How to Plan a Writing Career, pt. 3
Welcome to part 3 of the three part Career Planning series. If you missed the first two installments, you can part 1 here and part 2 here. In this installment we’ll discuss the bells and whistles of writing careers, including websites, social media management, and writerly relationships (writing groups, critique partners, etc.). Each could be a topic in its own right, and down the line maybe it will be. For now, let’s try to keep it brief.
Websites - Most authors agree that you should have a website. But when do you get the website? Is it when you’re first starting out, or after you’ve been published? There is no clear answer. Some believe you should have a website long before you ‘make it’ as an author. Their logic normally boils down to having a presence, an audience, and a way to interact/engage with the community and your fans. Others believe that your web-presence can and/or should wait until you’ve been published, or when you sign a book deal.
I think it comes down to budget and time. Free websites seem unprofessional to me, but I don’t have any data about the impact of website branding on follower numbers, so I could be completely wrong. Professional looking sites can cost between a few thousand dollars (to have someone make one from the ground up) to $10 - $30 per month. Mine is through squarespace and costs $18/mo. not including email campaigns.
That’s the thing nobody mentions about websites, and which I learned the hard way. Building a website for a non-artist, non-programmer is hard, even with the easy-use tools like wordpress.com and squarespace.com. And there are plenty of hidden costs and time-sinks. For example, having a newsletter is recommended for most writers, but that requires an email campaign service. Some work natively with some website builders, others don’t. The service fees and coverage vary widely, and there’s no guarantee you’ll even need one until you actually get fans.
My recommendation is get a free website if you’re unpublished. There are also free email campaign tools available that should serve your needs for quite some time (like Mailchimp). Follow some how-to guides on making the site (there are plenty for writers) so you know what to include. Keep it simple until you start building a fan base. Blogs are optional. Only do one if you’ve got something different to say. There are dozens of high quality blogs by famous authors that teach writing or talk about the business. Unless you have some specialty or are a glutton for punishment, you should probably avoid doing the same.
It took me about forty hours to build this website, including the time it took me to learn the ins and outs and research proper author site design. It takes me a couple of hours a week to maintain it, mostly in the form of small tweaks to certain pages, scheduling blog posts, modifying category tags, etc. You should probably plan on something similar regardless of your choice, since a stale page quickly dies. You need to add content and keep things fresh.
Time spent - 40 hours upfront, 1-2 hrs/mo. thereafter. If you blog, plan on writing 2 - 3 articles a week, estimated time writing and editing: 5 hrs/wk.
Social Media - How much? What services? Alexa Donne and Jenna Moreci of youtube fame have multiple videos on this topic. Alexa is traditionally published while Jenna is self-published. Each specializes in their form of publishing and can teach you a lot about social media use and their preferred publishing style. I’ll summarize for those of you not wishing to visit their channels.
Self-Pub - Self-published authors should invest their time in two to three primary social media presences from the beginning. Building a brand early is key to selling books, so pick services you are comfortable with that have a high impact. Make sure to dedicate a few hours a week to these services.
Trad Pub - Authors pursuing traditional publishing should have a simple website until they get a publishing deal. Once that is secured, they should invest in a couple social media sites and put time into promoting their work. Social media is not necessary for traditional publishing, but it does help immensely, especially if you can build a brand and following.
Either way, you can’t only promote your work. You have to offer something of value; you aren’t a walking sales pitch.
No doubt you’ve noticed similarities between the two approaches. That’s because social media is the order of the day. Whether its BookTok, Authortube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
I’ve chosen Twitter and Facebook for now, with a focus on my blog in the hopes of building a reputation as someone who knows something about writing before I get published. I’m pursuing traditional publishing, though I will dabble in self-pub through Kindle Vella.
Once I have a publishing deal I plan to join the other excellent content creators on Authortube. Maybe I’ll start a podcast. When I do, I’ll be sure to add an entry to this series explaining the ins and outs of how those work. For now, I’ve heard that every minute of video on youtube takes an hour to produce.
