Aaaaand it's 2018! 2018, people. Where is the time going? I feel like life is just zipping by, and before I know it, I'll be 70 years old and totally stunned at what I see in the world. Lol. Anyway, it's time for another yearly declaration!
2015 was The Year I Say No.
2016 was The Year I Give No Fucks.
2017 was The Year I Have Fun.
Originally, my 2018 was going to be “The Year I Focus On Me,” but after running that title past a few people, I realized that it sounded a little selfish. Me, me, me. Am I right?
So instead, 2018 will be The Year I Don't Compete.
This is the year I won't look at anyone else's career in relation to my own. I'm going to do what I want to do, when and how I want to do it, and no one is going to sway me to do it differently. I'm going to learn my own lessons because that's what I need to do. I can't keep looking at other authors' successes and their lessons and think they apply to me. In most cases, they don't. After four years of trying to mimic what other people are doing, it's time to set my own pace, my own platform, and not look for the magic spell that'll make everything work. It doesn't exist. The only thing that'll work for me is developing my platform and hard work.
I'm sure you won't find that a surprise coming from this Capricorn. Lol.
With that in mind, here are my goals for 2018!
Writing Goals
I will publish 3 books this year – 1 cozy, 2 sci-fi. The cozy is publishing in two weeks. The sci-fi books will be in spring and fall, most likely. There may be more things published, but this is the bare minimum I'm promising. Because…
I will write in a new series. I have this idea I want to write about, and I've had it brewing for over a year now. I actually sent it as a proposal to Radish, but they rejected me, so now I get to do with it what I want. And I'm not sure if it's going to be a series of ebooks or something different. We shall see.
I will participate in NaNoWriMo in November again, and Camp NaNoWriMo in April. I want four months this year where I do consistent first-draft writing. I'm currently aiming for February, April, July, and November. If I have more than that, I'll be pleased.
Advertising, Marketing, Blog, and Social Media Goals
I will start a niche website Love Japanese Fiction. This will be a website that focuses on Japan-related or Japanese fiction in the English language. So translations from Japanese are also included. Books about Japan or Japanese people can be written by anyone, Japanese or otherwise. This will give me a chance to find more like-minded authors and help promote them as well as my own work. This website will be at LoveJapaneseFiction.com.
I will continue to advertise and spend money on both promotions and ads. This worked out well for me this year. Steady ads on AMS with sporadic Facebook ads. I won't be spending money on list building, only sales.
I will be raising my prices on some books. I've been undervaluing some of my longer works. Prices will go up in mid-January for books longer than 90,000 words. Some paperback prices will also go up.
I will be using Kindle Unlimited strategically and only when it's truly working for me. This means that the Hikoboshi books will be coming out of Kindle Unlimited (they never hit their income goals I had set for them) early this year, and FACE TIME will be going into Kindle Unlimited as it only sold one copy wide this year. More on this in mid-January.
I will spend less time on social media. I have goals for Facebook in that I want to stop reading the comments on Public/Page Posts where all the toxic assholes exist. I also want to spend more time away from Facebook and reading more. Twitter will continue to be relegated to the automated bots. Keep up with my Instagram postings and interact more there. That's about it.
I will blog more. I'm already blogging more now that I'm not doing a newsletter anymore. I will keep it up all year.
I will do at least one discussion post per month. I want my blog to be a place where we can discuss book-related stuff, so I'll be looking for discussion topics once a month. I'm aiming for posting them around the 20th of every month.
I will develop a new method of income. I have two ideas here to develop more methods of income either from my writing or my writing expertise. Both of which I'm just brainstorming right now, so this goal is a little nebulous.
Personal Goals
I will read more. I did not read enough this year and that's because I got discouraged with all the crap I kept trying to read and then hating. But I'm going to work on not being discouraged and moving onto better books so I can keep reading.
I will listen to 30+ audiobooks. If you missed it, I declared my intention to continue with the audiobook challenge this year and listen to 30 books. I have increased the pace of my books to 2x and I hope to listen to more of them.
I will walk 1000 miles in 2018. This was a great goal in 2017. I want to do it again this year!
I will lift weights twice a week – Tues and Thurs. I have these DVDs that I love that let me concentrate on an area for 10 min. I'm going to do 2 10-min sessions, Tuesday and Thursday each week, probably arms and abs.
