Writers In The Storm welcomes back literary attorney, Susan Spann, with her next installment of her  author’s business plan series.

By Susan Spann

Today we take the discussion of author business plans “on the clock” with section five of the author business plan – the Development Timeline.

This Development Timeline section actually contains a group of schedules – one for each phase of the work the business plan covers. Timelines prove most effective when authors use calendars and establish concrete dates, so even if your initial planning is done in general blocks of time, the finished Development Timelines should incorporate actual calendar dates. Remember: the key to timelines is flexibility: use concrete dates, but don’t be afraid to revise them as you go.

An author’s “Development Timeline” should have (at least) three timelines:

1.  The Writing and Editing Timeline tracks the author’s writing schedule. This timeline starts when…