Sunday ROW80 check-in: Whatta week!

Why is it when we do something for someone else that sometimes we end up taking a closer look at our own priorities?

This week was a hummer. Thursday's presentation on marketing to Spokane Authors took me down some well-worn paths but with a twist. Here are the surprises I learned from the workshop:

• Of 25 participants, only 4 have a website. Roughly half are published. Few use social media. The group seemed roughly divided between "pay someone else" and "do it myself."
• I divided possible action steps related to marketing into low-tech and higher-tech to make 'what's next' more accessible to everyone.
• My own jump forward came as I led everyone through the process of thinking about their overall goals and identifying action steps that will help them meet those goals (using handouts that identified those classic areas to work on -- everything from bookmarks to interviews to, gasp, websites). This process of setting goals and evaluating our progress is the same process we use for ROW80, but . . . 

With A Round of Words for 80 Days, I've been setting goals and reporting progress now for about three years. Maybe long enough to shrug off my goals if I don't meet them. 

• Enter Shelley Hitz, writing and marketing coach extraordinaire,  with her 30-day marketing calendar. I did use Word to adapt her idea and print out a simple calendar (see graphic).

I can now "see" what's next -- and track my progress on a 'scribble' sheet. Because I tend to gravitate to what I like to do best, marketing falls far behind writing. This simple MARKETING ACTION SHEET keeps my marketing priorities more visible each day, more attainable, and in balance with (what else?), writing. 

OK, now for the check-in for this week. Very simple. Hopefully very short with NEXT being goals by next Sunday.

On Amazon

• WRITING? 4 out of 7 days. NEXT? 6 out of 7 days.
• MARKETING: Workshop done. NEXT? Update website. Set up another workshop tied to book promo.
• DECLUTTERING e-mail: deleted 150, but inbox now at 360. Ouch. Signed up for two marketing workshops online so e-mails can only increase! Most likely faster than I can delete. NEXT: Delete 200.
• READING: B. A. Shapiro's The Muralist. 
• COMMUNITY/OTHER: Finished my first modern quilt. First round of info for WSQ program in for editing. NEXT: Edit & send 2 e-mails for more info. Resumed walking (after last week's hike w/Bloomsday).

My walk takes me near a wetlands where I've been watching Redwing Blackbirds slowly lose ground to a growing brood of relatively rare relatives -- Yellow-headed Blackbirds. 

Click on either of this morning's photos to see a larger version:

ROW80: Have a great week with lots of good progress. Check out what others are up to HERE.