2017 Year-End Update

Looking back on 2017, the year hasn’t been as much of a dumpster fire as I originally thought. Author-wise, I published my third Desertera novel, The Tyrant’s Heir, re-evaluated my writing and business goals, and strengthened connections with my amazing readers and author friends. On the personal side, I lost two beloved family members to chronic illnesses, moved from Connecticut to California (with a brief vacation at home in Kansas), and traveled to new places in the United States.

When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, I accomplished far more than I did in 2016! My husband and I have a tradition of making one resolution per year we’ve been alive, so I made 24 goals for 2017. I never expect to achieve them all — but if I shoot for the moon, I still hit the stars. And I hit quite a few stars this year.

Writing & Publishing

1. Create (write, edit, outline, or research) 5 days a week
My average ended up being four days per week, as I allowed myself extended breaks for my cross-country move and two bereavement periods.
2. Write Desertera #3
3. Edit Desertera #3 (C)
4. Publish Desertera #3 (C)
5. Write a second novel
While I didn’t start drafting, the world is built and ready to write for 2018!
6. Edit a second novel
7. Start Desertera #4
8. Make 2018 production schedule

Business

9. Make $2,000 from Boxthorn Press
Just a little short!
10. Create freebie for Writing Newsletter subscribers 
11. Create freebie for Reader List subscribers
12. Blog 2x per month
13. Maintain social media schedule
14. Diversify existing products (audiobooks, box sets, etc.)
I’ll be focusing on this in 2018 instead!
15. Do one marketing/promotion task per month
Choosing to forgo marketing until I have a larger catalog is why I didn’t hit my income goal. While I’m disappointed with myself, I know playing the long game will pay off eventually.
16. Read 52 books
I read 40 books. Now that I don’t ride the train every morning, I need to find a new reading time!

Personal

17. Work on positivity
18. Exercise 3x per week
19. Break a bad habit
20. Recoup savings account post-Yale
21. Make post-Yale plan
22. Visit final NYC sites
23. Visit new state
24. Visit new country
I achieved ALL of my personal goals! Here’s to leaving 2017 a happier, healthier, and better-traveled human!

Overall, I’m pleased with how much I accomplished in 2017. I’ll be finalizing my 2018 New Year’s resolutions today, and I can’t wait to dive into them. Here’s to a fantastic year!

What did you accomplish in 2017? What goals are you setting for 2018? Share them in the comments!

Guest Post: How to Sell Books by Allison Conley

Welcome back to this week’s special guest series by professional beta readers Annette Abernathy and Allison Conley of BetaWitches.com. They’re offering writing tricks, providing advice on how to sell your finished book, and sharing their must-know items for new authors. Here are Allison’s book marketing tips!

Hello indie authors, this is your customer speaking. As an avid reader, beta tester, communications writer and copyeditor, I have literally read some of the best books out there and some of the worst books that I wish never made it out there. Every genre has been equal opportunity. I will buy your book as long as you tell me a good story period. However, you may have to work a little bit harder to reach the other bookworms who have not necessarily been in your shoes. Here are some tips for turning those black and white pages into green and white paper!

Sales equal sales. Through my journey as a sales and marketing manager I have figured out through practical application that discounted price points are the key. This can make or break your sales tremendously. When you are coming up with the price points for your book, make sure you incorporate some budgets for deep discount sales at he very beginning. Every customer loves to feel like they are getting something good for cheap. Many times me and my cohorts have bought a book online or in the bookstores because of the “today only .99” or the shiny neon starburst with 20% off. As a new and or independent author, you may not be able to afford to do this with out giving your product away and that is not the goal here. So set some good price point in the beginning and have some sales to draw attention to your books and get your customers buying.

Have a strong web presence for your books/brand. We live in an age where social media is king, queen and the entire royal court, so you must have a web site for your book at a minimum. If you have social media for your book, that equals more sales. Every digital community is a direct place to meet customers. If you put you product out there, someone will buy it. Use the site to give snippets of the book and where you will be promoting your book even if it is at the local library. (F.Y.I. most libraries have rooms you can reserve for such said occasions.)

This is a good place to segway into my next point. Use clever marketing tools. And yes, social media is one of them. Go live on Facebook about your new book and tell us that you just found an antique chest just like the one your heroine keeps her weapons in at a yard sale or that you have a Christmas cookie recopies inspired the frosty villain in your book and you will show us how to make it on You Tube. You don’t have to tell us your book verbatim but give us just enough to keep your book on our minds and keep it out there.

