Whether you're penning your first novel or looking to expand your authorial presence, understanding and setting clear goals is key.

SMART Goals
A goal is a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound target. It’s not just a dream or a wish – it’s a beacon guiding your writing journey, giving you direction and motivation.

Types of Goals
I believe there are three types of goals; income, performance, and feeling goals.

Income Goals: These are financial targets you set for yourself. It’s not just about earning more money; it’s about understanding your financial needs and aspirations as an author and planning your writing and marketing efforts accordingly.

Performance Goals: These are related to measurable aspects of your writing career other than income, like increasing newsletter subscribers, boosting social media engagement, or hitting a certain number of preorders for your next book.

Emotional Goals: Often overlooked, these goals are about how you want to feel as you pursue your writing career. Whether it’s feeling more secure, having more energy, or ensuring you have enough time for self-care, emotional goals are crucial for a sustainable and fulfilling writing journey.

Assigning Money Jobs
Here’s an approach to make your income goals more tangible and achievable: Assign “money jobs.” Break down your income target into categories like household expenses, business expenses like ad spend, editing, covers, etc, debt repayment, savings, and self-care. Here are my actual numbers for my monthly budget.

$3,000 Household Expenses
$5,000 Business Expenses (this can be as low as $3k some months and high as $5k others)
$2,000 Debt (Still paying off my Graduate degree and my daughter's Undergrad)
$2000 Savings (because the max annual 401K is $22k)
$1,000 Self Care and Entertainment

So I need to make $13,000 each month to cover everything.


Analyzing Backlist and Frontlist
As authors we have a number of IP (intellectual property) in the form of ebooks, audio, print, subscriptions, etc. For ease, let's just group these into Backlist and Frontlist.

Backlist Titles: These are the IP you’ve published in previous years. Review how much income they generated last year. This will help you project how they might perform next year, especially as your backlist grows. Just go into KDP or Book Report or Nook and change the settings to This Year. My goal is always to beat what I did last year, even if it's just by $1.

Frontlist Titles: These are your recent releases. Understanding how these titles performed in their debut year will give you valuable insights for future releases. I heard somewhere that most books only make a few thousand dollars in it's lifetime. By that definition, if my new release makes more than $3000, then I call it a success!

By analyzing your backlist and frontlist, you can make more informed decisions about where to focus your efforts. Remember, every new release becomes a part of your backlist the following year, adding to your potential earnings.

Setting Your Goals
With all this information, you’re now equipped to set well-rounded and realistic goals. Remember, the key is to be specific, measurable, and kind to yourself. Your writing career is a marathon, not a sprint.