You may or may not be someone who enjoys setting writing goals, but I love them. I especially love reading back over them at the end of the year to see how I’ve done. My writing goals for 2019 are similar to those I set in 2018 but I hope to achieve some if not all of them.
In 2018 I set myself the following 14 writing goals:
- Learn about book marketing
- Publish 2 or more books
- At least 1 blog post per month
- Get a publishing contract for at least 1 book
- Enter 1 competition or complete 1 submission each month
- Take more writing courses
- Network with more Irish writers
- Attend the Dublin Writers Conference
- Do guest blog posts
- 5 or more author interviews
- Write 10 or more short stories
- Take part in at least 1 anthology
- Create a Facebook readers group
- Get an Amazon bestseller tag
I have to say, I managed almost all of them. I didn’t get my bestseller tag, but I did get to attend the Dublin Writers Conference and win their Book of the Year 2018 Award for Hear Me Cry. I have been learning about book marketing and this is something that will always be ongoing. I only published one book this year which was Hear Me Cry in May, but I did write 2 others and a lot of short stories. I got a publishing contract for Nightmare Realities 2 which will be coming out later this year and I also signed a contract with Owl Hollow Press for my story Moonlight Magic which appeared in their Under The Full Moon’s Light anthology in October 2018. I didn’t manage to keep up with my goal of submitting something every month but everything else I’m happy to say I managed. I took part in five different anthologies, one of these – The Demons of Solomon: Flash Fiction Anthology – will release in February 2019 and was so much fun to do.
My Writing Goals for 2019
After reading over my 2018 goals this morning, I decided it was time to set my 2019 writing goals. As I mentioned above, they are quite similar.
- Get an agent and/or publisher
- Finish editing and submit Winterland
- At least 1 submission per month (poetry and/or short story)
- 1 blog post per week
- Write books 2 and 3 for the Cursed Angels Series
- Learn more about marketing
- Publish 2 or more books (self-published)
- 5 or more author interviews
- 10 or more short stories
- Enter Visual Verse every month
- Write a Christmas Novella
- Take part in at least 1 anthology
- Get an Amazon bestseller tag
- Get my readers group active and make it a fun place to hang out
- Help other writers as often as I can
- Learn about AMS ads
- Finish the stories in my to be finished file
- Attend a writing retreat or a writing conference
- Network more with Irish writers, agents, and publishers
- Learn more and hone my writing skills
- Write at least 3,000 words every week
- Look at other places to share my stories (Wattpad, etc)
- Be more engaging and interact more on Twitter
- Learn about and find a co-author to work with on a new project
- Be more confident in myself and my writing
- Attend writing courses
So far, I’m not doing too badly and I’m still on my Christmas holidays. I’ve already sent off two submissions – one poetry and one for Visual Verse, and this is my blog post for the week. I’m getting ready to start edits for Nightmare Realities 2 and for Winterland. I’ve also started writing a new story which I think will be a short story.
It’s shaping up to be a great year so far and I have my new positive motivation wall to keep me focused as well. Here’s what it looks like. I used all my favorite quotes and phrases from my 2018 desk calendar.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and if you have any particular goals you’d like to share, please leave a comment.
Until next time,
Keep reading and writing,
Amanda
Amanda J Evans is an award-winning Irish author and writing coach. Amanda writes adult romance that often crosses into paranormal and fantasy. Growing up with heroes like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, her stories centre on good versus evil with a splice of love and magic thrown in too. Her books have all won awards and her novella, Hear Me Cry, won the Book of the Year Award at the Dublin Writers Conference 2018. Amanda is also the author of Surviving Suicide: A Memoir from Those Death Left Behind, published in 2012.