Make sure you make it easy for customers to pay you. Provide links to your website or other places where people can directly purchase your book.

Make sure you elevator story is on point. Yes this is your summary. You should be able to articulate this as fluently in person as it is on your cover or in the Amazon summary. As a communications specialist, I know the importance of getting your point across effectively and quickly. You only have mere seconds to get your reader/customers attention so you should be able to do this on paper and in person. Test it out on your family and friends who will not blow smoke up your behind and them hit the road with your act. Try it out in bookstores and literary conventions and any place you feel like you can get your point across. If you can grab you customers’ attention quickly you can turn it into a sale.

With these tips and trick you should be able to make some progress selling your books.

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About Allison

Allison Conley has a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a minor in Sociology. She finished the Seeding Entrepreneurs Across the Midsouth (S.E.A.M) program in 2016 for her work as an entrepreneur and artist in the greater Memphis Tennessee Area.

Genres Allison Beta Reads: Fantasy, Young Adult, Regency Romance, Romance, Erotica, New Adult, Contemporary, Christian Fiction, Historical, Historical Romance, Steampunk, Science Fiction, Thrillers/Mysteries, Horror

My 2017 New Year’s Resolutions

Welcome back to another episode of “Kate’s ambition and optimism give her temporary insanity and delusions of invincibility.” With my first full year as a published author tucked away in the history books, I’m ready to push forward into 2017. The first step? Announcing my New Year’s Resolutions.

As I’ve said in years past, I love planning, organizing, and dreaming BIG. So, crafting my annual resolutions is one of my favorite things. In my 2016 Year-End Reflection, I talked about my theme for this year (Growth) and my 2017 motto: Always Be Creating. You’ll see both reflected here.

Why so many resolutions? Longtime readers will know that my husband and I have a masochistic FUN tradition of making one resolution for every year we’ve been alive. I’ve added in personalized difficulty levels, based on the likelihood that I’ll hit each goal.

E – Easy
C – Challenging
DD – Damn Difficult
LOL – Yeah … probably not happening

You might wonder why I include ‘LOL’ goals at all. Well, I’m a “shoot for the stars and still hit the moon” type of person. I know I might not have the time, money, and strength to accomplish all of my resolutions. But if I try for all and only make half, I’m still miles beyond where I started.

Without further ado, here are my 2017 New Year’s resolutions:

Writing & Publishing

1. Create (write, edit, outline, or research) 5 days a week (DD)
2. Write Desertera #3 (E)
3. Publish Desertera #3 (C)
4. Write Desertera #4 (DD)
5. Write separate fiction book (LOL)
6. Publish a second fiction book (LOL)
7. Write nonfiction book (DD)
8. Publish nonfiction book (LOL)

Business

9. Make $2,000 from Boxthorn Press (DD)
10. Create freebie for Writing Newsletter subscribers (E)
11. Create freebie for Reader List subscribers (DD)
12. Blog 2x per week (C)
13. Maintain social media schedule (DD)
14. Diversify existing products (audiobooks, box sets, etc.) (DD)
15. Do one marketing/promotion task per month (C)
16. Read 52 books (E)

Personal

17. Work on positivity (DD)
18. Exercise 3x per week (LOL)
19. Break a bad habit (DD)
20. Recoup savings account post-Yale (DD)
21. Make post-Yale plan (E)
22. Visit final NYC sites (E)
23. Visit new state (E)
24. Visit new country (DD)

As you can see, I have a lot to do this year! I’ll let you know how it goes with my monthly updates.

Share your resolutions in the comments so that I can cheer you on, too! Or, if you need a little help crafting your goals, check out this post on making attainable New Year’s resolutions. Just remember: do as I say, not as I do!

Recapping My 2016 New Year’s Resolutions

Before the calendar officially rolls over into 2017, I want to share my progress on my 2016 New Year’s resolutions. While I surpassed my “realistic” goal of accomplishing half of my list, I still left seven resolutions unfinished. Some of these were conscious choices, others resulted from procrastination or neglect. However, each taught me valuable lessons that I’ll be carrying into 2017.

Writing

1. Write five days a week (C, but based on past experience, LOL)

I had an epiphany this year – I don’t have to write every day. And, given my current situation in life, it’s almost impossible for me to write new material while editing/revising a completed manuscript. Next year, my goal will be to “create” five days a week (be it writing or editing). However, I did some form of creation for roughly half of the days in 2016, so that’s better than my past records.

