Showing posts with label Promo Day. Show all posts

I set myself some goals at the start of this year (see http://www.jolinsdell.com/2018/01/2018-my-plans-for-year-ahead.html). Here's a summary of how I'm doing:

Reading

I'm doing OK with my reading challenges so far. Not brilliant, but OK. I've managed to read books for both the A to Z Reading Challenge and Beat The List. The best part is that the books have all be pretty awesome so far. Here's my update from earlier this week about my reading challenges http://www.jolinsdell.com/2018/01/2018-reading-challenges-update.html in case you missed it.

Writing

My goal or this year was to work on my writing everyday and write a minimum of 500 words a day. January didn't go quite to plan due to health issues and various other reasons but I did make some progress.

I managed to write some more of Shadow (episode 8 in the KOSMOS series), and have been working of edits of my YA thriller Do You LIKE Me?

Book Cover Designs

I really need to dedicate some more time of my book cover designs. Unfortunately I had a major set back this month when my Macbook Pro broke again... this time I don't think there's much hope in getting it fixed. At the moment this makes custom designs a bit hard to do as my other laptop doesn't have the same range of software. This is why I'll be concentrating on premade designs for the next few months until I get the problem resolved.

Publishing

365 Days of Quotes For Writers released on 17th January so I'm off to a good start :)

Freelance Writing

I've not made any progress with this yet and so really need to get my finger out.

Blogging

I've been getting organised with my blogs over this past month and like how things are coming together. I've been posting more often to the Writers and Authors twitter profile and getting better about promoting the posts I do on this blog too.

Promo Day

Plans for this years event are coming together nicely. I have a great line up of presenters set up now and have a few awesome prizes confirmed for the giveaways too. I also now have a sponsor on board. If you'd like to know more about sponsoring the event or promoting your books/services click here. Visit http://www.promoday.net/ and register. It's free!

A Healthier Me

This is one of the hardest challenges this year, but also the one I'm doing best at so far. I've managed to workout nearly everyday so far, only skipping a couple of days when I had hospital/doctors appointments regarding my tests. Despite my cyst issues, I'm also managing to stay pretty positive.

This week I did this exercise routine everyday. Easy, didn't take very long to complete, and all I needed was a chair.

2018: My Plans For The Year Ahead

Firstly, Happy New Year! It is now officially 2018 and we have a whole year ahead of us. 365 days to fill with awesomeness. So have you thought about how you're going to fill them? I've been giving it some thought and that's what I want to share with you in today's post.

Disclosure: The FTC Disclosure Provision is a law that requires influencers to disclose when they are being paid to promote a product or service. So please know that if I'm not making money through affiliate links/sponsored content on the post you're currently reading, it's an oversight on my part and will be corrected soon. Read the full disclosure about all the legal stuff here.

My plans for 2018

Challenges

You may already know, I love a good challenge. Well, I have several planned for this year. I'll be updating you on my progress each week as I'll have a few on the ago at the same time. Some are reading related (2018 A to Z Reading Challenge, and Beat The Backlist), and some are writing related (several Camp NaNoWriMo's and the big one in November). You can also find my list of challenges at http://www.jolinsdell.com/p/my-challenges.html

500 words a day

I'm always busy. I have a lot of different projects going on, and juggle various jobs whilst being a mum, wife, and everything else. Needless to say I don't have much free time. I do plan to use my time better this year though, and make time for the things I want to do. One such thing is writing.

Every year I make the resolution to write more. I don't do too badly, but find I grab time when I can. This year I'm making time. I wanted to be realistic though and so have given myself a goal of 500 words a day. I'll be keeping track of this and the other habits I want to stick to this year in a habit tracker so I can clearly see my progress throughout the year.

More premades

Towards the end of 2017 my book cover design services launched, and I plan to add more happy clients to my portfolio this year.

Publishing plans

I have a lot of books I want to publish this year. Some non fiction, some children's picture books, and some novels. I also plan on finishing my serial fiction KOSMOS. It's going to be a busy 12 months.

Freelance writing

I used to do a fair bit of freelance writing in the past, but over recent years stopped. A big reason why I stopped was lack of time. I have even less free time now than I did back then so you may be wondering why I would consider starting back up this route now. The difference is that this time I have a plan.

In the past I did articles for low paying sites and so the time I spent writing them wasn't really worth it. This year I'll be targeting specific publications and websites, and higher paying markets. Again, I want to be realistic with my goals, and so I'm going to aim for one article a week (at least to start with). I'll be updating you on my progress throughout the year.

