Hi all!
Seeing as it's now a new year, I thought I would tell you all about my writing goals for 2019!
Publishing Blood and Water.
Yes, I will be self publishing Blood and Water this year. I'm aiming for a Winter release so then I have time to do all the research I can. I don't want to mess this up at all, I want this to be as successful as possible. However, I've done a lot of work already! So far I have:
- Had it edited by a professional editor (who is amazing!).
- Created a website.
- Created a blog.
- Grown my Twitter page.
- Created my Facebook page.
- Created a Goodreads page.
- Started MailChimp (though I'm still struggling with getting a P.O. Box, which is the only thing holding me back from creating my mailing list. I'm hoping to sort that out in the next few weeks).
- Looked up copyright.
- Hired a cover designer (cover reveal in May I hope!).
- Bought loads of books about self publishing.
- Researched thoroughly.
Despite all of that though, I've still got a long way to go. I started 2018 hoping to go down the traditional publishing route, but now I'm doing the opposite. It's terrifying, my anxiety keeps trying to tell me to stop but I'm not going to. Although it's going to be stressful, I hope it will be worth it in the long run. Writing is one of the only things I'm good at and I don't want to fail.
Write two books.
I'm setting a goal this year to write two books. One will be Nirvana, my YA sci-fi about a virus that doesn't kill you, but gives you the opportunity to bite more people to reach the afterlife. The other will be the last installment in the Elemental Dragons series: Cinder and Fire. Although I'm sad to have reached the end of this series, I'm so glad that I wrote it. Who knows, this might not even be the last book set in that universe!
Get Venom and Earth professionally edited.
The second book in my Elemental Dragons series need a to be looked over by an editor, so once I've done a bit more polishing I'll send it off.
Self edit Glass and Ice.
I haven't touched this book since NaNoWriMo, so it really needs some editing. I'm sure it's a terrible first draft but I'm hoping I can turn it into something great.
Decide which WIP to start next.
I have a bunch of ideas, and I'm hoping to decide which one to start once Cinder and Fire is done. Nirvana is the first in a trilogy so I'm going to continue that, but I also want another WIP to write on the side. So far my ideas are:
- YA Historical Fantasy trilogy.
- YA dystopian standalone.
- YA dystopian/sci-fi standalone.
- NA sci-fi standalone.
- NA paranormal mystery standalone.
As you can see I have a lot of ideas so you can expect loads of books from me! I have three series planned: Elemental Dragons (YA fantasy - four books), Damaged Goods (YA Historical Fantasy - three books) and Bitten (YA sci-fi - three books). So I'll be writing a mix of series and standalone, but I just need to decide which one to start next!
Take part in NaNoWriMo again.
I loved doing it last year, and I want to take part again this year! I'll probably be writing Cinder and Fire but it depends on whether I start it earlier in the year or not.
That's it for this week, I hope you all have a successful year with your writing! Stick around next week for when I talk about how not to query an agent/publisher. Just because I'm going down the self publishing route doesn't mean that I won't help those that want to be traditionally published as well.