Know Your Game Plan Before You Jump Into Professional Writing.

You have just typed the greatest two words every writers likes to see - "THE END." That story is finished. You've edited the heck out of it. Now it is time to send it out to editors and agents. Maybe it's time to fire it off to Smashwords or Wattpad if you go the self-publishing route.

WAIT!!!!

Before you even think about hitting send, it is important for you to simply sit down and think. Do you have your full game plan in place before you make this move to professional writing? The odds are, you haven't even thought about this. I have said this before and I will say it again. Writing is a business and the things you do in one world are the exact same things we do in the other. The words may be different, but it is still the same.

In business, we talk about having a business plan in place. The same for writing. There are a ton of questions you need to have answers for and a clear idea how to achieve these before you even think about making the jump. Sure, you have a great story, but this is now a product you are marketing to consumers.

Consider just a few:

• You have one story but what about maintaining that career and keeping up with the demand of your readers?
• How are you advertising? Do you have the $$ to support web design, PR and so forth?
• Have you developed a new daily time line to include the business side with the creative side?
• Where do you see yourself, realistically, in 1, 2, 5, 10 yrs?
• What are your expectations for income and do these, realistically, match with the budget necessary to maintain your career.

But wait, there's more. Those 5 questions were just surface level issues. We can go a lot deeper by examining how much you know about the business and the whole process of publishing. This involves things such as the time it takes for revisions, writing proposals, working with editors and agents, the realistic view of the odds of making it... The list goes on and on.

I know for myself, I see far too many authors who really do have a great product to sell. These are writers with a lot of potential, and yet, jumping in too soon by not being prepared leads to far too many failures.

Don't let this happen to you!