Future Opportunities

As an author it always pays for me to look ahead at the next book that I am writing and I have been doing that. Of course, there are the books that I am writing in the Locket Saga. Many of the writers who write serial books like this use a Character Bible which allows them to use ghost writers to help them write more books on the same subject over the course of a year. I do not intend to do that. I prefer to do my own writing. Not that I wouldn’t mind selling books for other writers within my publishing business. (At this point, this has not even reached becoming an intention, but it is an idea that I have been throwing around in my head.)

Creating Simple Booklets

I do not intend to limit myself to just The Locket Saga and my gardening book either. Once I get the next two books in the Locket Saga written (Sailing Under the Black Flag and In the Shadow of the Millpond), I will be working on other nonfiction projects. One of the books I intend to write will be a book for writers called I Never Get Writer’s Block.
In addition, I will be working on a series of small booklets related to gardening. I was thinking about writing one about the three additives that I use in my organic garden. I was thinking about including an ounce sized sample of these additives with each booklet. I figure that I could sell these booklets with samples in numerous locations around the country along with the gardening book. Since they don’t require much time to write and the samples don’t cost much, they would help add to the overall bottom line of my overall sales.
I can also include these booklets (though without the sample additives) as e-books perhaps with connections to my website where I will set up a sales page to sell that additive in larger quantities than the original sample. I would not however want to sell more than a pound of these additives per sale. I cannot see it being cost effective to me to do this and I am not looking to house warehouses of these products . (Just writing this gave me another idea. I could connect with a company that sells these products and get a commission as an affiliate for the sales I do get for them or put their ad on my website at cost.)

Extending My Territory

Over the next two years, I intend to extend my paperback and e-book markets throughout the region and into national markets. I will do this by moving out from my current base of operations into nearby towns and into nearby cities and continuing to expand throughout the region.
In the summer of 2016 I intend to go up into Pennsylvania and return to my roots to extend my book sales into that region using the same techniques that I am using in this region. (In addition I will be doing research for future books.)
I think that I can duplicate the way that I have been selling books locally on regional and national levels. I have been selling them at events, on consignment to bookstores, and wholesale to smaller businesses that cater to gardening projects. If this goes as planned, I may actually be able to quit my Just Over Broke in the spring and do this full time while traveling around the country. The prospect makes me excited and scared all at the same time.

Donna Brown is an ordained minister. As Author Cygnet Brown, she  has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and most recently, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga.For more information about Cygnet Brown and her book, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .