Goals for The Caldarian Conflict
Posted on September 10th, 2011
As a writer, I have to set goals in order to keep myself motivated. On a rough draft, it might be that I set a goal of 500 words per day of new content. For editing, I might want to revise a chapter a day.
Since I’m just starting out on selling books, I’m not sure what’s really achievable, so these goals may be too high or too low.
My near-term goals for The Caldarian Conflict:
Sell 100 books by the end of September
I’m actually not doing too badly here. I have already sold:
- 17 paperbacks (plus 2 review copies requested from book reviewers)
- 30 ebooks (note: some who bought ebooks also bought paperbacks)
With my launch party on September 19, and another signing event on September 24, I have a pretty good shot of making the 100 copy mark.
Obtain at least 5 reviews by the end of September
So far, The Caldarian Conflict has received two reviews–one 5-star, and one 4-star. Both are excellent reviews, and I think they’ll help me sell books. However, prospective book buyers aren’t impressed by two good reviews (as awesome as they are). I really need to have several, and for the end of September, I think 5 is doable. That would require a 5% review to purchased rate, which is high–my understanding is that it’s more typical for 1% of purchases to actually receive a review.
I know I have a couple of book reviewers scheduled to publish their reviews in October, so hopefully these are just the first of many to come.
Obtain 15 photos of readers with their copies of The Caldarian Conflict
Perhaps it’s a little silly, but I’d love to see readers holding a copy of my book…be it the physical version or the cover displayed on their Nook or Kindle (or any other eReader, really). I was pretty excited to receive my first shipment of books, so I’m hopeful that others will be willing to share their photos too.
What do you think? Is it wise to set (and make public) goals like this? What would you set your goals for?
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