Frankly, only time will tell.

Last week I wrote about how I plan to slow down this summer. That’s cool and all, but it is not in my best interests to completely turn off my income channels and tune out.

How will I make this all work?

With a plan, of course. It is helpful that I am an Enneagram 3. 

Making a LIST is something I do often. Menu plans, yard work, story ideas -- I make lists for all that stuff. So of course I made a list for my Summer Work Plan. It is as follows:

SUMMER WORK PLAN:

1. Publish 2-3 times a month

• I have my June and July releases written and ready to go -- they are with an editor now.

• I have written extensive outlines (3k-ish long for a 15k story), blurbs, and character sketches and contracted some writers to help me flesh out the stories for my August and September releases.

• I will be doing some box set releases.

• This plan means I will not be writing any books in June, July, or August. This will free me up considerably. 

The following tasks are things I can do while my kids are around, in between activities, and I can also hire my son to assist with:

2. Get my back list on the reading app Radish. 

• I sold Radish a ten book series 6 months ago with a $300 advance each. I got my first royalty statement last week and earned out on all but 1 of them, making me feel like there is money to be made there. 

• Last month I uploaded 5 stories to Radish and am earning about $10 a day now. I am very curious to see what happens if I put up another 150. (These graphs do not include the series I sold them as they are not on my dashboard). Ok, so $10 a day is not gonna pay for my son’s college tuition, but I think there is potential here to grow.

3. Get my backlist in paperback

• Currently I have about 20% of my books in paperback on Amazon. I have one book on D2D paperback. I randomly clicked “create paperback” on D2D on one novella title last month, and shockingly moved 70 copies. I do not know if this was a weird fluke, but I am going to try to find out by getting things in paperback -- and not just on Amazon.

4. Put links that are clickable in the back of all my books

• When I had my consultation with Vanessa Vale she pointed out I do not have any clickable purchase links in my books. That was a total mistake on my part when uploading my backlist last fall. Live and learn.

5. Hire two assistants

 *I have hired one person to do the following tasks:

• Create universal links for all my books and series.

• Update my metadata sheets in my google Drive so all the information on a book is in one place.

• Update my website so every book page has all retailers listed.

*I have hired one person to do the following task:

• Post 2x a day on my Facebook page with a teaser and a purchase link

6. German Translations

• I have one translation written and proofread.

• I have book two in the series being written now.

• I will continue to do 1 title a month. I am going to wait until the 4 book series is complete, then publish a week apart. 

• This is a long game, but it requires nothing on my end besides sending files to people and getting covers. Instead of writing an additional book each month, I am going to get an older, popular story translated, as a way to protect my mental capacity.

• With the translator and proofer, it cost ~$700 for a 17k word novella. It is sustainable to do this 1x a month.

7. One title at a time in audio

• I have not invested much money in audio but I am going to pay out for one audiobook a month, and like translations, this is not a lot of work on my end.

• I hope it will eventually be an additional income stream as the audio I have sold to publishers makes me a steady five figures a year and that is with me only receiving 10% of the cut. 

• I just received a finished audiobook that I paid a narrator to produce, and feel like it took a very minimal amount of time, giving me confidence this will not take too much energy to continue. 

• I paid the narrator $100 per finished hour, the novella was 1.8 hours, through ACX.

The Summer Work List is long ... but the tasks on it (especially Radish, website, and proper links) have been weighing on me for quite awhile and I know I need them to be completed to take the load off. 

It is really hard to pour myself into a creative project when I feel like I am choosing one or the other -- do I get the admin things done or the writing? It is a constant tug of war. Maybe creative types who are less “Type 3” can shut off the Achiever part of their brain and enter the flow state, but I know that is not me. If I have a long list that is just NOT getting done, it is hard to focus. 

Frankly, only time will tell if this is a plan that will keep my income steady -- but I am hoping it has an added benefit of getting me ready for a Prolific Fall. 

In the past, taking time off from writing has meant I was more energized and excited when I returned to a blank page. 

What about you? Do you find taking a break from getting “words on the page” gives you more clarity on the story when you return?

I would love to hear your summer plans ... and what Enneagram you are! (This link will give you a free test and # result, you can google to ge more info on what that # means without paying!)

Xo, Frankie