Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Publishing one nonfiction book typically doesn’t provide you with a ticket to success—at least if you want a career as a nonfiction author or any type of author for that matter. To succeed in the competitive publishing arena, you need a career plan that includes a book—or more than one book—as well as a brand, a website, a promotion plan, and a business. If you take the time to craft a career plan, you’ll have a pass to travel to your desired destination: successful authorship.
Every day I coach Author Training clients using a proprietary career-planning system. I feel the plan is essential, and I recommend almost all my clients produce one early in the coaching process. I even use this career planning system for my blog and blog-to-book clients to help them build businesses around their blogs. The career plan, which contains ten fundamental elements, also works as an umbrella over the four modules in my
The Successful Author 6-month premium Author-Training program.
The 10 Fundamental Elements of an Author Career Plan
If you want to craft your own career plan, start by evaluating each of the following ten necessary elements. To do so, answer the questions I’ve provided for each.
1. PassionWhat are you most passionate about?
2. PurposeWhat do you feel compelled to do in the world, or what is your mission or soul purpose with your work?
3. ValuesWhat three to five things do you value most?
4. TopicsWhat topics would you like to write about or do you plan to write about (and in what genres)?
5. BooksWhat is your first or primary book idea? What three to five spin-off books, series or sequels could you write that relate in theme or topic to your primary book idea? What other books do you want to write as well?
6. ThemesWhat themes flow through all the books you want to write?
7. BrandingHow can you use you passion, purpose, values, themes, topics, and books to distinguish yourself in the marketplace. More simply, how do you want to be known as an author? Also, what benefit will you provide to readers?
8. Author website/blogHow can you carry out your branding on an author website with a tagline, a title, colors, banners, logos, etc.? Also, how will you develop a blog plan based on your branding?
9. Platform Building and PromotionWhat have you done to date—or what do you need to do—to create visibility, reach, authority, and influence in your target market? How can you build on that to create effective ways to sell your books to your potential readers?
10. Products and ServicesWhat related products could you develop to monetize your knowledge and the content in your books? And what related services could you create to leverage your knowledge, expert status, or the content in your books?
Other Career Plan Essentials
To succeed, you must keep two other essential items in mind as you craft your career plan.
1. The MarketWhat is the market you are trying to reach with your books, website/blog, and products and services? How will your work and site target that market? What value will you provide to those people?
2. The CompetitionWhat books, websites, blogs, and other authors represent your direct competition? How will you offer a unique selling proposition?
Work on the Fine Details
Within each one of these 10, or rather 12, career plan areas, there are many more fine details to work out. A completed “successful-author career plan,” allows you to develop a finely honed map from where you are to where you want to be. And it gives you the opportunity to plan out every stop along the way.
That kind of planning and focus, along with diligent implementation, will help you become a successful author.
You want to write a book.
You want writing to become your career and livelihood.
You need Author Training…
but not just any Author Training.
You need my 6-month premium Author-Training program, The Successful Author: Craft a Career from Idea to Brand to Business.
During this program you develop a detailed career plan as you craft a marketable book idea, write a salable book with bestseller potential, develop a platform and promotion plan, and discover ways to build a business around your book. Plus you get both group and one-on-one coaching…and tons of bonus training!
The Successful Author is the most comprehensive Author-Training program available. Based on time-tested industry strategies and principles, this premium coaching program is for any serious writer who wants to fulfill the dream of having their books published and read and making a living from their words.
Unlike other become-an-author programs, this one contains no hype and no gimmicks. It’s the effective and complete Author Training you need to become a successful author.
Don’t wait! Register for The Successful Author SOON to get two additional bonuses!
To learn more and register, click here.
Gain access to my FREE Successful Author video series when you click here.
The post
10 Elements Necessary to Craft an Author Career Plan appeared first on
Write Nonfiction NOW!.
Nina Amir, the bestselling author of How to Blog a Book and The Author Training Manual, is a speaker, a blogger, and an author, book, blog-to-book, and high-performance coach. Known as the Inspiration to Creation Coach, she helps creative people combine their passion and purpose so they move from idea to inspired action and positively and meaningfully impact the world as writers, bloggers, authorpreneurs, and blogpreneurs. Some of Nina’s clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses and created thriving businesses around their books. She is the founder of National Nonfiction Writing Month, National Book Blogging Month, and the Nonfiction Writers’ University. As a hybrid author she has published 15 books and had as many as four books on the Amazon Top 100 list at the same time.