new year’s resolution and 2013 stats

This year’s resolution is to write 500 words a day – that’s 1/3 of what I normally churn out a day during Nanowrimo, which makes it much more attainable.  I have several other writing-related goals for 2014:

• to finish and publish Dreamwalkers
• to finalize the print edition of Hitchhikers and offer a giveaway or two
• (if goal #1 happens) to finish and publish Scavengers
• and to possibly finish some of my other works-in-progress, including Blood Countess and another new WIP that I haven’t even added to the site yet!

So far, on this the 5th day of the new year, I am only now sitting down to write.  It was sort of excusable for me not to be writing, given that on the 1st I was traveling, had to work on the 2nd-4th which included a blizzard.  But I probably could have written.  And I didn’t.  Not good!  I am vowing to catch up!  Which means putting my “Teen Wolf” marathon on hold for the moment…

My other, non-writing-related goals:

• be able to do a handstand away from the wall and hold for 10 seconds (I am close to being able to hold it next to the wall, the next step is to move away!)
• be able to do more than 3 straddle ups in a row (in aerial silks)
• practice yoga more often
• read down my Goodreads to-read list (currently I have 148 books “to-read” which is kind of ridiculous)
• sew more of my own clothes

In general I want to live the lifestyle that makes me happy.  When I’m not writing I get grumpy.  I want to be able to do things and not get bogged down in mindless activities like playing Candy Crush Saga or feeling like I “have” to do certain things.  I enjoy my alone time and I need to allow myself to have time for myself.  My writing will hopefully benefit most from it!

In a major procrastinatory event, I decided to make a spreadsheet to see how many copies of Bethany Caleb, The Art Kids, and Hitchhikers have been downloaded or sold.  Even though I’d been checking the various reports on Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords, I was amazed by the results!

• 101 copies of Bethany Caleb
• over 200 copies of The Art Kids
• 825 copies of Hitchhikers – WHAT!!!

If you didn’t read my post comparing KDP and Smashwords, I think these totals say it all.  Bethany Caleb and The Art Kids are only available on Amazon, which accounts for a little less than half of the total downloads of Hitchhikers, which I published via Smashwords, making it available to ebook outlets such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Sony.  Barnes & Noble is a biggie.  Granted, Hitchhikers was free for all of 2013 and the other two were only free for approximately 15 days scattered throughout.

Although, if you look at “royalties” rather than downloads (e.g. when people actually paid money for my work!):

• 6 copies of Bethany Caleb
• 21 copies of The Art Kids
• 3 copies of Hitchhikers

For me, it isn’t really about earning money at this point.  I just like knowing that somewhere out there, people are reading my work.