Tonight, we’ll all enjoy ringing in the new year (or sleeping through it). But tomorrow, we embark on the first day of that new year, full of new plans, new hopes, new goals and new resolutions.

Here at WWW, we wanted to get in on the fun. We thought it might be fun to switch things up a little for the new year, too, with a more carefully thought out plan for our blog posts that we think will best serve our ever growing tribe of authors and authors-to-be.

To accomplish this, we began by creating an author marketing self-assessment worksheet. (If you click on the image of that worksheet below, it will take you to the downloadable pdf). Take a few moments to read through the 52 topics and assess your own author marketing expertise. Determine where you believe you’re already an expert (give yourself a 5), or where you’ll need a tune-up (maybe a 3?), or even complete overhaul (1 it is!).

Be honest because you’ll enjoy putting “5s” next to every line soon! (Besides, no one needs to see this but you.)

This assessment will also serve as an outline for our work together over the next year. Because as we all know, a great author marketing strategy, like a good chess game, requires first learning how the pieces move, then how they interact with each other, and finally how to best move each piece on the board to achieve your end game, the win. Or, in the case of you as an author, winning more readers!

Beginning this Sunday, we’ll make our way through one topic every week throughout the year (each taken from those listed on the assessment form below). Our other scheduled Tuesday and Thursday blog posts will then feature optional follow-up information, other timely news and updates you’ll need to know, and guest posts from our dozens of contributing authors and journalists.

Stick with each Sunday’s lesson and insights, engage in the discussion with your questions and comments, and we can promise you that by year’s end you’ll be as equally adept at marketing your work as you are at creating it!

Our year-long course of instruction aimed specifically at the emerging author will reward you with a solid mastery of the tools, tips and tricks at your disposal to:

• create a successful author brand
• design a carefully crafted book marketing strategy
• and ultimately enjoy successful book sales and improved reader engagement.

Obviously, not every single discussion will be applicable to every single author, but until you’re fully comfortable knowing how each piece really can work to your advantage, you’ll find that most of the information will be useful. You may even discover new ways to use some tools and methods you didn’t think applied to you or your book.

As always, this site exists for your use and enjoyment. Should you have suggestions for us, or an additional resource we need to be sharing with fellow authors, we want to hear it, and we want to share your wisdom! Many of the most useful tricks and tips we share at WWW have come not from so-called “experts,” but from real authors just like you, who’ve dared to “do it different” –and in doing so have created whole new ways of reaching readers.

Enjoy the assessment below and if you notice something we’ve missed, let us know and we’ll get it in there, too (or let you know under which topic we’ll be covering it).

Wishing each of you a safe holiday celebration, and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2016!