I re-read the blog post I wrote at the end of 2022, and it’s interesting to see how things changed with what I thought I was going to do. My main change was my publishing schedule–back then I thought my rockstar romance was only going to be one book and then out of nowhere it turned into a trilogy. That was a stroke of luck on my part (and for Eddie and Brock who had their stories told and ended up with HEAs I hadn’t planned on) and actually made up the bulk of my sales this year. I have that blog post pulled up–let’s compare.

Books/Novels/WIPs

Number of books written: 3.5
I wrote three and a half books last year, too. I finished Twisted Alibis (I had 58k of it done and the total number of words in that book are 107k) and wrote Twisted Lullabies and Twisted Lies and also, at the last second, wrote A Heartache for Christmas I was able to edit and cover in time for the holidays. Last year, in 2022, I wrote 286,000 words. This year I wrote 340,000. My rockstars are long (the shortest coming in at 92k) and my Christmas romance added to those at 97k. All in all, I had a good writing year.

Number of books published: 4. Wait, no. 8.
I forgot I published my Lost & Found Trilogy in January. That’s three. Then I published Faking Forever in May. I published that as filler while I was writing my rockstars and published those in August, and also my Christmas romance in November for a total of eight books. Sounds impressive, but my Lost & Found Trilogy was written in 2022 and I only pushed Publish. Faking Forever was also previously written and all I did was order a fresh proof and proofread that. My rockstars were the biggest project I completed since pivoting to first person present and I’m really proud of them.

Year-End Royalties: $4,404.19 (This figure will be off by 7 days as I am writing this a week before the end of the year.)

As always, forget about the total number of books there. BookReport crams all the formats together. That is definitely up from the $670.55 that I made last year, and I owe half that to my rockstars and the other half to Facebook ads. Like last year and my disappointment with my Cedar Hill Duet, I’m sad my Lost & Found Trilogy didn’t do better, but that was my own fault–with covers, and more recently, my dismay at having found a writing tic I edited out not long ago. Now that the covers are how I want and the insides are going to be the best they can ever be, I’m going to start running ads to them after the New Year. I’ll report back if I can get them to sell.

As for Amazon ads, I didn’t throw the money at them I have in the past. Last year I spent $112.55 and this year I spent . . . $835.67. Just kidding. As my character, Agatha, in Twisted Lies says, Jesus Christ on a bicycle. I didn’t know I spent that much. I spent $200.00 in June alone, so I guess I better add watching my freaking ads more closely to my 2024 goals. FML.

I knew Facebook ads going in would be expensive (but so can Amazon ads if you’re not keeping an eye on them, sigh) and I spent $1,238.60 (I had to go through my emails and tally the invoices they sent me that I set aside for my accountant, so no screenshots available, I’m afraid.) I actually thought I spent more than that, but I didn’t start running ads until May of this year, and I didn’t crank them up until August when my rockstars came out. I didn’t buy a Freebooksy this year, so Amazon ads and Facebook ads are the only ad spend I had, for a total of $2,074.27.

I had other yearly expenditures like my WordPress fees, my Alliance of Independent Authors membership, BookSprout, my Office 365 renewal, and Canva. I did more than break even this year, and surprisingly I’m ahead by about $1600.00. I’m not going to add up Canva and the rest. That’s just extra fluff I pay for that I would regardless if I was making money or not. I get so much out of Canva (not just covers) that paying is a necessary evil, and I need my Office 365. My Alli membership is just insurance for my author career as far as I’m concerned because I need someone to help me if Amazon decides to think I’m doing something I shouldn’t be doing and suspends my KDP account. I throw money at other things like fonts and my KU subscription, but I behaved myself when the AppSumo deal for DepositPhotos came out last month–somehow I convinced myself the 300 images I still have in my DepositPhotos account is enough. I bought a marketing book and a couple of Alex Newton’s K-Lytics reports, but I’m not going to nickel and dime myself. Like any other *cough* hobby *cough* you spend money. That’s just what happens if you enjoy doing something.

So, my numbers aren’t bad, and I’m finding readers. I think Facebook ads can be profitable if your hook, ad copy, graphic, and your actual book can mesh together into something that your target audience wants. I need to do more research on FB ads and see if I can level up. I have the books to sell.

Website/Blog Stats

My views went up a smidge but my visitors went down, also by a smidge, compared to last year, and I don’t know what the difference is.

I also posted one post fewer and eight thousand words fewer, too. I was so busy writing my rockstars, I think, that I didn’t bother commenting on any of the book drama. I can’t remember what any of it was now, but I’m sure there must have been some. I really just don’t care anymore about authors behaving badly and maybe that’s just a byproduct of dealing with my health issue. I don’t waste time with people who can’t follow through, I stop reaching out to people who can’t be bothered to message me first once in a while. Twitter is still just a pit of people whining because they can’t sell books or get a book deal, but if I don’t keep my ear to the ground, I just do not have much to say. My blog has turned into more of an online journal than an informational blog, but it is what it is. I don’t care if someone is trying to copyright the sun or if a big-time indie is being accused of plagiarism. I just am really tired of people who expect things without giving, but retreating into my books doesn’t give me a whole lot to share, and I would imagine this trend will keep going into later years.

