Happy 2022, Bloglandia!

So, 2021 was...a year.

Not exactly an outstanding year for the world, but within my itty-bitty writing world, 2021 wasn't too shabby.

Okay, who am I kidding? It was phenomenally encouraging!

Up until this past year, my book sales have limped along. Steady, but in the way of a faucet that's got just the tiniest of drips.

But in 2021, I blasted 2020 (my previous best sales year) away with a sales increase of 700 percent (my goal was to see a sales increase of 50 percent).

Yeah, unless I have really screwed up my calculations, I sold 7 times the number of books in 2021 than I did in 2020.

That still blows my mind.

And let me just offer up a THANK YOU to any readers of this blog (I think there's maybe five of you??) who bought my books and/or recommended my books to someone else. YOU helped make those number happen!

So where did the sales come from?

I'm very proud to say, that while it wasn't anywhere near the top, I actually nabbed more direct sales from my Payhip Bookstore than from Google Play. Woohoo!

That little win aside, my best sales venues were...

  • #1 Apple
  • #2 Amazon
  • #3 Kobo (18% less than Amazon)

However, my top venues for royalties were in a slightly different order...

  • #1 Kobo (25% higher than Amazon)
  • #2 Apple (19% higher than Amazon)
  • #3 Amazon

Which, I don't know, perhaps goes to show you that Amazon shoppers are cheapskates...haha.

And no surprise since they were the new kids in town, but my best selling books were (in order)...

Besides those crazy numbers, other writerly achievements in 2021 included...

  • Publishing the entirety of the Cassie Black Trilogy
  • Having The Undead Mr Tenpenny accepted for the Library Writers' Project
  • Watching The Undead Mr Tenpenny and The Trials of Hercules nab a few Number One spots
  • Seeing The Undead Mr Tenpenny and a few of my other books recommended by other authors (squeee!!!)
  • Applying for and getting accepted for two Bookbub Featured Deals
  • Being accepted for loads of Kobo and Apple promos
  • Revamping my Payhip Bookstore (and seeing a nice increase of direct sales)
  • Finishing up the "biggest/worst/hardest" edits of Day Sixteen
  • Crafting a few short stories, and finally,
  • Writing the drafts for the first three books of The Circus of Unusual Creatures series (and finishing Hoard It All Before, obviously)

Add all that up and you get....exhausted.

And that list doesn't include everything, which is why by the end of 2021, I felt like a frazzled mess as I juggled having four books in production, keeping up with my newsletter folks, hammering away at this blog and social media (why??), and all the muck you can mired in in this wacky career path.

Which is why in 2022, I'm going to try to scale back a bit.

What's really bothered me lately is that I have so many projects going on right now, I haven't had any time to enjoy any part of Hoard's upcoming launch.

For the launch of The Undead Mr Tenpenny, I had loads of fun making videos, sharing all the silly behind the book tidbits, planning promotions, and reaching out to various places to give the book a little nudge.

For Hoard, well, I've had time to make a few promo graphics...and I'll have some sample chapters for you soon.

So yeah, almost nothing.

Basically, I'm pushing myself to near burnout and I don't like it.

Thankfully, as mentioned above, I have the biggest chunk of work done on Day Sixteen, which means I can set is aside for now then wrap it up this spring with a final proofread.

Starting this month, I plan to focus on one book at a time. I had this crazy notion in 2021 that getting loads of first drafts ready might be super productive.

It wasn't. Two of those first drafts still haven't been touched and I'm almost afraid to tackle them again.

I'll also be spending January tracking and taking a critical look at all the miscellaneous stuff I do besides writing to figure out what is a complete waste of time and what I should focus more on...which should be an interesting/scary/disheartening experiment.

But you don't care about all that.

You want to know what's coming from me in 2022.

Or at least I hope you do.

Anyhoooo, here are a few tentative plans for 2022...

  • Launch Hoard It All Before (The Circus of Unusual Creatures #1)
  • Rewrite and release Tipping the Scales (The Circus of Unusual Creatures #2)...seriously need to get cracking on this one!
  • Get Fangs A Million (The Circus of Unusual Creatures #3) as close to ready for publication as possible...maybe release it...mayyyybe.
  • Finish up and release Day Sixteen
  • Write more stuff! Vague, I know, but as time allows, I hope to write a few more short stories, draft a new stand alone novel, and maybe draft the fourth book in The Circus of Unusual Creatures series. Again, I don't want to get swamped in drafts again, so I'm going to have to plan this out once I get Tipping and Fangs sorted.
  • Take the time to have more fun with launches.
  • Cut out some of the time-wasting stuff we writers are told we HAVE to do
  • Get my paperbacks on more retailers (a chore I am NOT looking forward to)
  • Build a box set of the Cassie Black series (this might be released in 2022, but it will be late 2022, if I do)

Hmmm...that doesn't seem like I'm going to be taking a cool and calm approach to 2022, does it?

Ah well, here's to another fabulous (and possibly exhausting) writing year and I'm thrilled to be jumping into it with all of you!

Anyway, THANKS once again for making 2021 my best year yet!

Here's to 2022!

What about you? Any big goals for 2022 or are you just going to take the year as it comes since everything is so topsy turvy these days?

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If you happen to be looking for some books to fill up your hungry little e-reader, please check out these wonderful bundles of indie books...

E-Books Galore - Loads of fiction in all types of genres, from romance to historical fiction, and fantasy to sci-fi.

or

Getting Cozy - for all you armchair detectives just itching to solve a good mystery. 

and don't forget there's this bit of dragon-filled fun coming soon (click the cover if you'd like to pre-order a copy)...

Coming January 2022!!!

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