This past year was about making more time for me professionally and personally. And without a doubt I can say I accomplished this goal! Writing all over the world and taking more time to work on my craft has been so rewarding. So much of my travels have ended up in my books and informed my view of the world. This year was a big one for travel and writing and I'm so thrilled at everything I accomplished this year!
So let's go through my 2019 goals and see the good, the bad and the Magical!
1. Publish Book 5 - Elysium
When I started 2019 I was still far from finishing the novel, let alone publishing the book. With this being the final book in the Soothsayer series, there was a lot of pressure to make sure everything got wrapped up in a satisfying way. I changed the direction of this book more times than I can count, but I really believe that it ended up being the best version of the story and the most fulfilling end to Violet and Robert's story.
2. Start A New Series
If you can believe, I was actually going to start a Sci-Fi story this year. But then one fateful night, my husband was playing, God of War and everything changed. A woman stepped onto the stage in my head and her story started to play out in front of me. Norse mythology quickly took over my life and when I sat down to start writing, the idea of a space adventure novel was long gone!
3. Attend A Writing Retreat
An author group that I'm a part of threw a conference/writing retreat in Edinburgh and I knew I had to go! It's been a dream of mine to run off to a far corner of the world with other writers and spending our days talking craft and working on our books. Not only did I make new friends, but I was able to start my new series in the most creative environment. Edinburgh has always been special to me, ever since the first time I visited, but this was a trip dreams are made of. Everyday, my only concern was how many words I was going to get done and where we were going to get a G&T at the end of the day. Hands down this was the most rewarding trip I've ever been on and I can't wait to do another retreat one day! If you want to see more of what the retreat was like, you can check out the vlog put together here:
4. Finish Extra Book Content On Website
As a reader, I love when authors have additional story elements of behind the scenes on their website, and so it's been a big goal for me to do this for the Soothsayer series. I was able to get the first three books finished, but I still need to add content for Le Fay & Elysium.
5. Keep Up With Mailing List
Finally!! I sent out emails every month this year and kept my newsletter up to date! It's been hard trying to figure out what to talk about, but I finally found a good balance of my personal life and author life!
6. Read More
I mean...I don't think I can ever read enough, but I did get through more books this year. I ended up going down a biography rabbit hole and reading about so many people that I admire. I also read some incredible sci-fi...hence why I wanted to write my own.
7. Do A Time Study
This was eye opening!!! I spent the first quarter of the year tracking everything I did, and I mean EVERYTHING! Not only was I not taking time for myself, but I wasn't using my time wisely when it came to my author platform. While this was depressing, it also showed me where I can improve and made the rest of the year incredibly successful.
**Bonus Goals**
I ended up completing more than a few tasks that weren't even on my list so I'll highlight them here:
1. Start a Patreon
2. Start a Facebook VIP group
3. Facebook Live video for Elysium Launch
4. Put together Robert's journal and made it free & available if you sign up for my mailing list.
5. Kept up with my instagram & facebook posts
6. Published the full Soothsayer Series Boxset
7. Re-vamped my website
8. Started dictating and made a TON of progress
9. Published all the books in Large Print
10. Started getting up at 430am to write before work
So that's all the good and Magical stuff...now for the things I didn't get to or just outright failed at:
1. Publish Soothsayer Audiobook
Ugh! I've been trying to get this thing off the ground for a few years now. It's a long process and much harder than I thought it would be. It's in much better shape after this year but were going to move this one to my 2020 goals and hope nothing else goes wrong or gets in the way.
2. Work on growing other platforms
This past year, I ended up taking a step back from marketing to focus on writing and also to pay for my wedding...no regrets, but this will definitely be a big focus for 2020. Especially since I have a full completed series to work with now.
3. Double My Income
See #2. I still made money from my books, but I didn't hit my financial goals this year. So 2020 is going to be full throttle!
4. Purchase ISBN's and publish on IngramSpark
I actually decided to hold off on this for awhile, until it makes more sense for my platform. Right now, I'm not big enough to justify the extra cost just to make hardbacks and get into the catalogs bookstore buy from.
5. Do More Giveaways
I'm going to be honest....the wedding took most of my energy and if I was going to do something for my platform, it was going to be writing! I'm hoping to do more giveaways in 2020 with the Soothsayer series and the new series I'm working on.
All in all, 2019 was incredible and I'm so thrilled to have finished the Soothsayer series. While my wedding did take over my life for a good chunk of the year, I still accomplished so much and I can't wait to see what 2020 has in store for me!
Until Next Time!