This week, we finished off the first month of 2023 and began another. How is your progress coming along? I know it's only been a month, but January can set the tone for how the rest of the year unfolds.
For me, it wasn't the record-breaking month I was looking for. However, I was more productive than my average month in 2022. So, I'd call that a win. Especially since I am still on track to write more than a million words throughout this year.
That is as long as I can keep myself productive.
Self-Imposing "Deadlines"
As I want to continue with other projects soon, I'm imposing deadlines for my current WIPs. This includes VII and Kingmaker. It's such a pain to work on two books simultaneously throughout the week, especially as they are completely different genres.
Not to mention not having a lot of time to spend working on the books, to begin with. Still, I'm hoping that having a deadline will light a fire under my butt.
For these deadlines, I am setting them up to be realistic according to the time I have available. At the very latest, I want both books to be done by the end of March. Though, at the current rate of progress, I should have one or the other done long before then.
The idea of a deadline is to simply keep me focused on what I want to accomplish as well as having a daily goal.
I tell you what, though, this is the last time I try to write two books at the same time. Splitting my available time like that has postponed the release of both.
Published to Draft2Digital
One of the things I wanted to do this year was to try out new platforms, tools, and services. This week, I dumped a bit of time into Draft2Digital. It's a distribution service for your books that helps you reach more than 10 eBook platforms, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Although it doesn't have the reach of something like IngramSpark, it's free. Draft2Digital just takes a 10% cut of anything you make. In fact, you could go so far as to distribute free books on the platform if you wish.
Personally, I'd rather register and set up each account on these platforms on my own. But that takes an incredible amount of time and then trying to market each one individually.
As I just started using Draft2Digital, I'm not sure how well it works. I haven't made any sales yet, but I haven't really pushed the landing page, either. No one is going to buy the book if they don't know it exists. So, I'm going to try a few things with Draft2Digital in February.
In case you're curious, you can take a look at the Draft2Digital landing page for A Freelancer's Tale.
Postponing Atticus Review
I was really hoping to buy the writing tool, Atticus, this month so I could review and share my experiences. Unfortunately, I had a few expenses come up that I didn't have planned. For one thing, I had to spend a couple of hundred dollars fixing my daughter's laptop. And I'm still trying to scrape up about $250 for each daughter to have letterman's jackets.
It's expensive to have teenagers.
On the plus side, AdSense is pulling in a bit more money than average. In fact, I had the best month ever in terms of income for the second month in a row. I'm sure the fire is out as certain first-of-the-year trends die off. Still, it's nice to see the blogs generating a bit more each month.
If this keeps up, I should have no problem buying Atticus in March.
Not a Bad Start to February
All things considered, this week was actually a decent start to the month. I doubt I'll shatter any of my previous records, especially given that February is the shortest month of the year. Yet, there is still quite a bit I can accomplish. And the more work I put in, the greater things become.
It all comes down to effort. If you're not putting in the time, you can't expect great things to happen.
What are your plans for the month to boost your career?