Month-End Update: January 2015

I cannot believe it is already the end of January. The first month of 2015 has flown by, and with all the changes I have in store this year — Daniel starting graduate school, finishing his immigration progress, moving into our first real home together, publishing my novel (fingers crossed), and starting my author business — the next 11 months are sure to fly, too.

Before compiling this post, I felt like I hadn’t done much with my year. However, now that I have made this list and reflected on the month, I am feeling happy about the progress I have made in just 30-31 days.

Writing

• Blog Posts Written — 21 (one guest post also published)
• Fiction Words Written — 0
• # of Days I Wrote Fiction — 0
• Outlines Written — 1 (Desert Child, Izel #1)

Editing

• Drafts Edited — 1 (First Draft: The Cogsmith’s Daughter, Desertera #1)
• Misc. Editing — Employee handbook at my office job

Books 

• Books Finished
  • The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
  • Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
  • Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• Books Begun/In-Progress
  • Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing) by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant
  • The Earl of Brass (The Ingenious Mechanical Devices #1) by Kara Jorgensen
  • Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
• Books Reviewed
  • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

Author Business Activities

• New blog theme and layout
• Introduced book reviews and guest posts to blog
• Received three indie books to review
• Received and posted first ever guest post
• Signed up for Hootsuite account
• Test ran Hootsuite for one week (will post about results later)
• Signed up for/started using SocialBro account
• Signed up for MailChimp newsletter services
• Attended webinar on starting an author business
• Organized February blog tour with Kate E.
• Expanded blog post social media updates to Pinterest

For someone with a full-time job, I think I got a lot done. Obviously, my writing goals suffered, due to my efforts to edit all of The Cogsmith’s Daughter in one month. However, I am proud of how much editing, reading, and business-oriented work I accomplished.

Happily, most of my blog posts for February are already scheduled thanks to the upcoming blog tour I am hosting with Kate Evans. With my blog taken care of, I plan to focus my writing attention on the first draft of my next novel, tentatively titled Desert Child, and the revising/second drafting of The Cogsmith’s Daughter. For my reading goals, I hope to have at least two of the indie books I have received read and reviewed, as I do not want to keep those authors waiting too much longer. As for business, I would like to officially launch my author newsletter and begin reading The Self-Publisher’s Legal Handbook by Helen Sedwick to learn how to set up my business in the coming months.

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What have you accomplished this month? What are your goals for February? For the rest of the year?