2018 was an amazing year full of ups and downs! I got engaged over New Years while we were in London, I wrote a little, stressed a lot and started planning a wedding.
So where did my author platform land after such a crazy year? Let's get into it!
My goals for 2018 were lofty and though I had the best intentions, some of those goals fell away due to life getting busy, not enough inspiration and wedding planning. So what were my goals exactly and how did my year turn out? Let's start with the good:
1. Finish the first pass of the Soothsayer Audiobook.
This was a crazy process and there was a lot of time spent re-doing the audio until I was comfortable in front of the mic. Now I love it, it's so much fun bringing new life to the characters near and dear to my heart. We finished the first pass, and got most of the editing done in 2018 so we should have a final product very soon! We're also going to have a version of the books that's more of an audio-drama with sound effects that will pull you further into the Soothsayer world. I'm so excited!
2. Increase sales on Apple
I wanted to grow my sales on Apple, even if it was just by pennies and dollars. Each platform is hard to grow and comes with it's own set of unique hurdles to over come. I'm happy to report that last year, my sales on Apple went up by 3.5 times from the previous year! That's a huge success and more than what I would have thought possible.
3. Get KOBO to at least 25% of my income
I really don't want to be beholden to Amazon when it comes to making money. In fact,
i'd rather have my books on as many platforms to reach as many readers as possible. KOBO ended up being 53% if my total sales this year! That's nuts and while it's awesome, I don't want more than half my income coming from one platform. So we'll have to adjust a few things in 2019 to get the others stores more involved.
4. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews
I wanted to reach a total of 100 reviews across all platforms including all the books. I'm happy to report that the series has a total of 132 reviews as of December 2018! Now we just need to get 100 reviews on each book on each platform. Baby steps...
5. Be consistent with my mailing list
While I missed three month, I still count this as a success! I was able to engage with my mailing list way more and share my process. I have people on my list who consistently open and engage with my platform, which is awesome. In 2019, I'll be working on making my emails even better!
6. New Book Covers
While I love the original books covers, they weren't selling the way I wanted them too. I really wanted the series to fit in with the other books in their genre and tell the story of Soothsayer just by looking at them. You should never judge a book by it's cover, but people do and so a change had to be made. I am so in love with the new covers and almost immediately there was a positive change in sales.
7. Update Website with special content
I loved updating my website with behind the scenes content. One thing that I love more than all the others, is Robert's journal pages. You can find them on the Avalon book page under ancient history. We don't get a lot of insight into Robert in the books and this was a way for me to share a piece of his soul with the readers. It was so much fun to write and so much fun to be in Robert's head when he was young. I love the way this content came out and I hope my readers do too!
Alright, so where did I drop the ball?
1. Publish Book 5
Yeah...that didn't happen by a long shot. After NANOWRIMO in 2017, the thought of writing sent a cold shiver of fear down my spine. It was nano's fault, I really didn't know where book 5 was going, what was going to happen or what POV I wanted to use. I started and stopped this book at least three times trying to find it's voice. It wasn't until the middle of 2018, that I figured out how I wanted to tell this story and what was going to happen. That being said...wedding planning had taken my whole focus away from writing and so, book 5 sadly didn't get published in 2018.
2. Double income from 2017
While I did make more this year, I didn't hit my goal of doubling my income. Had I published book 5, I probably would have gotten close, but let's not dwell on that. It was my best year yet as far as sales go and it can only get better.
3. Write & Publish Book/Novella 6 in the Soothsayer series
This didn't even get an outline, let alone a draft. Which is probably a good thing because the series is taking a different direction and there is no way anything I would have written would even be usable at this point. Everything happens for a reason and I'm just going to let this one go!
4. Finish practice Screenplay
I really want to get into this form of writing and I know what story I want to tell in a screenplay form, but it's like learning a new language. Writing long form is so different and in reality, I just didn't have the time to learn a whole new form of writing. I did take Shonda Rhimes Masterclass and it's incredible. I plan to go over her class in more detail when it's time to sit down and write a script.
There are a bunch of other little goals that I hit and missed, but those are the main ones. My platform did much better this year over all, but my writing suffered a bit. All in all, I'm proud of what I accomplished. It's not easy doing this and having a full time job, fiance and two dogs that need my attention. So any and all progress is welcome.
That being said, I'll be making a lot of changes to my life in 2019 to help me be successful and I can't wait to get started!
Until Next Year!