This week I've been thinking about business and what it takes to succeed. I'm not talking about just one business here, but in general. And with that I've only realized, again, that it's about the quality of work that is done, not the quantity of work that maters. Hear me out here. I'm a firm believer that there is also one other key aspect to keep your business running with the big Q, being consistent.
Without being consistent in anything that you are doing then you are not going to keep people coming back to use your product. If you keep turning out consistent work at a high quantity that's a poor quality, then you will get attention, but not for the right reasons.
Now here's the mind blowing thing that I've learned with helping a friend with an online magazine, that was an EPIC concept, you have to hit steps A-Z to get to that big goal you have. If you skip B-Y and try to do the same things the big boys that are already established and have fought there way through those steps, you aren't going to make it.
If you keep turning out consistent quality work, even if it takes longer than everyone else, people are going to keep coming back to you. You're going to have built yourself a fan base, or whatever you want to call it, and they will wait for that product that you put out, cause they know exactly when it's coming and that it will be worth the wait. If you are putting out work that is okay, great even, but not even close to a semblance of time schedule you are going to lose people. Don't flood the market and then disappear only to return randomly to repeat the same thing. It's confusing and people aren't going to care when you come back cause they are just going to be overwhelmed and frustrated cause they'd rather have less but given it consistently. Don't be a tsunami of products. Be a stream, always flowing even if it's only a small trickle at times. Something is better than nothing.
Since, I'm making my way into the publishing world one way or another, hopefully behind the scenes and as a writer, this means that you have to set deadlines for your goals. I'm not talking about you have to be on the NY Times bestseller list in one years time. That's not possible unless you are that freakish .01% that comes out of no where. It happens, just never overnight...mostly.
Anyways, deadlines. Set them. I'm talking for everything you do. That means, consistently reaching your deadline/goal of posting a blog a week or however many you want. Getting that word count or chapters written, or having a specific time frame where you will write uninterrupted word count be damned as long as you spent that x amount of time on your current work.
By setting these deadlines in both your writing and in social media/blogging you are showing that you can keep to a deadline with putting the best work you can out there. Like everything else in life you will always continue to improve on something that you are consistently working on. By putting yourself out there with quality blogs and social media, that you don't spam everyone on earth, while you work on that wip, you are proving that when you do get a book deal you can handle all that comes with it, cause you already are.
There is that work again. Consistency.
No one is perfect. And there are few that can put out quality work that is in a quantity that only a few can obtain. Which reminds me of what an author once told me once. Don't try to be Nora Roberts. She's an alien not of this work. That woman can turn out so many books a year it's mind blowing. Don't try to be someone else. Be your own voice and you will find an audience that is dying to hear or read what you are saying.
I may only have been in the accounting construction world for my working career, but these things go with that as well. You aren't necessarily turn out quality work if you are pushing to reach a goal that has a quantity of work so high it's impossible to consistently have any hint of quality in there.
As I make my way into the publishing world, I want to be known for my quality of work. And for the consistency of that work. So, here I am sticking to my deadline of one blog post a week that goes up on the weekend. Is it perfect? Hell, no. No one is perfect. But I'm putting my best foot forward without over thinking it to the point it holds me back. In the end, I'm being consistently me. And I'm more than happy about that.
Now that I've talked about how consistent quality of work has been bugging me all week, I'm going to head off here for time time and get back to my work in progress. Cause I've set my goal and I'm going to reach it. And sitting here on my blog isn't going to have my book write itself. Though how cool would it be if there was a button you could push and download the book you have in your head. Life isn't that easy though. With that I bid you farewell, keep up with your goals and I can't wait to read your work one day.
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