It’s never too late to make this your best year ever, and we created this reading challenge for authors to support you and your goals. For those who love or need to have structure for their learning, you can also use this as a syllabus for your self-guided education this year.
Why a reading challenge for authors or author-business syllabus? Because being an author these days is about more than writing a book, and the publishing industry is constantly changing, meaning there’s always something new to learn, try, and put into practice. You have likely set goals to make 2025 your best year yet as an author and, hopefully, updated your business plan by now (or you’re working on it right now). It can become too easy to fall off the path to your goals as the year progresses, though, without something to guide you along the way.
This reading challenge provides a basic cheat-sheet for you to use and refer to throughout the year, or you can go into more detail for your author education in 2025 by creating a syllabus. These tools also support those with ADHD or are otherwise neuro-spicy because they provide structure, accountability, celebrations, and for challenges done with a group, opportunities for body-doubling.
What Is a Reading Challenge for Authors?
As a writer and reader, you have likely seen reading challenges being posted all over social media. Some general ones are created by major pillars in the industry, such as Goodreads, while others are created by fellow readers, often with very specific topics. Sometimes readers create their own personal challenge for fun or a purpose. They all provide a list or grid of prompts for choosing the books one reads this year.
For example, HPOOTP-Flourish and Blotts, a Harry Potter fan group on Facebook, creates an annual reading challenge that incorporates references to the Magical Wizarding World while encouraging readers to break out and explore other books and series beyond Harry Potter. Some of their prompts this year include “Potions-Includes a Special Drink or Poison,” “Dark Arts-A Dark Theme,” “The Leaky Cauldron-Includes a Bar/Pub,” and “Herbology-A Plant on the Cover.” Doing the challenge with others allows for more fun, connection, motivation, and accountability. At the end of the year, the group celebrates completion of the challenge.
Our Reading Challenge for Authors, as you will see below, provides prompts to help you choose books that will support your author career and business. Checking off the prompts gives you a sense of accomplishment, the challenge adds some fun to it, and the prompts themselves ensure you hit upon different topics this year, rounding out your education. Of course, you can use this to create your own challenge, adjusting prompts for anything you specifically want to focus on to make 2025 your best year yet.
What Is an Author-Business Syllabus?
First, a syllabus is a document college professors and some high school teachers issue to students at the beginning of a semester or year to outline what the class will be learning that term. It includes a list of books, as well as other resources, that will be used. Some professionals who prioritize their adult and career-related on-going education appreciate the structure a syllabus provides and create one for themselves to guide their learning for the next months or year. Again, it’s a useful tool for neurodivergent minds.
You can use the author reading challenge below to guide you in creating an author-business syllabus. If you’d like to know more about creating and using syllabi for your self-guided education, let us know in our author Facebook community, and we’ll dedicate a blog post to it.
CraveBooks 2025 Reading Challenge for Authors
- A book about success mindset
- A book about character development
- A book about general writing craft
- A non-fiction book by a famous fiction author
- A book about time management and productivity
- A book that includes buyer psychology
- A book specific to your genre or one you want to branch into
- A book to improve a specific skill (e.g., editing, plotting)
- A book about marketing
- A book about business
- A book about location, setting, or something geographically related to your book
- A book about your character’s profession or hobby
- A book about bridging your personal and writing lives (e.g., estate planning for authors, work/life balance)
- A book about creativity or inspiration
- A book about relevant technology
