next year?

What My Hospital Stay Taught Me About Being a Writer

Last weekend wasn't one of my best.

It began normally but ended up with me screaming in agony and being admitted to hospital.

Turns out, I have a large gall stone (1.9cm in diameter no less) that got stuck and hence the screaming and pain-killing injections that followed.

In the not too distant future, I'll need an operation, but last weekend I had to stay in hospital overnight until Monday afternoon (yesterday).

Naturally, like most hospital patients, I didn't get much sleep because of all the noise all night with buzzers going off, staff shouting and sounds of snoring coming from everywhere.

And by Monday morning I was bored.

So I had a lot of time to think.

And do you know what I thought about the whole time?

Writing.

I sat around (and laid around) making plans for my writing.

I couldn't seem to stop.

I laid in bed staring out the window and thought about writing.

I sat in the chair next to my bed and thought about writing.

I also sat outside on the back verandah to drink my black coffee (clear fluids only for 24 hours so I was really hungry the whole time - and I lost 1kg) and thought about writing.

And this taught me 2 things.

Firstly, I'm completely obsessed with writing. I don't think I realised it until now.

Secondly, as a writer, there's no such thing as not working.

I often think about writing and make plans of what I'll write next but I didn't realise how much I do it.

And now I know that even when I have absolutely nothing to do, I'm still working. Still thinking. Still planning.

So if you have a lot of waiting around to do, don't waste it.

It's a great brain storming opportunity.


P.S. Before I went to the hospital, I was having a day out with my family, which was sadly cut short. We were at Chenrezig Institute which is a Buddhist monastery and retreat on top of a mountain. It's a beautiful and tranquil place to visit if you're ever in the area. It's set over 100 acres of bushland and accepts day visitors who are free to explore the property.

No Time To Write? Liar!

"I have so much going on in my life right now that I don't have time to even think about writing."

That's what someone said to me recently. Can you believe that?

It's a ridiculous statement.

And a lie.

We all have time to write.

And there's nothing more annoying to those of us who are writing and making a living out of it, than to hear someone who never writes at all claiming that they would write, but they just don't have the time.

Every successful writer began as a busy person who made a habit of prioritising their writing instead of putting it off with excuse after excuse.

An excuse isn't a reason for not writing, it's a way of trying to say that it's not your fault that you're not writing.

But it is your fault.

Just take a look at this article by successful and prolific writer, Emma Darwin, who explains quite succinctly how to get some writing done every day AND get your novel written, even if you believe you don't have time.

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2015/01/ring-fencing-writing-time.html

Or how about the article called "Just Write the Damned Book Already" by Joseph Finder who also gets annoyed with people who claim they don't have time to write and counters it with "And if only I had the time to run for President, I’d be in the White House."

http://www.josephfinder.com/writers/tips/just-write-the-damned-book-already/

Or if you want to be truly inspired by seeing just how much another author does write every day, take a look at Dean Wesley Smith's blog post series called "Writing in Public" where he publicly details how many words he writes every day.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/category/challenge-2/page/4/

And he doesn't just tell you how much he writes, but tells you what he does all day so you can see his day unfolding from start to finish.  His blog posts can really give you motivation.

So if you tell people that you don't have time to write, stop talking, apply backside to chair and get writing.

You'll be surprised at just how much you can write in a short time.

I can do half a page of writing in just 5 minutes which means by doing that every day, I could write a novel in a year.

How about you?

My Recent Income From Book Sales

I get asked a lot about how much money I earn from my writing, but it's not something I like to talk about.

I always think that if I had a regular 9 to 5 job no one would ask me how much I earn but writers get asked about this often.

In a way I can understand why people want to know.

There's much talk about how it's possible to earn a really good income as a writer and apart from asking successful writers, there's no way to find out.

For regular careers there's a minimum wage and average income that anyone can look up. But writers are different because we're not paid by the hour. It's the same for musicians and artists. None of them earn a 'standard' income because there is no standard income for creative careers.

But having said all that, just to show that it is possible to earn a good income as a writer, I'll tell you about part of a conversation I had with my bookkeeper just a few days ago.

He rang to ask me a few questions about my most recent income. I'd sent him all the paperwork but he still had a couple of questions.

Then he asked me another question.

He said, "Do you know who much money you've earned from your book sales in the last 2 weeks?"

I admitted that I had no idea. Math has never interested me much so although I know I'm making sales, I don't really track them all the time (that's what bookkeepers are for aren't they?).

So he told me.

"$5,000."

I was pleased. That's pretty good earnings from my books. I don't even have as many published as some authors.

I also make money online from affiliate sales and from advertising on my websites, so earning 5K from just my books was great.

And I'm telling your this not to brag (although some will think 5k is nothing compared to what they earn) but to show you that there is money to be made from self publishing.

And that's another thing...he was only talking about the books I self published and so that figure doesn't include my two books that I didn't publish myself, one of which is The Wealthy Writer.

So if you've ever wanted to start taking your writing seriously and earn enough money so that you can work as a writer like I do, I hope this blog post helps to inspire you to start writing, publishing and marketing more.

And I include publishing and marketing, because without these two things, you won't make any money from your writing at all.

The really good news for me though, is that I'm about to start writing many more books (they're on my schedule of work for the next few months).

So my income can only increase.

:)