the writing goals of 2014
Last year, I wrote a post detailing my writing goals for 2014. Let’s look back and see how many of them I met!
“At least two or three more THE GHOSTS books.”
Success! GHOST IN THE COWL, GHOST IN THE MAZE, and GHOST IN THE HUNT, and I wrote the rough draft of GHOST IN THE RAZOR.
“At least two or three more FROSTBORN books.”
Success! FROSTBORN: THE MASTER THIEF, FROSTBORN: THE IRON TOWER, and FROSTBORN: THE DARK WARDEN. I also wrote the second half of FROSTBORN: THE UNDYING WIZARD in January of 2014.
“Return to DEMONSOULED. I’ve been bashing my head against the wall for a year trying to figure out what to do next, but I think I have it at last. More on that later.”
Success! I wrote MASK OF SWORDS and published it at the end of November 2014.
“Return to THE THIRD SOUL.”
Did not do this one, alas. I think writing three series simultaneously might be too much even for me.
“In 2012 I wrote 530,000 words, and in 2013 I wrote 863,000 new words. So in 2014, I’d like to see if I can push that up to one million words. This might not be doable, but I shall like to try. (Of course, reaching the first four goals will help with this. Synergy!”
I almost did it. In 2014, I wrote about 930,000 new words.
“A tech book. I didn’t write any new tech books in 2013, but I would like to do one. My new website, Computer Beginner’s Guides, should help with that.”
Success! I wrote WINDOWS 8.1: 101 TIPS AND TRICKS and UBUNTU: 101 TIPS AND TRICKS
“6 books available in print by the holidays of 2014. I’ve found it’s best not to think of them as “print books”, but as “holiday gift editions”. So, I hope to have 16 of my books available as “holiday gift editions” by the holidays of 2014.”
Success! 19 of my books are available in print right now.
“I’m hoping to get another book in the Top 100 for Epic Fantasy, since GHOST IN THE FLAMES & GHOST IN THE BLOOD made it into the Top 100 on Thanksgiving Day.”
-I didn’t do that one. I changed tactics, instead, and decided it was better to have my books sitting higher in a less trafficked Amazon bestseller list than lower on more popular one. It’s better to have a book that’s #5 on a less visible list than at #79 in the more competitive ones. Not too many people scroll down to #79.
“I hope to reach 1,000 total subscribers for my New Release Newsletter. Subscribe here!“
Success! The mailing list is at 1,320 subscribers as of this writing.
“Sell a thousand copies of a one book in an individual month.”
Success! I did that a couple times, most notably with FROSTBORN: THE DARK WARDEN, which sold over 1,200 copies its first month.
“Have more books available on Google Play. I’ve heard rumblings that Google Play is growing as a market for ebooks, which makes sense, as there are something like a billion Android phones floating around out there.”
Success! Most of my books are available on Google Play, and I’ve been selling about 200 copies a month there. And I’ve learned all kinds of things about foreign currency. I had no idea that the currency of South Africa was called the “rand”, or that Sweden was not on the euro.
So, all in all, I’d say 2014 was a pretty successful writing year. Later this week I’ll lay out my goals for 2015.
-JM