Publishing Goals for 2020

Since I haven’t posted in a while, we are grossly overdue for a writing update. I’ve pretty much been off the grid in the writing community since October, other than to work on a couple of client jobs for some very understanding people who were willing to work around my crazy schedule.

As many of you know, my daughter was born late in October. She was six weeks early and diagnosed with Trisomy 21 shortly after she was born. She spent five weeks in the NICU and, due to complications with my health and a minor surgery for her, we have both been in and out of the hospital for almost four months. Thankfully, things seem to be finally settling down. Little Sophie Kathryn is starting to grow (up to a whopping ten pounds, eleven ounces). She’s on a feeding tube and is doing physical therapy to help her strengthen and learn how to coordinate swallowing so that we can, hopefully, wean her onto a bottle one day. I’ll share a couple of pictures just for cuteness.

My Writing Plans This Year

So, before I found I was pregnant, I had great plans for 2019-2020. I was going to publish the last three books in the Neverway Chronicles, as well as the second book in The Whitby Tales and the third book in the Timeless Nativity Series, a When Ravens Fall short story, a 12 Dancing Princesses retelling…

Then…LIFE HAPPENED, PEOPLES…and that plan went up in smoke.

Poof.

So what AM I planning on publishing this year, you may ask?

The answer is…probably nothing.

Cringes.

I KNOW. I’m heartbroken to leave everyone hanging in the middle of all these series (because I can’t sit down and just write one thing at a time…I gotta have my fingers in all the pots with all the pretty stories)

But the truth is…I’m just so burnt out. I have no creativity. I’m barely keeping up with my cover design and editing clients. And, quite frankly, I need to reevaulate and prioritize my publishing plans.

Why?

That’s an amazing question, thank you so much for asking. Publishing is not cheap, traditionally or as an Indie author. There is so much that goes into a book: several rounds of editing, book covers, proof copies, advertising and marketing, prizes…and those are just the big things. There are a dozen little things that add up as well.

And some of my books just don’t sell. My worst selling series is The Neverway Chronicles, which saddens me to no end because it is the HARDEST series to write, and one that I truly LOVE, and I feel it’s such an imaginative world with great characters and so much promise. But for some reason, this series doesn’t sell half as well as my other books and I spend twice as much time writing and editing them. I had planned to write a total of five more books in this series. Two are already written, just waiting to be edited and published. I have already commissioned a cover for an expanded edition of “Wither,” the prequel to the series which I had planned to turn into an entire spinoff series revolving around Briarstone Abbey…think Jane Eyre and gargoyles and mystery and foggy castle grounds. YES. I just said I have commissioned someone else to do this cover for me. I’m so excited to allow someone else to do the work on this one.

But when I look at my writing budget…I’m not sure I can justify putting my valuable time and money into publishing an entire series of books that just don’t sell.

So you see my dilemma.

I’m not ready to give up on the Neverway yet. My plans for 2020 are to REEVALUATE AND WRITE. I’m not planning to publish anything at this point. I want to spend this year adjusting to being a mom to two beautiful girls, one of them with special needs that requires huge chunks of my time and energy, the other a precocious three-year-old who just wants to have her mommy’s undivided attention. I want to look at my writing schedule and write the books I WANT TO WRITE. The ones I am INSPIRED to write. The ones that will hopefully sell that I can write MORE books I am inspired to write. Not just write the ones I have to write because they’re on the list. I’m hoping that giving myself these liberties will free my creative juices and allow me to bust out a couple of manuscripts that can be turned into published novels next year.

I know this is sad news to many. But rest assured, I’m not giving up. I’m merely taking a deep breath.

I’d like to open up the floor to you, my readers, to weigh in on what projects I should be writing this year. Is there a particular book you’re DYING to get your hands on? Why? What about this particular series resonates with you? Is it a character? The story idea? I’ll make a list of the potential stories on my list.