Teaching has lost its luster.

I’m not actually teaching. My job, really, is to maintain a tenuous grip on sanity as I battle the chaos that is a room full of 8th graders. It’s stressful. It’s unfulfilling. It’s hell!

I fully suspect this will be my last year in education, and that’s IF I make it to the end of this school year.

So, what am I going to do?

I hope to make a living off my writing, and writing related side hustles (with some Uber driving sprinkled in). To that end, I’ve been reading a lot of books and listening to a lot of podcasts on author marketing. As an independent author, I can’t rely on those big royalty checks. I have to get out there and sell myself. That’s not easy for an introvert, but it’s necessary, and so I’m going to make myself do it, and hopefully have fun with it.

I have made a 10-step plan to implement during the rest of this school year. Wanna see it?

1. Update Website — Done. It now has a new theme and works on mobile devices.
2. Start a Podcast — I’m working on it and calling it Werewolf Saga, the Podcast. It’ll be about all things shapeshifter.
3. Load Books to Draft2Digital — This is to get my books to a wider audience than I’m hitting by going mostly with just KDP.
4. Set Up a BookFunnel Account — This is a site that facilitates sending free ebooks for contests, as advance reader copies, etc.
5. Hard Focus on Growing the Email list — Have you signed up for it? Instead of a monthly book winner, there are freebies for everyone!
6. Set Up a Patreon — In case you want to donate money in exchange for exclusive stuff.
7. Find Freelance Opportunities — I’m signed up to edit on Reedsy and I’m writing for Medium.com. I plan to look at getting back to newspaper writing, too.
8. Create Courses to Teach — I have taught Creative Writing in the past and have given several keynote addresses on writing. And, you know, I have teaching experience. These will be online classes.
9. Invest in Advertisement — How Facebook and Amazon ads work is still a mystery to me, but I’m learning.
10. Evaluate Results — Emphasize what works, drop what doesn’t, and refocus.

As a teacher for the district I’m at, I’ll get paid monthly during the summer (June, July, and August). My hope is to have all the above in place at least by the end of April, see how it’s going in May, and then see if I can survive on the income over the summer, with my teaching paycheck as backup. If I can, excellent! If not, I’ll adjust and, if I have to, find a job in August.

“The best laid plans of mice and men …”