An Author’s Goals for 2023 #IWSG

It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

It’s a new year already. Where did the time go? In 2022, I did the new year thing twice.

In January, I wanted to finish my Irascible Immortals series (in all formats and in Afrikaans) and do a blog tour for it, the same with my Faery Tales series, and I wanted to finish the audiobooks for my standalones. I also wanted to cut back to blogging only on Wednesdays – and not even every Wednesday.

In February, because I’d read Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, I decided to get off the production hamster wheel of death I’d been on – as outlined in my January goals post – and do things at my own pace. To say “yes” to me.

And in November, I looked at what I had accomplished in 2022. Basically, translations.

Now it’s 2023.

The writing and publishing side:

So I have to sit and think what I really want to do. And what I really need to do.

What I want to do:

• Finish a series I’ve started years ago and have been working on again since June 2022.
• Finish another series I’ve started years ago and have been working on since May 2022.
• Finish a series that glares at me whenever I open my closet.
• Finish my Faery Tales series.
• Finish my Irascible Immortals series.
• Finish my Dark Court Sisters series.

What I need to do:

• Finish my Irascible Immortals series and have it published in all formats (in Afrikaans, too) and do the whole marketing thing for it.
• Finish my Faery Tales series and have it published in all formats (in Afrikaans, too) and do the whole marketing thing for it.

And then there’s what I probably can do:

Finish my Irascible Immortals series and have it published in all formats (in Afrikaans, too) and do the whole marketing thing for it.

Technically, there are only two books left in this series – though it might as well be the entire series as it wraps it all up, fixes everything that went wrong (or not) and does the whole pay-off for the reader in a lot more words than what went before.

And finish my Faery Tales series, as it is what my fans on my newsletter had asked for late in 2022.

Not to mention what I have to do for my two (top secret) pen names.

The goal, this year, is to cut back to only one day job outside of writing. Thus the pen names. The world economy is in a tricky place (you can listen to how it affects authors across the spectrum here) and I had to get another job when I got laid off in October from one of my day jobs. To safeguard my finances to continue taking care of my various animals, I’ve decided to write to market in genres that have truly voracious readers. I’ve read a load of craft books in 2022 and a load of books in the markets I’m venturing into, so hopefully it pays off. And I’m making sure that everything I publish in English is immediately available in Afrikaans as that is (surprisingly) my bigger market.

As for blogging and podcasting:

I’m doing a lot of folklore blog posts: an entire A-Z of folklore blog posts in April. This is mainly due to how I want to structure my podcast episodes and that I need certain folklore posts in place beforehand.

I’m only sharing my reviews for the book club every three months (January, April, July, October) to make it easier on myself.

I’m not doing Bout of Books, Queer Lit Readathon, and 20 Books of Summer this year. I’m only doing an A-Z of book reviews and recommendations. Yes, a double A-Z in April.

Due to health issues, an energy crisis in my country that makes using the internet sketchy at the best of times, and some time constraints, I need to get things done in one month instead of spread out across the year. I dropped the ball quite a few times last year and I’m not planning to go through that kind of stress again.

For those who wonder why I bother with book reviews, blogging and podcasting: it’s simple. My books are all focused on folklore and by sharing my research, I get true followers on my newsletter (I had a 20% growth on that last year) and author pages with people who buy my books. My podcast is basically me talking folklore and that sells my audiobooks. Content marketing works. By reading and reviewing books, I learn to be a better writer. Just ask Stephen King.

As for sharing all this on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest: it’s just a way to make sure people know this content exists. And I’ve made some awesome friends online and sometimes checking in on Instagram and Twitter is the only way to keep in touch. (I honestly don’t care who owns which platform: Artificial Intelligence rules the world anyway. Terminator and Person of Interest taught me that.)

So that’s my goal for this year: make enough from writing books to quit one of my day jobs. (My health would definitely benefit from this.)

What are your goals for this year? Do you blog outside of the IWSG? Are you part of our book club?

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The non-fiction selection was vetted by me and you can check out my review on Goodreads if you want to know what I liked about it.