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Book Review: The 2018 Author’s Journal by Audrey Ann Hughey

About The 2018 Author’s Journal

“In this hybrid planner for authors, the writer is guided through comprehensive workflows which address both the creative and business aspects of authorship. It is designed to maximize productivity, implement effective goal-setting practices, and maintain the author’s focus on achieving their writing, marketing, and publishing goals in 2018.”—Amazon description


Disclaimer

I received a free PDF version of this planner in exchange for my honest review. I am also a current member of Hughey’s Author Transformation Alliance, which is a paid-membership support group for authors that focuses on the business, marketing, and social media aspects of being an author. Therefore, I participated in a few polls about preferences for the cover and what might or might not be included in the journal, but I did not see any of the content until I received my review copy.


What Is The 2018 Author’s Journal?

The 2018 Author’s Journal is a combination guide and business planner for authors who have come to realize that they really do need to get a handle on the business end of writing if they are to succeed in today’s market.

If anything can be said about The 2018 Author’s Journal, it is that for the most part, it is ambitious. It covers many of the issues that authors face, especially those who are self-publishing or planning to do so.

Outside of the planner part, the book’s major sections cover author goals and goal refinement, works in progress, editing, story ideas, reading for relaxation and self-improvement, expenses and marketing, blog plans, and advertising. There is even a section for “squirrels” called My Musings.

What’s Great

There are several wonderful things about this planner.

Comprehensiveness

The sheer number of topics that it covers makes it clear that Hughey’s goal was to be as comprehensive as possible, to make this an all-in-one stop for all your writing ideas, plans, goals, and achievements. This is the first such planner I’ve had the chance to look at, and it’s impressive and massive at 356 pages in an 8.5 × 11 inch trim size.

I doubt you’ll find so much author-friendly content and support in one planner, and it definitely has the potential, if used faithfully, to cut the number of sticky notes and miscellaneous notebooks that writers tend to accumulate. That in itself is a worthy accomplishment.

I doubt you’ll find so much author-friendly content and support in one planner. It has the potential…to cut the number of sticky notes and miscellaneous notebooks that writers tend to accumulate. (Review, The 2018 Author's Journal) Click To Tweet

Honoring the Process

Unlike other planners, which might give you spaces to write your goals, Hughey’s gives you space to define, map, check, and evaluate refine your goals. She realizes that goal setting is like writing. We don’t usually get the plan right the first time. Our goals, like our words, sometimes need to get onto the page before we can properly evaluate them and make them better and truer to our style and abilities.

Honoring the Writer

The journal is available in several cover options (five at the moment, with possibly more to come). Hughey decided to offer the different styles as a hat tip to the different preferences of authors and their personal styles.

2018 Author's JournalDigital Resource Guide

Purchase of the print journal grants access to a specialized digital resource guide, which includes videos, checklists, and spreadsheets to supplement the journal and guide the author through its use and adaptation.

The digital resource guide also includes videos from special guests on topics such as mindset, time management, and overcoming self-doubt and fear.

Space for Your Squirrels

The planner includes a whopping 40 pages dedicated to My Musings, space for you to write down all those ideas, plans, or just notes that might not fit anywhere else. As I mentioned earlier, this might just replace your pile of spiral notebooks, notepads, and sticky notes.

Some authors might be willing to pay the roughly $30 price of the planner for that feature alone.

Gellinger / Pixabay

Where You Were and How Far You’ve Come

In the marketing section of the planner, there is a section on visibility. This is something authors often don’t think about as many (not all!) are introverted and prefer instead to think of invisibility.

I found the table for tracking social media in terms of current and target followers helpful. We often don’t take the time at the beginning of the year to see where we are and then compare the same number at the end of the year to see how far we’ve come.

social media for authors, followers
Social Media Goals, p. 56, The 2018 Author’s Journal

Hughey does this in many places in the planner, and this is just one example.

Although there is a quarterly follower breakdown, I would have loved to see a month-by-month breakdown of social media plans and followers in particular. This would be helpful for keeping track of what one has done with social media and how it has affected the number of (hopefully quality!) followers.

Blog Planner

As an extension of having all of your writing stuff in one place, the journal includes space for up to 52 ideas for blog posts (or one per week).

I love this! Coming up with blog post ideas for both my editing and author websites is the bane of my existence. Losing ideas to some random sticky note purgatory is even worse. So, having this section is just icing on the cake.

