Immediate — Name Your Assumptions and Your Budget
- Write down your current publishing assumptions and biases
- Be honest about what you believe vs. what you know from evidence
- List your financial capacity for self-publishing
- $0 / $500 / $2,000 / $5,000+
- Identify your genre and research its performance across publishing models
- Genre fiction, romance, and practical nonfiction thrive independently
- Create a simple decision matrix: Traditional vs Self vs Hybrid — pros/cons for your specific situation
This Week — Research Authors and Join Communities
- Research 10 successful authors in your genre across all publishing models
- Join 2–3 author communities for your genre
- Facebook groups, Discord, Reddit — observe before contributing
- Set up basic author profiles
- Goodreads, Amazon Author Central
- Start following industry news sources
- Publishers Weekly, The Passive Voice, Jane Friedman
This Month — Make the Path Decision
- Complete the Decision Framework from p.14 — answer all five questions in writing, not in your head
- If pursuing traditional path: research 20 agents who represent your genre
- Use QueryTracker, Publishers Marketplace, Manuscript Wishlist
- If self-publishing: begin building your publishing business plan
- Budget, timeline, production sequence, distribution decisions
- Create a 12-month publishing timeline with key milestones and decision points