December is supposed to be the busiest month of the year. But it can be the slowest for working writers. Sure, I can keep busy buying gifts, decorating my home, baking goodies and planning our holiday meals. I can also keep busy in my office as long as it doesn’t involve input from anyone in the outside world. Everyone else is busy buying gifts, decorating their homes, baking goodies and planning their holiday meals.
Clients say, “Let’s knock off for a few weeks.†Editors are “out of the office†throughout the holidays. Publishers don’t respond during the month of December. What’s a working freelance writer to do? Anything we want to do!
I’ll probably spend the month working on my book of cat stories because I’m having fun with it. Yesterday, I organized the stories in a logical order and worked on story titles. Some of the stories are written, some are just outlined and I’m still waiting for a couple of good stories. I want a story about a cat burglar and a really touching or humorous story about a shop cat.
This month, I’ll also work on new article ideas and submit recycled articles both for money-making purposes and to promote my upcoming book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I hope that before the month is over, I’ll be busy shipping copies of the new book all over the U.S. to eager readers. The orders are coming in at a steady pace. Of course, I’ll be promoting The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book almost every day.
December is also a good time to take inventory of ones writing business and, perhaps, reevaluate goals. I like to figure out what aspect of my business was most lucrative during the year and adjust my goals in that direction for the coming year. For example, I worked with a lot of clients this year. So I’ll probably promote my editorial business a lot in 2006. I will also be seeking (and making) opportunities to do workshops and lectures in order to promote my writing/publishing-related books. Monday, I learned about a writers’ conference in Oklahoma that sounds worth applying for. I’m waiting to receive an invitation.
It’s also a good month to check the job listings in the wide variety of writing/publishing-related newsletters produced now and writing/publishing Web sites. Locate new magazines to write for. Go in search of new publishers you may want to approach with your upcoming book project. Create a promotional brochure for your next book festival or to mail out after the first of the year. Apply for writing work at local businesses. Visit Web sites and offer to edit those that are poorly written. Likewise, you can collect business brochures and offer to rewrite those that aren’t well structured. Build or redesign your Web site.
There’s a lot of work out there and sometimes we have to get in assertive mode to locate it.
Oh, I was published this week in Writer’s Weekly—the newsletter that boasts the largest circulation of any other writing-related newsletter. That’s Angela Hoy’s newsletter. She published my new article called, Stop Writing and Start Establishing Your Promotional Credibility. The article was posted just yesterday and already I’ve received comments, inquiries and even a few book sales. You can read the article at http://www.writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/003114_11302005.html/
That’s it for today. I’m going to finish my Christmas shopping later today and need to get something done so I can leave feeling a nice sense of accomplishment.