A Business Plan--Do You Need One?

A business plan--do you need one?

I confess, I was daunted by the idea when I first heard about it. I knew I needed to view my foray into self-publishing as a business venture, but how did one write a plan about that?

1) you write a book
2) you publish it
3) you hope it sells

What more could you  possibly plan? A whole lot it seems. Still, I had no idea where to start. The lovey Susan Kaye Quinn(link) had one, and she let me see what she'd done. It was helpful. She gave me phrases like, Goals, Audience, Brand, How will I promote, Marketing Budget.

You mean, I should break it down more than my measly three points, Sue? Well, she was certainly doing something right, since, her book was, like, selling.

So I did it, and it helped. I was starting to see myself as a business person, rather than "just" a writer hoping to break even some day.

Then Denise Grover Swank did this fantastic three part guest blog series on The Business Plan(link). Talk about comprehensive! And, man, it seemed to work for her! I was motivated to start!

I used her TABLE OF CONTENTS (yes, her business plan has a table of contents) as a template and officially began my own small business document, creating a comprehensive plan for 2013.

Okay, here's where I tell you I'm guest-posting at the Indelibles(link) and if you want to read the rest of this (and you do!), head on over there!