Fill Your Empty Calendar

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Last week during my Bible reading, I was reminded of an important truth: 168. It’s the number of hours each of us have for our week. How do you fill those hours? Do you have an empty calendar? What steps will you take to fill it with your writing? 

I have the same number of hours: 168 but in this article I want to give you some ideas and actions about how you could fill your empty calendar. Years ago, I would make a daily “to do” list and cross things off throughout my day. It has been many years since I’ve used this method to fill my calendar. Instead I have a series of activities which fill my day. If it is something I can do quickly such as answer an email or handle some other task, it doesn’t appear on my calendar. At the moment, I am not writing on a book deadline. When I have such a deadline, I make a specific word count for my writing and plan that into my calendar. I’m going to break my regular tasks into differnet categories for this explanation.

Regular Habits & Deadlines

As I’ve explained in these entries, I have an active social media presence where I post 12-15 times each day and use a scheduling tool. Also I write a blog and post a blog article every week. Plus I have a weekly newsletter which goes out a different day of the week. I use reminders on my phone to keep track of these tasks and deadlines to make sure I meet them.

Follow-up Work

Because of my work with Morgan James Publishing,I have a variety of authors who are at different stages in the publishing process. Some of them have sent me their submissions and I need to schedule a phone conference to see if they are the right fit to publish with us. Others have received contracts and not signed them. I call these authors or email to see if they have questions and encourage them to move ahead. There are internal procedures that I need to follow in this process. When I make a series of these phone calls, it can consume a solid portion of my empty calendar.

Processing New Authors

Individual authors and some literary agents will email me with submissions. I have an internal process to get them into the system then I reach out to them and suggest a recorded conference call. It’s where I speak with them about their book and why they wrote it and their plans for the book. I schedule these meetings on my calendar and in a short amount of time I have a series of meetings for the week ahead.

Answer Emails and Phone Calls

Throughout my day I receive a variety of emails and some phone calls. Recently through LinkedIN (where I have over 19,400 connections), I will get an email from someone asking for my phone number to introduce me to a person.  I resist these calls because from my experience they are a huge time waster and not the right place to begin the relationship. Instead, I send them my work email and suggest they start the introduction on email--and normally that kills any further interaction and the time waster phone call. A substantial part of my day is spent on the phone with different authors and my colleagues at Morgan James.

Misc Projects

In this article, I’ve focused on details about what I do for Morgan James Publishing. I have other activities in other things. For example, I’m using PodMatch to pitch podcast hosts and schedule to guest on more podcasts. Also since 2000, I’ve been one of the leaders in an online writer's group called The Writer’s View. As a part of this group from time to time, I’m scheduled to lead a discussion. If you want to join this group, it is a two step process. First you need to create an account profile at: www.groups.io Once your account is created, send a request to subscribe to our group with this link: TWV+subscribe@TheWritersView.groups.io

I have many different activities that fill my empty calendar. I wrote this article to give you some ideas and actions for your own calendar. What steps do you take or am I missing in this process? I look forward to your comments.

Tweetable:

When you look at your calendar, are you facing many empty days? This prolific author and editor gives a series of ideas how to productively fill your empty calendar.   (ClickToTweet)

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week another podcast recording launched:

Dan Amzallag and I spoke about 10 Publishing Myths on The Happiness Journey Podcast with Dr. Dan. Listen at: https://bit.ly/3VAZmeA

My Writing In Other Places:

With these articles, I encourage you to publish your work beyond your blog in other places. Below are three articles which were published in other online locations than this blog.

Each month I guest blog at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference blog. This month I wrote an article about how to increase your writing productivity.  

At Writers on the Move, I explain why self-published books are rarely inside brick and mortar bookstores.  

Once a month I guest blog about some aspect of book proposal creation for Almost An Author. This month I encouraged readers to delete any hype in their proposal.  

Throughout my many years in publishing, I’ve co-authored over a dozen books and reviewed thousands of submissions (no exaggeration). As a part of the process of working with these authors, I speak with them about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS to give authors practical help. You can get decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses. 

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