Blogging

As with every year I plan to grow my blogs. Both this one, and Writers And Authors. I'll be working more on marketing both, and building a larger readership. I'm also going to be looking into new ways to increase profits over at Writers and Authors, and will be adding some new services.

Promo Day

Promo Day will make it's annual return again this year on Saturday 5th May. You can find out more about the event at the Promo Day website. I would love to grow the event even more this year. I'm still working on ideas but already have some excellent presenters lined up for the webinars.

A healthier me

Not directly a work related goal but still an important one that will have an effect on my work. As some of you that have followed me for some time will know, I don't have the best of health. My immune system often shuts down due to allergies. Being ill is not only unpleasant, it also effects my work. It's hard to keep up with deadlines when you're stuck in bed with a temperature or a virus.

So my plan for 2018 is to be healthier. I'm going to be working out every day. Yep, work out is on my habit tracker too. I may share more insight into my work outs and the progress I make through out the year as I think it's important to take care of our bodies. It's also something a lot of writers neglect. We spend far too much time sitting around which can have a negative effect on our health. I won't be signing up for any flashy gym memberships. It will all be simple workouts that can be done from home with little or no equipment. The sort of stuff anyone can do.

What are your goals for 2018?

2016 has come to an end. I can't say that I'm all that sorry to see it go. I am however very grateful to have reached the end of it, as many did not. Over this year we lost so many talents. As an 80's girl a huge part of my youth passed on during 2016.

Sadly my MacBook Pro also died on New Year's Eve. Not a nice way to finish a year, and definitely not a good way to start a new one. I'm hoping that I can extract all the files so I don't lose any of the work I did on it. Fingers crossed.

Luckily I still have my old laptop but, as you can imagine, it's just not the same. I'm still trying to work out which programs I no longer have and how I can work around the issue.

On a more positive note, as I backed up my novels by emailing them to myself as I was writing them, I do have copies of those *sighs with relief*

I don't want this message to be a sad one though and so I won't dwell on what was lost. Instead I'd like to focus on what's to come. That said, 2017 please be awesome and don't take any more of my idols.

P.S. a new Mac would be great.

2017

So what do you have planned for 2017? How are you going to make 2017 your best year yet?

Writing

I'm hoping to make 2017 my most productive year yet, and will be starting it with a bang. In January I'll be taking part in the STORYSTORM challenge hosted by Tara Lazar (You can register here https://taralazar.com/2016/12/27/storystorm-2017-registration-is-open/ if you'd like to take part too)

I'm an official participant of #STORYSTORM 2017

For the challenge I'll be brainstorming, outlining, and first drafting a new book each day. I've picked out the projects I want to develop already from my ever-growing list of book ideas. It'll be a mixture of children's books, non fiction, and novels. I won't get bored that's for sure ;)

I'm also going to be writing a serial fiction called KOSMOS to be released in 2017. I'm really excited about this new project, and can't wait to introduce you all to the cast of characters.

I'll be sharing the cover reveal for the first book in the KOSMOS series The Pendant with you next week so make sure you check back on 9th January for an exclusive glimpse at the cover. Did I mention how excited I am about this series?! ;)

I'm also going to be doing the A Story A Week which has the goal of writing 52 short stories in 2017 (one a week).

Book Covers

I'm working on some new pre-made book cover designs and will be launching them soon. Make sure you sign up at http://www.jolinsdell.com/p/premade.html as a Book Cover VIP for first dibs on new designs at discounted prices.

I'm also happy to make custom book covers for both ebooks and print. So get in touch if you'd like to hire me.

Promo Day

Promo Day will be back again on Saturday 6th May 2017 and I'm working to make it the best event yet. Webinars, pitch sessions with publishers, giveaways, and more... it's going to be awesome! As always, you can register for FREE at www.PromoDay.net

In conclusion

My 2017 is set to be a very productive year, and I hope yours will be too. I'll be setting up a new ARC team later this month for you lovely people that can't wait to review my books.

The aim of the ARC team is to collect as many reviews as possible for my new releases. Not everyone will be selected to be part of the ARC team, but those that are will be sent a free advance copy of my new releases for review. I'll share more detail of how it works, and how to be part of it later this month, along with info about how to sign up.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank you again for all your support. Whether it's reading my books, hiring me for illustration work/graphic design, or just being part of my cheerleader team as I throw myself into yet another project, you guys ROCK! I really appreciate your support.