It’s the first Wednesday of the month and time for another posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
Happy New Year!
Near midnight until 1pm on New Year’s Eve, it felt like being in the middle of a border skirmish with all the firecrackers going off… Yeah, not great when you live in a agricultural area with lots of animals. People are stupid. And I’m not going to even go into the drunk, off-key karaoke that started at 8pm and ended long after midnight. At least my horses remained chill… I wanted to go on a killing-spree.
I don’t usually look at the zodiac signs for the year, but I’m reading a series based on it, so I thought it’d be fun. And it fits with my horses! LOL.
Going with what this year means, I’ve decided on my word for the year: AUDACITY (a willingness to take bold risks).
Every year I set goals for my writing business and share them here. I seem to be getting better at setting SMART goals and achieving them. You can see last year’s goals and achievements here and here respectively.
Marketing
I learned a lot of new things in 2025 that I want to implement this year.
The things I’ll be focusing on in this bracket:
- Making sure my Substack posts go out twice a week.
- Publishing my folklore podcast in English and Afrikaans on time every week (audio and YouTube video).
- Publishing a review post once a week for Reviews with Ronel on YouTube.
- Reading and reviewing regularly as I share reviews on Substack, YouTube, my blog, Pinterest, and Instagram.
- Updating Pinterest regularly.
- Blogging at least once a month that isn’t review or podcast posts (IWSG/my books).
- Doing the A-Z Challenge in April to share folklore and review posts (which will be reused later).
- Starting a vlog on YouTube as video seems to be the place to be to market one’s work.
- Make and share Instagram reels (video is important now).
Publishing
I’ll keep my focus on finishing translations and audiobooks of my backlist. And, of course, making sure all my books are available in all formats. And then I should probably also publish new work…
I have an edgy novella set in the Irascible Immortals world that I want to edit and publish this year. The story just came to me, and I wrote the first draft. We’ll see when I have the guts to go back to it for rewrites…
I want to take part in at least one short story anthology this year, not only is it good marketing and connecting with other authors, but I haven’t done it in quite some time. This one sounds like fun.
Writing
I’m not sure on what I should focus this year…
Should I finish and publish my Faery Tales series this year? Or should I focus on my unpublished MG series? Or perhaps I should write something in each active series and get it published and market it?
Maybe something else? *shrugs* The point is: I will be writing and doing it well.
I’ve decided to make my song for the year something fun:
“Tomorrow’s getting harder, make no mistake
Luck ain’t enough, you’ve got to make your own breaks”
Yeah, it was true in 2001 and is still in 2026.
What are your goals for 2026? Do you have a song to inspire you this year? Do you have a set strategy for your author career? You can find more author-centred posts here.
No-one writes about the fae like Ronel Janse van Vuuren.
You’ve got a lot of great goals this year. I’m confident you’ll figure out which writing project to tackle. It’s great you have several to choose from. Happy New Year!
Doing a vlog for YouTube is popular now and works well for some authors.
Holy cow, you did a lot this year. That awesome. I haven’t set goals yet either, but they will come!
Lots of activity here, Ronel. You are one of the few writers I know who uses Pinterest–like I do. In fact, I get more leads from it than I’d expect. Have a great 2026!
These are some fantastic goals. May the winds blow with you this year! @samanthabwriter from
Balancing Act
As always, great post. I love horses too:) What do you feel is your best marketing tool? I’ve always thought podcasting would be the way to go. But when I think about doing it, it just makes me tired.
All the best in 2026.
Happy Year of the Fire Horse, Ronel! That is one gorgeous image! I think horses are the most beautiful animal in the world. But I have to admire them from a distance, because I’ve experienced many traumatic things with horses. Your goals for 2026 are inspiring. I wish you great success with them!
That all sounds good. And I’m getting your newsletter in English more often now. 🙂
The other good news is that we had fewer crazy noisy fireworks around this year. More crackles and fizzes, fewer bangs. Still some at 1 am, which was hard when I was still up with the animals to keep them company. They seem unworried these days, though. Maybe I could have gone to bed earlier. I had to be up at 7, so I was delighted to get into my bed on new year’s night!
Happy new year!
I managed to sleep through all the NYE noise, thanks to a 9-mile hike in the foothills. I’m grateful for that, since I usually have trouble sleeping!
I’m trying to set myself SMART goals. I have my usual set of things–edit the next novel, draft a new one, and work on short stories.
BTW, I keep getting your newsletter in Afrikaans, which is interesting, but not illuminating 😀
Audacious is an awesome word for 2026! Your goals are specific and measurable–well done. Good luck on the short story anthology submission! I’ve heard video marketing is most effective right now. I was encouraged to market on BookTok, but I don’t want to join TikTok.
One of these years I need to get back to one word resolutions. I used to do that. I like yours. 🙂
Getting into an anthology is a great goal. I should make time for that too. My vote would be for seeing if you can add a novel to both series. I’ve found the more options you have for readers to choose from, the better your sales numbers look.
Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by my blog.
I too an much like your horses, I really don’t like fireworks. I was too sick to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve in my area, so I watched the new year come in Rio then went to bed.
I love this post. It’s so personal and inspirational. The images are amazing and I love the song.
I’ll be focusing on blogging and podcasting this year while I complete some writing projects. I’m toying with the idea of actually pitching my memoir instead of self-publishing, but I know I can also go that route if I want.