Haven't done an update in a while...
2017 has been quite the year. It started off pretty shitty. After being in a month long coma, a good friend died on New Year's Day. My marriage was in the toilet and ongoing health problems kicked it up a notch. I wasn't writing anything much less a romance.
In March a boxed set opportunity opened up and I grabbed it. It was going to release in October and I figured even with all the shit going on IRL, I could write at least write a novella in six months. I reached my goal and Hunter's Moon Rising will go off to a beta in the next week or two. But not without drama.
The boxed set is being put together by a person with quite the reputation on Kboards. In fact, drama seems to follow her around. Everywhere. Something I wish I had known before signing up, but there's nothing to do about it now. I don't know why there's so much drama around this woman and everything she does, but I'm not sorry about working with the other authors in the set. Without them I wouldn't have finished anything this year. Joining that boxed set was one of the best things I could have done. I mean, my health and marriage are still shit, but meds have helped the former, therapy is helping with the latter and at least I'm writing again. I've connected with some excellent people who have really helped keep me motivated, positive, and on track.
End of last year I was grabbing at any and all promo opps I could get my hands on in a mad dash to....well who knows because none of it really worked. This year started the same, but came to an abrupt halt when my computer gave up the ghost. After spending 800 bucks on a new one, I didn't have cash to throw around anymore. First of all, I put myself on a strict budget. No promo over $30. Second, focus on building the newsletter. It's been hard. REALLY HARD. When you're in author space and everyone's gushing about the results of such and such promo I constantly feel like I'm missing out. But so far I've stayed strong and within budget. A handful of inexpensive NL building promos and a book of shorts on InstaFreebie has earned me a healthy NL list of 4400. One third of those are engaged in opening and/or clicking. There's also 500 deadbeats who haven't opened or clicked a thing. We'll deal with those losers later.
I am not setting the self pub world on fire yet, but I've learned a lot this year which will become super useful after I have another book written. So, the goal for the rest of 2017 is to finish a first draft of the third book in the trilogy. Keep growing the NL. Stay away from expensive, shiny promo objects.