I will finish the shawl I'm knitting and knit another one. This is self-explanatory. Gotta keep knitting!
I will meditate more. This is something I've seen other people doing and I'm intrigued. I'm totally a Capricorn in the fact that meditation feels like “lost time” though I know it's not. I want to start with once a week and work my way up. If you have meditation recommendations, please leave them in the comments.
And that's it! I think this is plenty to get me started in 2018. Phew! I'm already tired. ;)
Nice goals! Mine are similar, publish 2 books, blog once a month, get back into working out 3 times a week, and finish some of my yarn projects already on the hook/needle. We got this. <3
Oh we’re so on the same wavelength! I love it! I hope you’ll share some of your yarny projects. I love seeing what other people are making. :)
Not competing is essential for peace of mind. I gave up checking other author’s rankings a long time ago.
Oh yes. I definitely am not looking at other author rankings. Sometimes their successes were right in front of my face because they shared them in FB author groups, but I left most of those groups this year. So I’m hoping that without temptation, I will be able to better manage this. Not only that, but I’ve also reached a point where I can say, “Good for you,” and just move on. It used to rankle me. It doesn’t anymore.
Faith Hunter. She has a 30-Day Meditation challenge. The longest one is like 12 minutes. You can find it on DoYouYoga or on You Tube.
Thanks, Tracy! I’ll check it out!!
The meditation practice I most enjoy is running (or walking) so that I can count steps (silently) to a nasal breathing rhythm of IN-2-3-4-5, OUT-4-3-2-1 etc.
The odd count (5+4) lets the cycle alternate between left and right leg lead and the nasal breathing means I automatically run (or jog, these days!) within my cardio limits i.e. if I go too fast then the urge to mouth breathe kicks in and I know to drop the pace a bit.
It is also relaxing in somewhat stressful situations because I can do it standing in a queue or on a commuter train at rush hour and replace movement with contracting and relaxing each limb in turn.
On the writing front, I shall return to my blogging roots, as well as entering the world of twitter on a more organized basis. Botland, I know. I shall see what can be learned a year from now.
I like your meditation idea for walking and breathing. I’ve done exercises like that before in yoga and it’s always been nice! I’m glad to hear more authors returning to blogging. I think it’s so much more helpful in the long run. Happy New Year!
That sounds like a good goal for 2018! Sometimes it’s so hard to not look at what others are doing, but I do think just focusing on what works for you is the best course of action. I hope 2018 will be an awesome year for you. And I am looking forward to the books you’re going to publish this year! Oh and a new series idea? That sounds exciting, can’t wait to hear more about that. I just started reading the Daydreamer Detective Returns a Favor this morning.
I am curious to hear more of that new website you’re launching. Sounds fun!
I’ve also been thinking about prices, for now I switched my cover reveals from free to paid, as it was just taking up too much time to keep doing them for free and even now they’re still cheap for the amount of effort that goes into them.
I am happy to hear that you’ll be blogging more and start doing discussion posts as I always enjoy reading your posts. You have some nice person al goals set as well. I hope you’ll succeed with most of these goals in 2018!
I’m excited for 2018 as well, and I think I’m on the right track with my desires for my career and what I can expect. Yeah, I’m planning a new series, another sci-fi series. I pitched it to Radish a while back but they sent me to the rejection pile, so I’m going to start writing it for myself this year. I’d like it to be shorter works in a longer series, so we’ll see how it goes!
Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to visiting your blog as well this year. :)
A new series and a new website, how exciting! I’m looking forward to your discussion posts :-) Also I love your Grumpy(?) shirt, I need that lol. Good luck with your goals!
Yep, Grumpy. I identify with him. Lol. That was one of the shirts I got at Disney this past summer. :) And I’m excited for all the fun stuff this year too! Happy New Year to you!
“I will develop a new method of income.”
Do you need money? Do you want money?
I’m always looking for more ways to stay in the black with my work and writing.
I use an app called Insight Timer to meditate, and love it. It’s fall free and has hundreds of guided meditations on there, as well as a timer if you just want to do your own thing. I’m not overly consistent, but am trying to build it in to my mornings.
Also I think The Year I Focus On Me doesn’t sound selfish! I think we should focus on ourselves and then we have more to give to other people. Or maybe I am just a selfish cow! Just my two cents worth :)
Good luck with all your goals and I look forward to the new website as it sounds interesting.
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