Stand by Your Plan

A lightbulb moment without the bulb.

Recently, a flurry of LinkedIn messages (thanks, all, by the way) reminded me that this is the anniversary month for daring to stick my head above the parapet and call myself a writer - for pay. 

I did things a little out of sequence, having previously reached two writing milestones:
a) The Little Book of Cynics, which I co-wrote with David French, was published by Crombie Jardine. 
b) I had a feature published in a national newspaper - here's an online version.

However, to all intents and purposes I became a professional writer after leaving my long-term employer through redundancy. 

Did I have a plan? Not exactly.

I had a wish list, sorta. It went something like this:
1. Write the two novels I never had time for.
2. Get books published.
3. Earn a living as a freelance writer.

LESSON 1: The only things that generally grow well organically are vegetables.

It has been a meandering and sometimes bumpy road, with a few interesting detours. I've written features and blogs, ghostwritten three series of content for different clients, penned a few greetings cards, been a magazine columnist four times and I'm currently awaiting the publication of my fourth thriller. (I can hear the party poppers from here.) 

However, at the risk of mixing my travelling metaphors it has not all been plain sailing. Along the way I've also temped and worked part-time in an office to cover the bills (which has been great for keeping touch with the outer world).

And the plan? Well, it's more defined now and still, I'm pleased to say, a work in progress.

LESSON 2: A plan is not a guarantee of success. Working to a plan is a guarantee of focus though.

Planning is about setting direction, setting boundaries and setting priorities. As a former project manager I'd say it is very much about monitoring and controlling. We may not be able to control the income at the start of a business, but we can control how our time and effort are spent. Mridu Khullar Relph, for example, advocates making 30 pitches in 30 days, while other actively encourage a timetable to allocate time meaningfully and to create space. 

From the discussions I've had, some writers fear space - they consider it idle time, or that they're not working hard enough. I don't think writing is like that; not for me anyway. The most successful work I ever did with greetings cards came from half an hour I deliberately set aside just to think about and play with words. While my rational brain screamed that it wasn't real work my irrational, subconscious got on with the business of creating. The result? £500 of material. Reader, that was a very good day. 

LESSON 3: A plan needs to be reviewed regularly.

When I first started out I checked all the usual suspects for freelance writing work. I was the grist of content mills on many an occasion, and even tried to 'build up my following' on free content sites (free for the writers, anyway) in an effort to follow a supposedly surefire revenue model. To be fair, it probably was for the sites' owners (yes, more than once...) who earned advertising revenue from our endeavours. By checking back with the plan and by monitoring progress I could see what was working and what wasn't. Most of it wasn't. When we embrace the space we are more willing to let go of any actions or strategies that are ineffective (that simply fill our time and make us feel like we're doing something useful).

I was both industrious and fortunate - a great combination. I wrote my books, found a publisher who was looking for a thriller series (still working on that one for the standalone novel) and built a solid foundation as a freelancer. Now my plan is all about what happens next.

Thanks for stopping by and do get in touch if you need a writer.

Derek

When I first saw my name in print

Someone recently asked me about my membership of the Society of Authors. 'How come,' they said with an arched eyebrow, 'You're a member of the society but you've yet to have any of your novels published?'

Well, seeing as you asked ...

For years, on the quiet, David French and I have been producing our own magazine: As Above So Below. It's an eclectic mixture of spoof articles, features, adverts, de-classifieds and cartoons. Our subject matter is equally diverse - religion, philosophy, natural medicine, environmentalism conspiracies, politics, consumerism - you name it and if we can find an angle, we'll have a go at it.

The plan had always been to use the magazine as a springboard to greater things - scriptwriting, books and all manner of media experiments. So in 2004, I collated a collection of our pithiest sayings and sent them off to various Little Book publishers. Crombie Jardine said they were interested but their acquisitions budget was spent for the year, and invited us to resubmit in the future. As no one else (Michael O'Mara, Summersdale, Pocket Books, etc) wanted to take us up, we bided our time.

In 2006, having rewritten the 100 quotes and quips, and then organised them thematically, we went back to CJ. Success! They liked the book and offered us a contract for 2007. It was a standard buyout contract, a one-off payment in lieu of royalties. I joined the Society of Authors to get the contract looked over, considered their advice and went back to CJ with a suggested revision (upwards).

To be fair to CJ, they were absolutely straight with us and explained their model and why they were offering what they had. And, naturally, we were free to take our book elsewhere if we thought we could get a better offer. Cue: a large plate of humble pie to two hungry writers. We took the deal and in Sept 2007, The Little Book of Cynics (no longer The Little Book of Croydon but still referred to affectionally as LBOC) graced the shelves of Waterstones and others.

The interesting thing, some three years later, is that we did better out of the buyout deal than we would have under a standard royalty arrangement. Realistically, we were never going to get rich from LBOC, but I believe it has opened the occasional door when touting for comedy writing. It also taught me a lot about the business of books, and why it is vital that writers understand how the business works so they can play their part effectively.

I have put together another four Little Books since then, all currently on circulation to other publishers (CJ advised that they've shifted their publishing focus in the last couple of years) and all available to good homes. I would say 'no reasonable offers refused' but, as you'll see in a future post, I do draw the line somewhere.