Twenty-seventeen! My goodness, time marches on. Can you believe we are here already? Last week I took a look in the rearview mirror at 2016 (although, frankly, it can’t possibly be over… can it?) Nonetheless, the calendar has flipped and behold, another brand new year.
As I’m in the business of being an indie author and publisher, those are the primary goals I’ll share here. The short list?
A year ago I said this, when I posted my goals for 2016:
What are the long-term strategies? To write more books and release them more often. To write better books. To find more readers in more places. What that boils down to is continuing to write in 5-6 book series, to focus on both quality and quantity, and keep the vast majority of my titles on all major e-book platforms with paperbacks and audiobooks where possible.
That continues to be the central statement to my business strategy. I’ve noticed in the past two years (since beginning to indie publish) that there’s a disparity between what I write in a given year and what I publish in a given year, so I’ll state goals for both.
Writing Goals for 2017 (295,000 words):
• Promise of Peppermint (30,000 – the prequel to the Urban Farm Fresh Romance series)
• Memories of Mist (55,000 words – Urban Farm Fresh Romance 3)
• Rooted in Love (55,000 words – Garden Grown Romance 2 aka Arcadia Valley Romance 10)
• Better Than a Crown (45,000 words – Christmas in Montana 3)
• Harvest of Love (55,000 words – Garden Grown Romance 3 aka Arcadia Valley Romance 16) (May 2018)
• One other title TBD (55,000 words)
Publishing Goals for 2017 (270,000 words):
• January: Sow in Love (30,000 words – the prequel to the Garden Grown Romance series found in Romance Grows in Arcadia Valley)
• May: Sprouts of Love (55,000 words – Garden Grown Romance 1 aka Arcadia Valley Romance 4)
• June: Promise of Peppermint (30,000 – the prequel to the Urban Farm Fresh Romance series)
• August: Memories of Mist (55,000 words – Urban Farm Fresh Romance 3)
• October: Better Than a Crown (45,000 words – Christmas in Montana 3)
• November: Rooted in Love (55,000 words – Garden Grown Romance 2 aka Arcadia Valley Romance 10)
Audiobooks: Berry on Top should release in January, and I’m planning on moving more books in the Urban Farm Fresh Romance series into audio this year. Do you think the Christmas in Montana books should go to audio as well?
Keeping in Touch: I’ll continue to grow my email list and send regular letters (more-or-less monthly). I’ll continue to blog right here weekly and to blog at Inspy Romance on my rotation (approximately monthly). I also blog approximately every six weeks at International Christian Fiction Writers.
Real Life:
Family: Once again, my husband and I are planning a couple of vacations in 2017. We also hope to go camping as much as we can over the summer months, including taking the grandgirls without their parents. All except the youngest grandgirl. Yes, we (actually Hanna and Craig) are expecting a baby girl in the next month. Their older girls will be 7 and 5 in February, and our son’s daughter is now 4.5. Baby makes four. #pinkpower
Church and Spiritual Health: I’m looking forward to another good year, being involved where it works – I’m such an introvert, and we live a fair distance from the church. More importantly, I will continue to focus on personal growth as a believer.
Gardening: After extremely poor health (and no gardening) in 2015, we cut our garden waaaay back in 2016 to a workable size. Jim built several 4×12′ garden boxes. If things don’t fit in those, I don’t get to plant them. It was perfect, and should work well again.
Health: Continuing to pray for and work toward good health for both my husband and me. Some issues are “under control” (such as my blood pressure with meds) and other issues come and go. Over all, we’re committed to doing what we can for continued health.
What about you? Did you meet your goals for 2016? What does 2017 look like for you?