Looking Ahead

Happy New Year! Here's where we all get over-ambitious and set out lists of things that we know we're going to accomplish, which generally turn into vague idea of things we'd like to accomplish somewhere around February, and by April, they're just faint, guilty memories. 

Have we all done that? Yes, we have.

I'm trying to set out (writing) goals for this year that are achievable, because the only way to build this into a proper business is in increments. (Yes, there are lucky writers who strike it rich on their first book, but they are so few and far between - and the circumstances for each writer, and their books are so different - that it's not worth considering.

The best way to market a book, I've been told by those who should know, is to write the next damn book. Because what happens if someone buys your first book and loves it? They go looking for more. And if there's no more there for them, they aren't going to remember your name by the time you publish a second book. 

So these are my (hopefully reasonable) 2022 goals:

1. Publish Lady, in Waiting in February.
2. Once the rights to Songbird's audiobook have fully reverted (it's an Amazon complication, and we're getting there), make brief edits to the audio and re-upload those specific portions on both Audible and Findaway Voices, which is an audiobook service for everyone who doesn't buy through Audible.
3. Finish mastering the audiobook files for A Wider World and get them uploaded. This was something started by my old publisher but not finished by the time we parted company. I bought a course on working with Audacity and mastering audio files that should get me through this project.
4. Publish My Sister's Child in October.
5. Write sequel to My Sister's Child.
6. Research for The Son in Shadow, which will be the fourth Tudor Court book, but which will not be published until after the second 1930s book so that there's a significant basis for each series.

You'll note that there's nothing here about money or sales or marketing. I'll market each book as I see fit and as I can afford, but sales numbers and response to ads is not something I have control over. What I can control is my own production, and the more and better I produce, the more those uncontrollable aspects will improve.