Cheers to 2022!

Did I accomplish my goal of publishing 12 full-length new books in 2021? No... Not at all. I did, however, publish ten new books, which is two more than the previous year. And I put out two boxsets, which don't count toward my goal, but are still awesome. 

This time, my goals for 2022 are simple... 

1) Start selling signed paperbacks. I hear this is popular with readers, and I've already ordered swag to go with it. A few readers have asked about it, but it's been so surreal to think that people actually want to buy signed books from me. So strange... Like I see my sales and page reads, but it's weird to think that I'm actually doing my dream of writing for a living, you know? So it was easy to put off, but Jo McCall, an awesome fellow dark romance author, inspired me to actually go for it. 

2) Write a free novella as an incentive to subscribe to my newsletter. It will probably be connected to the cigar/boot worship club from the Dangerous Command, and since it's a novella, it will likely be insta-love-ish. But it will also be spicy as hell and free, so... Anyway, offering a free book for a newsletter subscription is something a lot of authors do, and I'd like to do it too. It's just hard to think of working that hard on something and then giving it away for free... 😭

3) This next one is two-fold: Publish 8-10 new books this year, but also focus less on quantity, and focus more on quality. I now have a team of six beta readers. This started with Crawl, and I swear you can really tell how much having more feedback helps between edits. (If any of you are reading this, YOU ARE AMAZING!) I also spent more time on editing with Crawl, and based on the responses and reviews, it seems like it really paid off! 

4) Take social media seriously. TikTok is amazing, you guys. The SmutTok community is on point, and the power of social media is so real. But in conjunction with #3, I want to allot time each day for social media. So instead of focusing on four high-speed hours of writing and editing each day, getting out as much as I possibly can, I want to do three hours to three and a half hours of quality writing/editing, and  then use that extra time to really focus on connecting with my audience through social media. 

I also have a few personal goals for this year, as well.

5) Don't dye my hair for a whole year. I've been dying my hair since I was fifteen, but my hair started going gray recently. It's not much yet, but I'd like to be more comfortable with my natural hair color, so that by the time my daughter is old enough to really notice these things, she realizes it's totally okay to be comfortable with aging naturally. Lofty goals, I know. The you-must-look-young-to-be-a-woman thing is deeply ingrained in me... Plus it's hard to resist that box of pretty dye... But I'm hoping it'll work! (And my husband is the best. He is on board with this goal and prefers my natural color?! He said he likes the variation. He's so damn sweet.)

6) Eat healthier for my heart. I have borderline high cholesterol; it runs in the family. This goal is always on my mind, but like many others, I want to use the new year as a restart for that goal.

If you've read this far, thank you for sticking around and supporting my work. You have no idea how amazing it is to be writing dark romance for you. It's been my dream since I was in middle school, and it's here. :)

Cheers to 2022!