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

I like to look back on the year in November as I don’t blog in December. It’s a good way to measure where I am and how far I’ve come — and if I’ve managed to meet my goals.

Let’s look at the goals I set myself in January:

Irascible Immortals

• Finish series.
• Have entire series in Afrikaans.
• Have entire series (both languages) as audiobooks.
• Do blog tour (do proper marketing).

Faery Tales

• Finish series.
• Have entire series in Afrikaans.
• Have entire series (both languages) as audiobooks.
• Have boxsets in all formats (both languages). Do blog tour, library readings, etc. (do proper marketing).

Other

• Magic at Midnight as audiobook (Afrikaans and English).
• Stories on Scrolls as audiobook (Afrikaans and English).
• Pick a writing project (series or stand alone) and finish it — do all publishing and marketing stuff.
• Take part in at least two anthologies.

What I Accomplished

Being an indie author isn’t just about creating new stuff, but making the most of all of your intellectual property.

I did happen to do both!

Basically, I got the entire backlist translated into Afrikaans (some are on pre-order until March as to not have everything published at once). I do all the translating myself, so it takes some time. I share updates on these on Instagram.

I published and set to pre-order a new series: Origin of the Fae. It follows in the tradition of The Fae Realm with folklore and a short story featuring the creature. Each book has about ten stories (some more). It’s not yet available in audiobook, but the Afrikaans translations are up for pre-order. I am planning more books than those featured below.

I also updated one standalone book’s cover (what I previously liked turned out to be too cerebral for casual browsers).

And upgraded the covers of my Irascible Immortals series.

According to my cover designer, it is called “escapism illustrated” and is a hot design for 2022 where nature is a place of possibility and escape, and my covers offer adventure and the chance to dream our precious world anew. I like that as it takes the theme underlying the series (one of them, anyway) and shows it on the cover. So the minimalist original covers are to the left with its corresponding new cover to the right.

And I did box sets of two of my series:

There was also a lot of maintenance that had to be done for my website and podcast. Which included updating pages, writing a load of folklore posts, and learning new tech.

When you run an author business, your website (and email list) and podcast are assets, just like your books.

My podcast paid for itself (mostly) as it brought in more audiobook sales in English — my Afrikaans audiobooks have always outsold my English audiobooks. You can check out my audiobook page here.

I was featured in an anthology. You can learn more about it here.

I did not finish any of the series that I wanted to in January, but I did complete a couple of audiobooks. Again, you can check them out here.

What I Learned

We need to be part of the creator economy as authors (I listened a lot to Joanna Penn this year), and so I set up my own Payhip store (you can check it out using the links in the menus on the website) and I also set up a Buy Me a Coffee account to help fund my podcast and folklore blog posts so I can keep creating those without losing writing time that I can actually be paid for in the future (you’ll see the widget floating around on the website and at the bottom of the page with all my social links).

After all the non-fiction books, especially craft books, I’ve read this year, I’m not going to be reading (or adding to my TBR) any more books like that. I’m not saying I know everything, but I am saying that with the books I have, with the books I’ve read, my cup is full. I’ll always attend webinars to learn the latest trends in marketing and career stuff, that always changes. But a solid story, that is evergreen.

I did a TikTok challenge in January, attended the webinars, listened to the podcasts – and then I read the platform’s Terms and Conditions and realised that it wasn’t what everyone thought it is. So, I’m not doing that. Let’s just say that I’m not wearing a tinfoil hat, but I do believe the app is as close to installing spyware on a device and personally taking all liability as is legal. I’ll confine my videos to YouTube. Besides, the type of harassment women face on TikTok is shameful.

I’ve also learned that I need to protect my writing time more. I did a lot of marketing (especially for the anthology early in the year) that didn’t really match my expectations with what it delivered or the drama I had to deal with. I will do book blog tours in the future, but not like the one in May.

So, I did accomplish some of the goals I set myself in January even if I didn’t outperform myself in the writing arena. Like my high school maths teacher always said: aim for the moon, even if you fail, you’ll land among the stars. (And yes: I did pass maths with more than just the skin of my teeth.)

Feel free to share your achievements in the comments. What did your year look like?

*If you have difficulty commenting, check that you’ve ticked the data use block beneath the comment before leaving your comment. (Protecting your privacy per regulations.)

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.