One Week In To Self-Employment

So, my first week of self-employment down and dusted. 

My biggest focus has been on the business plan and mapping out the company's procedures. Having spent a few more days in business planning and praying (an important part of a good business plan, if I do say so), I am starting to get a better idea of what The Five Day Writer company is about. Though, coming up with a tag-line is still illusive (which you would think, as a writer, would be the easy part!). 

The purpose of the business is to help writers self-publish with ease and greater reach than if they did it themselves. My future goal (not quite there yet, give me a few years) is to be able to help writers self-publish with more exposure than if they had gone with a traditional publisher. (Got to dream big). 

So, the taglines I've been thinking of:

Giving Writers Whatever Support They Need to Succeed. 

or

Making Your Writing a Business. 

Like, dislike, makes you want to gag? 

To keep me on track, I'm going to use my ROW 80 goals to give myself weekly challenges on what to achieve. 

Work-wise:

This week I'm going to be intensively editing Dave's book, Tom Grafton Vs The Environmentalists, as next week I plan to start the re-launch for it. Once I've finished editing it, there will be review copies offered to everyone on the Five Day Writer's newsletter. 

If you are interested in receiving free books in exchange for reviews, please sign up for the newsletter (I'll be putting a signup form here on 100firstdrafts on the sidebar, but if it's not there yet, go across to www.thefivedaywriter.com). For every book that my company, The Five Day Writer, helps to produce, I'm going to send out a blurb the newsletter list with an option to get a free review copy. So if you like a stream of new and varied works, why not get them for free? 

I'm also going to be formatting and publishing on Smashwords a free short story for my aunt's webpage (www.churchdispute.com) called 'A Mother's Tale'. It is non-fiction, about the impact of an abuse case within the Anglican church in Sydney from a mother's perspective. I've actually just gotten the cover created, what do you think?

(Though I realise it breaks Ben's rule about having blank colour up the top, but I think it blends in enough.) 

I was testing out a new service. Have you ever heard of fiverr.com? basically, it's a place where people offer to do different things for five US dollars. This cover was created for me by webmark for $5. And yes, it is something I could have done myself, but it would have taken me at least an hour and my time is worth a lot more than $5/h. I gave him the title etc., and described what I wanted and gave him an example image. His first design had 'Abuse' in red, which I could see why but I asked for it to be the same as everything else, so he redid it all for the original price. Also, it only took a day. 

I'm also looking at getting a voice over intro for my Dad's podcast done through them, and a few other things. Now, sometimes I'm sure I'll get a dud, but to be honest... it's only $5. A dud at that price is much better than a dud at $100. So at the moment I'm recommending you go and have a look around. I wouldn't use it for covers that I wanted something a bit more complex, but if you really just want a simple stock image with heading etc., it's pretty good. And for an extra $10 (I think), he'll give you the full cover (back and front), or a 3D version of the book, etc.

Anyway, back to my work checklist: I'll have to set up my aunt's author pages on Amazon, Smashwords and Good Reads as well this week.

My writing-wise: 

I'm hoping to spend the mornings focused just on my writing. This week, I'm going to start a really exciting new project. I might have mentioned months ago that my grandparents gave me a manuscript written by my great grandfather of early settler tales. They have asked for me to look at it, edit (and where necessary re-write it) and see if I can turn it into something. I haven't started looking at it yet. It's a leather bound book sitting tantalizingly on my shelf, like a birthday present that you know you could open early, but you hold onto until the actual day to make it more special. 

The book is supposedly short stories based around the main character, a young theologian. I'm currently thinking to rework them (after getting them all typed up) and see if I can publish them as a series of short stories as well as compiling them into one work which I will make print on demand (so my grandparents can get a copy). But will be able to tell you more on Wednesday. 

I am also going to turn my short story - John Verry into a free ebook on Smashwords etc to start building up my author page. 

Finally, I've gotten The Five Day Writer's Retreat completely re-edited, and I'm going to be re-launching it with a new price of just $4.95. Anyone who has received a free copy through the Five Day Writer newsletter, I would really, really appreciate an Amazon, Smashwords or Good Reads review. It makes such a huge difference to me if there are even just a few honest reviews. Yes, I'm prepared to beg if I need to.

Also, if anyone would like a review copy, I'm more than happy to hand them out, so email me at Buffy@thefivedaywriter.com. 

Well, those are my goals for this week. 

In my next post I'm going to discuss my return to internet dating, so stay tuned if you're interested!