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 week I work with authors, bloggers and experts to create a career plan unique to their focus and circumstances. I do this using a proprietary career-planning framework I developed and turned into a four-session coaching program. I feel the plan is essential, and I recommend almost all my clients produce one early in the coaching process or their journey to authorship, professional writing or blogging, or expert status.
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. Passion
What are you most passionate about?
2. Purpose
What do you feel compelled to do in the world, or what is your mission or soul purpose with your work?
3. Values
What three to five things do you value most?
4. Topics
What topics would you like to write about or do you plan to write about (and in what genres)?
5. Books
What 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. Themes
What themes flow through all the books you want to write?
7. Branding
How 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/blog
How 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 Promotion
What 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 Services
What 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 Market
What 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 Competition
What 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.
Have you planned your author career? Tell me about your results in a comment below. (If you need helping creating a career plan, click here.)
Do you feel like you just need to know one more thing…or two…to succeed as a nonfiction writer, and you could use a bit of support so you actually implement what you learn? If so, you need the confidence and courage to take action toward your writing and publishing goals. That means you need to work on yourself while gaining a basic education in how to succeed as a nonfiction writer. You can do both as a member of the Nonfiction Writers’ University MASTERS program. Discover how to write consistently, boldly, enthusiastically, and productively. Develop the mindsets, strategies, habits of the world’s most successful writers. Learn AND implement this year. Click here to learn more. As a Nonfiction Writers’ University member, you gain access to a career planning course based on my four-sessoin coaching program that teaches you how to create your author career plan (a $997 value).
Thank you for your brilliant and usefull research and presentations so necessary to become a professional writer. I look forward to every blog.
You are sweet, Vikki. Thanks for your comment.
I find your advice very useful informative and well redacted. However because of my innovative style of writing it would not be advisable to blog or post my ideas on a public forum without first getting them copyrighted. The topics I write about have been done before but not in the way ( style) I am using for this book. It will be like a puzzle, apparently disconnected thoughts but in the end the clues of how to put the information together and make sense of it will be given to the reader but all this will be done in a new innovative way that has never been done before using secret techniques both psychological and literary and magical. There will be a lot of references to magic,paranormal phenomena and spiritual related themes treated in a new unconventional technique that will not only baffle the reader but keep him engaged in the reading in order to solve the “mystery”. Anyway the information you give is very useful. I will probably purchase one of your books later. But now I am busy writing. Wishing you continued success. Jose Garcia.
Jose,
Thanks for your comment.Read The Author Training Manual. It’s the most comprehensive guide to crafting marketable books.