It's now 2019 -- which is weird for me to type out . . . I remember last January and I felt so full of hope for the new year - my writing would be taking off, I would be super successful . . . and now here I am feeling the same way about January 2019 . . . LOL -- sigh, best laid plans n all . . .
Seeing as now it kind of a time to reflect on what was good about the past 12 months and what needed work, here are some good things that happened for me last year:
1 -- With some help I re-published all my novellas and started advertising, leading to my absolute best month of sales ever. I still lost money on the month, but I learned some valuable lessons about advertising that will carry me forward.
2 -- 2018 was my best year ever for sales -- I almost doubled my last year's sales. So yay me!
3 -- I published my fourth novella.
4 -- Started to get my head wrapped around this beast called advertising. I ended the year learning more about Facebook ads and am diving into the world of Amazon ads soon.
So, all in all, not a bad year. I won't embarrass myself with what the dollar figures were -- they're not impressive, but I'm showing steady progress, so I'm taking that and running with it!
What didn't work so well?
I lost money every month that I advertised. I learned that having a $2.99 book advertised doesn't really provide the best return on investment. Not only that, but WHO I'm marketing to is just as important. I'm still learning who my audience is, so that's a huge lesson to learn. To improve in this area, I'm putting together a boxed set of my first three novellas and will start advertising that. If all works as I hope it does, I'll start seeing some good sales AND that will lead to some read-through to the next book (and the new one that's in the works).
I also didn't write as much as I wanted to -- that's something I've struggled with forever -- making the time to be creative. To fix this, I'm going to make sure I plan creative time every day. I'm going to work to get consistent so I can provide new content for all y'alls on a regular basis.
I've let my blog and mailing list slide. That's a huge failing as it lets this relationship go stale. It really is a relationship, you know. You've either subscribed to this blog or my list and you expect to be entertained. I haven't been providing that (and in fact, I actually irritated a few of you -- go figure.). So, that's yet one more thing to improve upon this year.
Whew! I don't have a huge to-do list do I? All-in-all, I have some good to look back on and a few things to improve upon.
What are your goals for 2019, Terry? I hear you ask in the background . . . well, let me share them with you:
1 -- I plan on writing at least two more adventures for Tremain and Christopher this year -- book 5 (as yet untitled) is in the first draft stage, and book 6 is in the very early imagining phase.
2 -- I have the skeleton of an idea for a fantasy book(s) that I'm really excited to start working on --
3 -- I am going to engage with my readers on a more regular basis, between my Facebook page, my email list and this blog, I should be able to get more visibility -- plus I am going to utilize Instagram more and possibly learn how twitter works . . . but let's not get crazy . . . :P
So, there you go -- with the day job I have my work cut out for me, but I can do it.
What would you like to see from me in the coming months? Any ideas? I'd love to hear from you . . .
Until next time (and it won't be another 4-5 months, trust me!)
Terry