People are still sharing my blog which is great to see. These are all-time stats . . . WordPress changed their platform layout so I had a harder time finding the information and it won’t completely match up with how I gave you my stats last year.

It’s not a surprise that my Canva how-to posts have the top billing . . . again.

I’m glad that post is so useful, and I appreciate everyone who has commented, liked, and shared my blog posts. It means a lot that while I’m struggling I’ve been able to help people too.

Health Update

I still feel like garbage, but I’ve done all I can do on my own and I have to call after the New Year to make an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I figure I have access to it, I might as well go to the best of the best and see what’s what. They may not be able to cure me but at least they’ll know how to treat my symptoms so I feel better more regularly. I’m going in March while my daughter is on Spring Break and I have a few days I can be gone without motherly responsibilities. I’ll need to save a little for hotel and gas money as the clinic is six hours away from me, but I’m tired of dealing with the doctors in Fargo who don’t care if they can’t throw some antibiotics at you and call it a day. I’ve been dealing with this for a very long time, and I hope this coming year I’ll see the last of it.

What’s next for 2024?

I’ll be editing my King’s Crossing series until I get them done and ready to publish. That’s my goal–getting them edited, creating covers I won’t have to change, and setting them up on BookSprout for reviews and putting them all on preorder. I plan to schedule them two months apart to give me twelve months to write more books. I was deleting some screenshots off my desktop and I remembered a standalone I wanted to write. I should maybe do that before I forget the plot. So, after I get my King’s Crossing books squared away, I’ll be taking two months to write that out. It will be nice to work on a simple project after six books anyway. I’ll need to go slow, it’s twisty, maybe one of the twistier books I’ll do, and I need to make sure I lay the breadcrumbs correctly. After I write that, then I plan to move into Mafia–I even have a plot rooting in my brain–but after my Mayo appointment, if I can get to feeling better, well, even if I can’t I just hope I don’t have to do this feeling the way I do, I need to look for a different job. I’ve been pretty transparent with my financial situation and only my ex-husband’s alimony and child support are keeping me afloat. That will run out at the end of 2024 and I am grown up enough to know I cannot make it on what my work pays me. My royalties are not steady enough nor enough enough (especially after ad spend) to fill in that financial gap. Once I get a different job, I really don’t know how I’ll feel about writing or how fast I’ll be able to still write books. I’m not a seven-, six-, or five-figure author. I’m a four-figure author who shoved 75% of her earnings back into her business. Instead of being scared of it, I’m trying to look forward to it. I’ve been with my job for twenty-three years and I need the change.

But, if we don’t add a career change to the mix, I’d like to publish my series, write my standalone, and write my Mafia books which may be a duet or a trilogy, we’ll see how the plotting ends up. Those won’t be released until 2025. I have one more standalone on my computer that I wrote in 2020, so if I clean that up and package it, that’s four/five books I have on the docket in 2025. After that, I really don’t know what will happen. I would love for my series to take off and I could drop down to a part-time job somewhere (or even keep my current job), but in terms of more books and ideas, after I write my Mafia duet/trilogy, I have two books written of a six-book series that I would like to finish. They aren’t as complicated as the series I’m working on now, and I don’t think they would take me long, I just need to plan out the four remaining books. I’m not excited about the project, though I would really hate to have those two books go to waste. I haven’t heard of the concept before and I think they could sell well. I just need the motivation to finish them. I like thinking ahead, but 2026 is just a little bit too far, even for me. In the meantime I’m going to deep dive into Facebook ads. TikTok did nothing for me short of just making me mad, but I may give it another try. I don’t spend enough time on there networking and commenting, nor am I reading the books that have blown up, and I need to do that if I want to have anything meaningful to contribute.

I always share this quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger: I will always stay hungry, never satisfied with current accomplishments. It’s a lot easier to stay hungry when you’ve had a taste of what’s possible.

Write books people want to read. Figure out an advertising platform that you like, that you’re willing to invest some time and money into learning. Save for a bit if you have to, be honest and make sure your book is advertising-ready. If it’s not, you’ll waste money and all you’ll do is blame the ad platform instead of yourself where the blame would really belong. You are always in control and you do yourself and your books a disservice when you act like you aren’t. Choices can be made and unmade. Mistakes can be fixed. Learn your craft, meet readers’ expectations of the genre you’re writing in, learn how to make covers if you can’t afford to hire out. People are so concerned about being different, but there is value in sameness. People are comfortable with what they know. Saying your book is “unique” or “different” isn’t the marketing spark you think it is. People shy away from change and they won’t try you if they think your book will be too far off from what they already like. Where would your book go in a bookstore? Write for that audience, find a way to push your book in front of that audience once your book is written. Their readers are yours–there’s no point reinventing the wheel. Someone already did that, so why make more work for yourself?

It’s possible to turn this into a career. What steps can you take in 2024 to do that? Stay hungry. Never give up. One day you’ll reap the rewards. You just have to hang on there long enough.

Happy 2024!