I do wish there was more writing space here, however (more on this later).

edar / Pixabay

Opportunities for Enhancement

I do hope this is not Hughey’s only year to produce this journal. With the growing number of author–entrepreneurs that has come with the expansion of the self-publishing industry, the need for something like this is significant.

However, there are a number of items that could be tweaked for maximum usability and convenience.

Writing Space

The great thing about The 2018 Author’s Journal is that it’s so comprehensive. The worst thing about this journal is that … it’s so comprehensive.

Unfortunately, there is so much text and content that the planner is very dense textwise.

In many areas, it seems that room to write—which is the point of a planner after all—has been sacrificed to “fit it all in.” (The exception to this is the My Musings section, which is basically 40 pages of blank lines for dates and notes.) There are many areas within the calendars themselves and after leading questions where you would have to write very small to fit any reasonable amount of text.

From the perspective of a book designer, it seems that less thought went into these practical aspects of actually using the journal day-to-day than to the content and guidance provided within. For example, some intro text was repeated monthly and could have been left out to offer more space for writing.

Alternatively, this journal might better serve authors as a two-book set: a business guide with all the content and instruction and a separate planner—the one that you carry around—with all the space you need to write.

Skitterphoto / Pixabay

Areas for More Focus

The Editing Process

Although most sections of The 2018 Author’s Journal are devoted to author marketing and promotion, not writing craft, there is a section devoted to the editing process. Anyone familiar with me or the Wordy Speculations blog knows I am 100% behind multiple rounds of self-editing and hiring a professional editor. Oddly, more focus is given to editing apps and software than the self-editing process itself or what one should expect from an editor.

However, with the exception of the place to take notes on pricing and evaluating editors, this section felt out of place amidst the business content of the rest of the journal. Also, by its very presence, it highlights the lack of any coverage of how to deal with cover design and interior book design, which, along with editing, are both part of the book production process and often entail hiring a professional.

Postrelease Business

The coverage of the author business that takes place after release is spread out and less organized than other topics in The 2018 Author’s Journal. To balance the Planning My Release and Preparing My Release sections, I would have loved to see something similar for marketing and managing your books after launch.

Author Newsletter

Given the importance of author newsletters, as stressed by Hughey herself, a planner or map for newsletter content, similar to what she includes for blogs, would have also been a great addition.

JuralMin / Pixabay

Binding

As it stands, The 2018 Author’s Journal is perfect-bound. With its sizeable length, this might make it difficult to write in for some, especially toward the middle of the book where the bulk of the monthly and weekly planners are. Coil, or spiral, binding would allow the journal to lie flat and would greatly add to its convenience.

This, unfortunately, is a limitation of self-publishing because most of the major print-on-demand services do not offer coil binding. However, one service does offer it, and Hughey has expressed interest in this binding for the future and/or for possible undated editions of the journal.

Recommendation

If you are looking for something to help guide you through all of those little business aspects of writing and publishing that your creative mind refuses to rein in, I highly recommend The 2018 Author’s Journal.

If you are looking for something to help guide you through all of those little business aspects of writing and publishing that your creative mind refuses to rein in, I highly recommend The 2018 Author’s Journal. Click To TweetWhile there is certainly room for improvement for future editions, overall, it’s a great planner, and it fills a very real need in the author–entrepreneurial space.

Check Out My Other Book Reviews

Book Review: Dictate Your Book: How To Write Your Book Faster, Better, and Smarter

Book Review: Outlining Your Novel by K. M. Weiland

Book Review: Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes

Book Review: Self-Publishing for Profit: How to Get Your Book Out of Your Head and into the Stores by Chris Kennedy

Book Review: The Successful Author Mindset by Joanna Penn

 

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5 Hidden Problems Copyeditors Fix

“My manuscript is pretty clean. Probably won’t take you long. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure it just needs a proofread, not a whole edit.” Like other copyeditors, I get this a lot.

The biggest problem is writers don’t see their own mistakes. Then, an editor like me comes along and surprises the author with red lines and corrections on their story. The sheer number of them makes their manuscript look like it’s getting ready for Valentine’s Day.

This inability to see the mistakes in your writing can be called author blindness. Author blindness can be lessened with some time away from your story but never fully cured. It is a condition caused by overfamiliarity with your words. You’ve seen them many, many times, even in your head before they were formed on the paper or the screen. Once they’re out there, you see what you expect to see on the page—your vision of the story—instead of what is actually there. Often, these issues exist even after you’ve self-edited.

