Goodness, 2023 is coming to a close, which makes some people reflect on goals and hopes that we had wished to accomplish this year along with looking ahead to 2024 and figuring out new goals, hopes, and dreams as well as wanting to bring missed goals or hopes from 2023 to fruition. With all this being said, I hope we all accomplish what we want in 2024 and then some.
With that out of the way, let me go into what I've accomplished writing and author-wise in 2023:
- Finished first-round of edits on the 1st book for my new short-novel/novella series.
- Started the 2nd book for that series.
- Moved my site from Wix to Webwave.
- Started editing Fate Unseen, the 2nd book for the Avery Lawson series.
- Outlined several new stories
- Went to The GCLS conference in June.
And I'm sure I did other things, but I can't recall them. I'm thinking about picking up journaling in 2024 to help me keep track of things and feelings, but we'll see. It might help me when I'm in my pit of despair. While the above list definitely isn't everything I've done in 2023, it does give me some perspective. A lot of what I did in 2023 has set me up to release a book or two in 2024. So, I'm super excited for that to happen.
Also happening in 2024 is my newsletter. Bringing that back because as I once said, the world of social media is such a shit show, so between blogging and putting out a newsletter, I'm hoping to establish a central location where people can get news and updates from me. Same goes with my website, but anything on it will be more of a high-level overview and nothing too in-depth.
My first newsletter will be pretty much a re-introduction of myself. Might do a giveaway, and this, that, and the other. Something new I want to implement is a coupon code in every newsletter. While most of my books are available for next to nothing, I'd like to implement coupon codes for my newsletter subscribers. Another reason for this is that with the exception of the Avery Lawson and Detective Miller series, all my future releases will be distributed through Smashwords or my Ko-Fi page, and not Amazon. I'm hoping by rolling out monthly coupons codes I'll be able to get some traffic to them. It'll be a surprise for how much the discounts will be.
Expect my first newsletter to be out at the end of January, and I'm hoping to stay with the same cadence for the rest of them.
First release of 2024 is going to be Outside The Game. I'm aiming for a Spring release. Fingers crossed. After that, I will more than likely release the second book of the Detective Miller series, which is titled Grisly Politics, late in 2024. It's an ambitious scheduled for me considering from 2020 to 2023 I didn't put anything out. Granted I should give myself a break since I've put out 4 books from 2016 to 2019. It's a roller coaster on how I feel about my level of releasing books.
That's where my thoughts are at the moment. Anywho, here are some useful links you should bookmark, favorite, or save on a notepad somewhere. My Ko-Fi page, sign-up for my newsletter, and My Smashwords page.
Hope everyone had a good holiday season, and y'all have a good new year, all right? Let's make 2024 our bench!
As always please review, rate, and recommend the books you read along, especially those books released by indie, self-pubbed, and niche authors. There are some good ones out there, and people aren't going to know about them until you let others know about it.
Until next time....
-DJ Small
