Goal setting success!

Today I’d like to visit the topic of goal setting.

I was recently approached by someone talking about my business, and I had to go through the process of counting my sales and tallying up how many people have my book in their mitts. So I looked at my hardcover sales, my wide e-book sales, my amazon sales, my giveaway numbers, and ARC’s. It was a simple process using all my fingers, and a piece of paper with some tally marks. And, it didn’t take long… 21 people.

And that is FANTASTIC!

First off, if you’re one of those 21 people, THANK YOU. Second, while that doesn’t sound like much, it’s double my initial goal when I wrote Hench. My goal that I came up with while writing was to get 10 people to read the book.

Sure, there is a part of me that wants to be showered with money and praise for my work, but that’s my ego talking, and its unrealistic. I also want to recoup my expenses for writing the book, but I didn’t spend that money expecting it to come back on my first book. I’ve heard that many authors haven’t even made $10 on their first year, and I wanted to try and beat the curve.

Rather, I tried to set my goals realistically. Not too low, (there’s not point in setting them if you do that) and not too high (I’d only be disappointed and I’ve done plenty of times). Instead, I did some research and set forth a goal that I both wanted and could achieve.

Setting my goal at 10 people meant some simple things. One; I had to finish the book and two; people had to find and buy it. The goal meant I had to go through all the steps of planing, writing, editing, cover design, and layout; then I had to shout about my work until I was sick of it! And boy, am I sick of shilling…

But through all these steps I managed to hit my goal and then some, giving me my long-awaited gratification.

So, my takaway lesson here is to set realistic goals. Do some research, find out what the mean is, and set the goal to above average. Thanks for being part of my personal little success!