When author blindness kicks in, you see what you expect to see on the page—your vision of the story—instead of what is actually there. Click To Tweet

An Aside on Self-Editing

And you should self-edit before you send your book to your editor. Think of it this way. You have the choice of giving your editor an unshaped lump of clay or a mostly sculpted piece that still needs some polishing. Given time and money constraints, which one could she most likely refine into something that is both a superb work of art and on par with your vision?

If you don’t believe me, watch this video by Garret Robinson.
You have the choice of giving your editor an unshaped lump of clay or a mostly sculpted piece. Which one could she most likely refine into a superb work of art that is on par with your vision? Click To Tweet

Mistakes Copyeditors Catch

Self-editing aside, here are some very common problems copyeditors fix while editing. In fact, I see them in nearly every manuscript I edit. Are they hidden in yours?

copyeditors, fix, problems, mistakes

 

Related Resources

The Process of Copyediting Fiction

Past or Present? Using Tense Effectively in Fiction

The Importance of Point of View: Part I: The Types of POV

Head Hopping and POV Slips

Resources for Fiction Writers: Read, Watch, and Listen

Free Self-Editing Checklist

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Free Self-Editing Checklist

My newsletter has been available for a while, but now you get something extra just for signing up: a completely FREE copy of the Self-Editing Checklist for Your First Draft: The Developmental Revision.

This checklist guides you through the first self-edit, covering general principles as well as specific topics such as audience, characterization, and dialogue just to name a few! Take self-editing to new depths with this comprehensive miniguide for revising your novel.

Sign up today!

 

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Giveaway! Saving on Money on Editing & Choosing the Best Editor

Giveaway!

I am giving away ten paperback copies of my book Saving Money on Editing & Choosing the Best Editor on Goodreads.

Book Description

The self-publishing industry is booming, and if you’re a self-published author, so is the competition. Having your book professionally edited is an essential step in getting your story to stand out from the crowd. But who knew that editing services were such a pricey proposition?

Janell E. Robisch, a professional editor with over two decades of experience, will show you how to save money on professional editing by

•Having patience
•Self-editing
•Using readers
•Using editing tools
•Practicing smart shopping

Finally, in the bonus final chapter, you’ll find out how to choose the best editor for your money.

You’ve worked hard on your book. Make sure that when you hit Publish, it shows.

Details

You can enter the giveaway with the link below. The giveaway ends August 15, 2017, so sign up while you can. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Saving Money on Editing & Choosing the Best Editor by Janell E. Robisch

Saving Money on Editing & Choosing the Best Editor

by Janell E. Robisch

Giveaway ends August 15, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

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Saving Money on Editing & The Launch of a New Book Series

Post updated August 29, 2017. Updates are marked with an asterisk.

On July 1, my first Indie Author Guide, Saving Money on Editing & Choosing the Best Editor, will be published on Amazon in ebook format.

This book was inspired by and adapted from several earlier posts on this blog and is now available in paperback and on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Scribd, and other formats.* It is not simply a compilation of the blog posts. It has been completely edited and integrated. I’ve added updated information.

It’s a handy little resource to have around during the revision phase of writing your book, and it’s a great guide to help you get your manuscript in the best shape possible before you send it to your editor.

It will also help you find the right editor for you and your book.

Saving Money on Editing Availability

I had hoped to offer it on Kindle Unlimited. However, a different version of it, called An Author’s Guide to Saving Money on Editing, is being copublished by the Editorial Freelancers Association later this year. Amazon’s KDP Select program demands exclusivity, so Kindle Unlimited won’t be possible for this book.

The good news is that this means I can publish it more widely later.  I can use services such as Ingram Spark, Kobo Writing Life, and Smashwords to distribute my little book to a wider audience at a later date. *The book has now been distributed through Draft2Digital and is also available in paperback.

A paperback version of Saving Money on Editing will also be available soon. I just need to check the proof, which is on its way to me as we speak.

This Is Just the Beginning

Saving Money on Editing is the first in a series of Indie Author Guides aimed at helping indie authors improve their craft and learn the business of self-publishing. I am learning everyday, and as I learn, I want to share that knowledge with you, to make the process of writing and preparing your book for publication as smooth and achievable as possible.

I may very well use this blog in the process of creation. I’d love to hear what you want to learn about. How can I, as an editor, help you solve your writing problems? What questions do you have about writing and self-publishing?

What issues or challenges do you deal with every day that interrupt writing or make the process more difficult? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter. Let’s start a discussion on how we can help each other as authors. Also, how can editors such as myself help authors achieve their goals?

 

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