IWSG - Onward and Upward

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Still kinda hard to believe 2018 is over and we are in the beginnings of a new year. I hope everyone had a fun and wonderful holiday. Fresh into the new year, we kick off with the first IWSG post for 2019.

Last month I was feeling the writer blahs again, and because of that, I didn't get much done in the way of writing. I do seem to be coming out of my funk, and hope to get back in the swing of things in the coming days.

Best way to do that is to set my goals for 2019, something I've now done for the last two years. Nothing major, just a few action items. But before I can look ahead, I need to take a look back at what I did for 2018.

You can read up on last year's 'year in review' post and see what I set for the coming year. But if you don't feel like clicking the link, here is the break down.

• Publish two books
• Establish my 'publisher' name
• Grow my fan base
• Read all 25 books I bought

How did I do? Gotta say not so hot after looking at what I'd planned in preparation for this post. 

Publish two books

Only got one actually published this year. The Lists, which was the companion novella to Not Broken which I released in 2017. It was set free into the world on Nov. 23, the one year anniversary of its mate. 

Though I only published one book, I did complete three. That is HUGE for me because I'm a #turtlewriter so to take not one, but three books from start to finish all in the same year (okay so they were started toward the end of 2017, but still) is nothing to sneeze at. The reason the other two weren't published was because I took a trip through query land this year and those two found homes with publishers. I will have two books published in 2019, so I don't count this as a total fail.

Establish my 'publisher' name

As an indie, some will publish under their own 'imprint'. Different authors have their reasons for why they do this and I can't speak to those. For me, it was more about 1)setting up a 'company' now in case I ever sold enough to need those sort of tax requirements and 2) using a name that was the root so to speak of getting into writing. 

Chalk this up to another partial fail. While I did decide on a name (see point #2) I did not go through the LLC steps as of yet. I'm not making anywhere near enough monthly to need to worry about tax stuff and because of that, my laziness took hold. Setting up the LLC in my country requires trips to the courthouse and paperwork, and a whole slew of things I didn't want to be bothered with. LOL Just being honest. 

It's still on my to-do list, but not near the top.

Grow my fan base

I think this goal will always be a WIP. As it should. I can say I did gain a new fan or two. I judge this based on people that signed up for my newsletter because they wanted to, not because I did one of those magnet/giveaway things. My follower counts on Instagram and Twitter have increased. Numbers don't translate to sales, but something in my random ramblings intrigued them enough to hit the follow button. 

For IG, I'm convinced it's a combo of the pictures of my dogs, and the wine bottles I show off. Brand building and such is still a mystery to me. All my accounts are a hodge podge of things that make up me as a person and an author. 

Read all 25 books I bought

TOTAL. FAIL! LOL In December of 2017 I took part of *Indie-cember* (or something like that) where basically you bought one book from an indie author from Dec. 1-25. I bought the books, showcased them, promoted them, but haven't read them. I know, for shame. I have plans to, but got side tracked. 

The great thing about books though, they never expire. One day I will knock all these off my list. 

Now that we've seen where I was, let's look ahead to where I'd like to go. Marketing has been and continues to be a major struggle for me, therefore most of my efforts in the coming year will be centered on finding something that works for me and my budget. 

I've kicked off a few action items for the first on the list. This includes researching PR companies, finding swag that works for giveways, and other things.

I'm coming out of my writer's blah funk, my characters are whispering to me again. Will I get all four done? Hard to say. Two are planned novellas, and two are full-length books. I need one of the full-lengths to be finished so I can hit goal #3 since the two novellas are proposals for one of my publishers.

The social media thing, when I attended RWA one of the things that stuck with me was a time management class where she talked about not trying to do it all, all the time. This year will be an experiment in focus of a chosen platform to concentrate most of my efforts, and it ties back into goal #1.

That's it for me. Again I wish you a very happy New Year! I'm looking forward to another year of support and community from the IWSG family! 

 

Until next time,

~Meka

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.

The awesome co-hosts for the January 2 posting of the IWSG are: Patricia Lynne, Lisa Buie-Collard, Kim Lajevardi, and Fundy Blue!