Things don't always go to plan
When 2017 kicked off, like most years before it, I had big plans for the year ahead. I was going to take part in the A Story A Week challenge, finish my overflowing WIP pile, and a whole bunch of other tasks, and projects. With the end of the year now fast approaching I can already clearly see that I didn't manage to tick off all the things on my list. Whilst this is disappointing, I also expected this to happen. I know you're probably asking "why did you even bother to make a list if you knew you wouldn't complete it?" Well, because I did kick off a lot of the list.
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I always make an over ambitious to do list for the year ahead. It helps get me excited about all the things I'll be working on over the course of the new year. I reach for the moon, so I can at least fall amongst the stars. It's a system that works for me personally.
Looking back over my long, ambitious, list for 2017 I'm happy to note the amount of things I did do (and let's not forget, I still have a couple of months to catch up ;)). I class every single tick on that list as a success. I might not have written as many books as I had hoped. Sure, there are loads of authors out there who produced a lot more than I did. I'm OK with that. I'm not in competition with them. I'm in competition with myself. The me I was yesterday, last week, last month, or last year.
I didn't write a story every week of the year. I did write several though, which puts me ahead of where I was at the beginning of the year.
I didn't manage to finish writing my serial fiction KOSMOS. This I'm really sorry about. Like I said though, the year isn't over yet... and I'm not giving up. Sometimes life gets in the way of even the best laid plans. I'm just having to reschedule, and change my plans a bit. I'll tell you more about that next week.
One of the things I'm most proud of doing this year, is finally launching my book cover design service. I've already got to work with some great authors, and hope to add many more to my client list. I've been having loads of fun creating new premade covers, and trying out new genres and styles.
I'm really pleased with the launch of this new service, but I've also learnt a few lessons in the process. I spent a long time planning for the launch (which happened on 1st October this year), including an extended beta phase to work out all the details in the months leading up to the launch. I planned. I still had to rework things, and make changes to my set up. So you see, even when you research, plan, study, and then plan some more... things might not go to plan. Things came up that I hadn't considered when I initially worked out my pricing. I'll go into more detail about what goes into creating a cover and what you're paying for when you buy one in another blog post soon as it's an important topic, and will be useful for those of you considering ordering a book cover (whether it's a premade or a custom design).
I wanted to do a lot more marketing and promotion this year too. I did interviews, was hosted on various sites, etc... but not as much as I'd planned. I'll be doing a big blitz in December to help improve on this though. A virtual book tour for ALL of my published books. I'm putting together a mega media kit packed with info about all of my books. I'll let you know more details about the tour soon, but if you're interested in hosting me on your blog, or even on one of your social media profiles, please get in touch.
So you see, this year has been full of successes, and failures.... but it's not over yet. I still have time to tick a few more things off that list.
How was your 2017? Did you reach all your goals? What plans do you have to tick more off your list before the end of year? Let me know about your successes and failures of 2017.
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