The SWOT plan

Yep, those of you who have worked in corporate America have just rolled your eyes. You think this is BS that they just put on paper. The others of you are wondering wtf SWOT is. Well, make sure you have your four P's out for this. Now this may not be the way every one does it, or exactly how it is used, but this is how I did it. First let's cover SWOT.

SWOT is normally done in a two by two chart. Each square is labeled: Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Pretty simple yes? Okay so take your four P's first one should be Product, yes?

Now look at your SWOT.

What Strengths do your products have? Pricing? Amazing Cover? Unique twist? A good schedule for releases?

What Weakness do you have? Marketing? Exposure? Little fish in big pond syndrome? Be honest with yourself, it's the only way you're going to make progress with this. Are your covers horrible? Do they match?

Opportunities: Unlike the other two, this one isn't quite as self explanatory. This is where you know you can make improvements and can go hand in hand with weaknesses, or they could be different. Could you, realistically, write and publish more? Produce more product? Increase exposure?

Threats: These are things you MAY have no control over. Over saturation is a huge one. Lack of funds? Things that could change as you further your career.

Now, rinse and repeat for the other 3 p's.

When you're done with that, look at each of your squares, and start writing down what you can do to either keep it that way (in terms of Strengths) or improve. How can you over come your weaknesses and start maximizing on your opportunities?  What can you do about your threats, if anything?

You maybe surprised as to what comes up. It's a bit like brain storming. Like I said, the key here is to be honest. Through this I've found a plan for Black and White I didn't expect, as well as a plan for my series.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from SPE! Thanks for sticking with us through 2014 and welcome to 2015! If you're new here, I'm Alexandra Webb and I'm an Erotic Romance Indie Author! (Well Hybrid technically) I also write Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy under a pen name that is also a Hybrid author!

The mission of SPE is to bring all of our own mistakes and learning to you, the aspiring or current author and reviews to readers.

That being said, my first focus for 2015 will be looking at your writing as a business. Kind of like: You published a book, now what? I'm excited for some of the subjects I'm going to touch on this year. Writing wise, my new SPE project will be Exclusively Yours and possibly Shards of Me! I'll take you along my journey as I learn to navigate the crazy journey again!

I want to invite everyone to participate, so let me know, what would you like to see as part of SPE in 2015?