2. Finish Desertera #2 (E)

3. Publish Desertera #2 (C)

4. Write Desertera #3 (DD)

At least I’ve started it!

5. Publish Desertera #3 (DD)

If I would have taken into account how much time my nonfiction projects would consume, I would have known this was unobtainable (aka LOL) for 2016.

6. Write a book for fun (LOL)

LOL indeed!

7. Write all nonfiction booklets (E)

8. Publish all nonfiction booklets (E)

9. Publish nonfiction compilation (C)

Business

10. Publish two blog posts per week (C)

11. Read 50 books (C)

12. Make $1,000 from my author business (C, maybe DD)

13. Adhere to my marketing plan (C)

Started off strong, but petered out in the second half of the year. Takeaway: I need to refine my marketing goals and make a less time-consuming plan.

14. Send two email newsletters per month (C)

15. Update my author website/platform (revise each quarter) (E)

Personal

16. Keep Daniel and myself student loan free (DD)

17. Keep migraines to one per month (or less!) (DD) – Perhaps my best accomplishment of all!

18. Exercise for 30 minutes, 3 days a week (LOL)

We did really well for a few months … but not enough.

19. Record my three daily gratitudes (C)

Barely managed this. I think I’ll be letting go of journaling in 2017.

20. Visit a new state (E)

21. Go to the 9/11 Memorial in NYC (E)

We decided to wait on this one until our parents visit in the spring.

22. Visit home (summer) (C)

23. Visit home (Christmas) (E)

Final count: 16/23

I’ve kept this recap short and sweet, but if you want to a more in-depth reflection, check out this post. And yes! I am making resolutions for 2017 – you can read them here!

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Did you accomplish all of your 2016 New Year’s resolutions? What did you learn from your successes and failures this year? Share in the comments!

Month-End Update: November 2016 (Come Vote!)

November really got away from me. After learning the much-needed (but still a little painful) lesson of obeying my own writing process, I got a little off track for the month. However, despite taking a few steps backward in my fiction efforts, I was able to complete my final nonfiction project for the year (more on that soon!), as well as tackle a couple of books on my review list.

My main takeaway for November is that I need to keep streamlining my author routine and reevaluate my priorities going into 2017. I’ll talk more about this when I do my reflection posts at the end of December, but suffice to say I’m already working on resolutions and setting up systems for the new year.

To that end, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want this website to be. I started this blog in 2014, with the goal of chronicling my author journey and holding myself accountable to my writing. In 2015, it became my “author website,” with a strong focus on writing/publishing advice and book reviews. This year, it’s really started to feel like not just my website, but a part of a larger community. As such, in 2017, I want to make my author website work even harder smarter for you.

There’s a poll at the end of this post. Please tell me which kinds of articles would be most beneficial or entertaining to you going forward, and feel free to leave any other suggestions or requests in the comments. This is YOUR chance to tell me what you like, what you don’t, and what will help you most in your own journey.

But, before you vote, here’s what I accomplished in November:

Writing & Editing

• Blog Posts Written – 5 and one guest post
• Fiction Words Written – 11,228
• # of Days I Wrote Fiction – 13
• Nonfiction Prompts Written – None new
• # of Days I Wrote Nonfiction – N/A
• Drafts Revised – Proofread and formatted nonfiction book
• # of Days I Revised – 5
• Outlines Written – 1 (restructuring Desertera #3)
• Days Without Creation/Production – 12

Reading

• Books Finished
  • Dead Magic (Ingenious Mechanical Devices #4) by Kara Jorgensen
  • A Thousand Rooms by Helen Jones
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Omnibus Vol. 1 by Joss Whedon
• Books Begun/In-Progress
  • From Hell by Alan Moore
• Books Reviewed on Blog
  • The Art of Breathing (Scarborough Mysteries Book 3) by Kate Evans – read review
  • Dead Magic (Ingenious Mechanical Devices #4) by Kara Jorgensen – read review
  • A Thousand Rooms by Helen Jones – read review

*Remember, I review every book I read on my Goodreads page.

Author Business Activities

• Put together prompts anthology
• Goal-setting and administrative tasks in preparation for 2017
• Beta-reading and reviewing books for fellow authors
• Hosted part of a Facebook takeover event

Goals for December

• Get back on track with Desertera #3
• Properly announce prompts anthology
• Wrap up pending book reviews and guest post commitments
• Finalize plans for 2017

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What did you accomplish in November? If you participated in NaNoWriMo, how did it go? What can I do to help you reach your goals in 2017? Share it all below!