No matter what you select, don’t mistake your time on social media for writing time. Anything you do is in addition to your writing, reading, and craft work.
Time Spent - Variable depending on choice. Plan for 1-2 hrs/wk. for services like Twitter and Facebook, and 1 hr/per minute of video for Youtube.
Writerly Relationships - These are writing groups, critique partners, and beta readers, all of which you should have, but aren’t necessary (at first). I’ve had mixed results with writing groups and don’t yet have a critique partner, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
If you want other sources on these, Brandon Sanderson has a free lecture on youtube about how to form and run successful writing groups. The other content creators I’ve mentioned above also have videos on the topic, and the Writing Excuses podcast covers it as well. All are highly recommended.
Writing Groups - You want these because they give you fresh perspectives on your writing and can act as alpha or beta readers in a pinch. Make sure to assemble a group that are interested in the same thing. For example, if you treat writing like a career, find similar people. I wouldn’t recommend more than 4 or 5 individuals including yourself, as you might not have time to get to everyone’s work otherwise. Plan for 30 minutes per person’s work, and try not to bring anything longer than 4,000 words. Most groups meet weekly or bi-weekly for a couple hours, so budget your time accordingly. Hosting or running a group takes a little extra time, maybe 30 minutes a week. Once you include the commute, you’re looking at 3 hrs/wk. on average.
Critique Partners - These are one to one relationships, so you should probably only have a couple. They are time intensive because they involve the exchange of large portions of your manuscript, or even the whole thing. It takes me about 8 hours to read through a 100,000 word book (400 pages). Add to that time spent editing, writing questions, suggestions, and reflection, and you’re looking at a minimum of 20 hours of work per partner. The good news is most people don’t write more than a book a year, so fitting in two or three partners isn’t hard. Except that you can’t spread out your critique over a year. Whatever week/month you get their work is when you need to return it. So you won’t have time to write, or you’ll have much less. Ditto for practice, social media, everything. Plan accordingly.
Beta Readers - These don’t take up your time directly, at least at first. Once they’ve finished your book, you need to schedule time to speak with them. Most authors recommend 3 - 10 beta readers. Quite the range, I know. I lean towards 10 because I don’t know the quality of the beta-readers I’ve picked yet. I plan to whittle it down to the best ones (the most critical and in depth). But that means 5 - 10 coffee/lunches once they’re done. That’ll easily take a couple hours each, so there’s 20 hours of work during a week or two (since you’ll want the thoughts to be fresh in their mind).
Time spent - Writing groups take about 3 hrs/wk, 3.5 if you’re running it or hosting it (you’ll use the commute time to clean and prepare). Critique partners will take 20 - 40 hours spread over a couple weeks intermittently through the year. Beta Readers will take 2 hrs each for each round of reading. If you’re doing multiple rounds of beta reading, this can add up quickly.
Putting it all together - Based on our previous examples, you’re spending an average of 2.25 hrs/day on writing/reading/craft. Add to that 2 hrs weekly of website management, plus 5 hrs if you’re doing a blog and you end up with 3.25 hours a day on average. We’re already over the estimated 3 hrs/day free time for weekdays. Add social media (2.5 hrs/wk) and you end up at 3.6 hrs/day.
Assume two critique partners at 30 hrs apiece (a little more than the minimum) once per year. This is roughly a week’s worth of the other work, meaning you’ve got to add that 30 hours in averaged over the remaining weeks to keep up. Beta readers will be 20 hours and follow the same principle. This is an average of 1 hr/wk of extra work. That brings the final expected time for our current plan to 3.75 hours/day, give or take. That’s 3 hours and 45 minutes for those who dislike decimals.
If you’re like most people, you don’t have this kind of time. Many folks are lucky to get one or two hours a day, with plenty of zero-hour days thrown in due to various life events or fatigue. So how do you do it? Tune in next Sunday for a Time Management article. We’ll get into tips and tricks for cramming this in even if you have a family and other obligations/hobbies. I’ll be using my life as a base and expanding on it based on other writers’ experience. Here’s hoping you join me. Now, get back to writing.