In many professions, employees participate in professional development programs to improve the work they do in the company. Sometimes, this work is in the form of workshops and sometimes, it is purely independent work on the part of the employee.
For authors, there is really no end to the learning. Unfortunately, I see far too many authors out there who stop learning about the craft once they get that first book published. Clearly, they know how to write and now the focus needs to be on marketing. This is far from the truth! Yes, marketing is important, but a continued focus still needs to be placed on insuring your craft, as an author, is improving.
Both my wife and I read romances and we are frequently talking about the latest book we read. Too often, the conversation is not about how good the book was, but on "What happened to this author's ability to write a story?" It was clear that the focus had been more on just writing the story and not about trying to improve the craft!
Authors need to make an effort each year to not just write their stories, but to spend time reviewing their writing, learning new strategies, researching other authors, and yes, take the time to learn new approaches for marketing.
Your learning does not stop with the release of that first novel.
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