The End is Near

LOL, just the end of 2024... it's not the end of the world.  Well, not that I know of.  Anyway, all weirdness aside, I think today's a good day to wrap up the year.

Let's see... When 2024 started, I was working a full-time job as a office grunt.  It was a good job.  It certainly wasn't one where I was bored.  Okay, sometimes in the afternoon when the craziness of the morning toned down, I'd find myself at loose ends.  But I'd always find something work related to do.  A lot of those times were spent doing training to make myself better at my job.  I 'retired' from there at the beginning of June.  So, basically, those first five months were a blur and not really noteworthy.

The real year began when I stopped working.  Of course, I realized that two years of sitting at a desk, answering phones and putting out fires had left me with both body and creativity atrophied.  I spent a lot of time this year trying to rebuild my stamina.  I'd get it going and then something would happen and I'd backslide, but all in all, I'm better now than I was then, so yay.

One thing that happened was in July, Silver James and I challenged each other in a kind of NaNoWriMo type thing.  We vowed to each other and ourselves that we would do something writerly every day, just to get some kind of prime on our pumps.  And it worked.  She's over there busting her hump.  She got the book - MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON - she'd been working on out into the world.  I wrote the next book in the Duke Noble series.  (Coming soon, I hope.)  Okay, so after I finished the first draft of that, I got a crisis of confidence... code for I was a toad... and didn't really accomplish much in the writerly department.  I'm working on that for the year ahead.  No promises, but I'd like to write at least a couple books this year and get them published.  Which means getting off my ass.  START TODAY!

Another thing that happened was being home all day with access to food and without the stress and activity of work meant I gained 13 lbs this year.  Oops.  I'll be working on that this year, too.  Or, at  least, if I don't lose weight I'll keep it from gaining.

In happy news, all of our family - both his and mine - are alive and mostly well.  The cats are thriving.  Hubs and I are well, and our love is as strong as ever.  Stronger maybe.  Despite the trials that come with being a non-'payjob'-working individuals, everything is good.  Roof over our heads, food in our bellies, working vehicles, satellite TV and now Starlink internet.  Life is good.

Nothing much else to talk about.  I said it was a year.  I didn't promise it was exciting.  ;o)

Here's to a happy and productive, non-stressful year for us all.  I know I certainly have more optimism at the start of 2025 than I had at the beginning of 2024.  Yay.  Have a great New Year's Eve, everyone.  If you join in the revelry, stay safe.  If not, enjoy your quiet night at home like I will be.  

Happy New Year!

Marketing Monday - a Year-End Wrap-up

Since I'm not marketing anything at the moment, I thought today would be a good time to wrap-up what went on with this year's marketing.

Obviously, with the day-job for the first five months, no marketing was accomplished.  I sold 9 books January thru May, which is better than nothing but not by much.  Once I 'retired' again, I got to work.  Okay, so I didn't 'get to work' per se.  I started doing stuff to see if I could generate some sales.  Thus June and July were still pretty slow.

Here's how the last 7 months of 2024 played out...

June and July... I gave away 134 books and sold 4 for a whopping $9.42.

August went way better.  I gave away 179 books and sold 13.01, pulling in $13.29 for that one month.

September wasn't that great.  I gave away 169, but only sold 7.51 and made $6.21.

October was a bust for actually making money, but I moved a lot of books.  247 given away, but only 2.56 sold for $3.89.  November was pretty much the same - loads moved but less than $3 earned.

December, on the other hand, has been better.  I gave away more books - a whopping 284, as a matter of fact - but I'm seeing pages reads and purchases from my previous marketing efforts.  Of course, it's not much in the scheme of things and the actual sales side.  I've sold about 12 books for just under $18.  

All in all, I've sold almost twice as many books this year as last year for nearly three times as much money.  Woot.  Okay, so the money didn't even reach $100, but you have to take whatever wins comes your way sometimes, eh? 

And all of that without spending a dime on advertising, which makes it all pure profit.  Woot.  Sure, I gave away 1250 books in 2024.  Of course that hurts my capitalist heart.  But sometimes you have to give a little to get a little.  

I don't know what this next year will bring with regard to sales and marketing.  More of the same?  Keep whipping out the freebies and pimping the books in FB posts, plus some paid ads?  Time will tell.  I also hope to publish more books and get those sales going again.  To that end, I'm getting closer to having the second Duke Noble book published by the end of January / early February.  Then I'll work on the third.  Or maybe I'll take a break and work on the next Shroudlands book.  We'll see.

Anyway, I hope you found this post interesting.  If you have any questions about the actual marketing, feel free to ask.  Or if you're not sure about asking, search the blog for the term 'marketing' and read all the posts I've done on that subject.  

Have a great day.  And remember... START TODAY.

Sunday Update - Week Last One of 2024

Okay, so it was the last full week of 2024 and things happened...

First off, per Friday's post, I did the whole Start Today thing.  To that end, I edited every day for the past three days and got 13 more pages edited.  Considering I went 22 days since the last time I edited, it's a win.  I still have about 50 pages to get through.  The manuscript is now at 55461 words - up about 8000 since I finished the first draft.

No new words or marketing this week.  I'll do more marketing after the first of the year.  And I'll definitely do some more writing.  Yay.

I'm also pretty much set on the number of books finished in 2024.  I finished at 36, which isn't bad considering.  Next year, I'll set a goal of reading 5 books per month.  Easy and totally not overwhelming.  If I need to up the goal later in the year, I will.  

Last week, I baked a pumpkin cheesecake, cinnamon rolls, and a loaded lasagna.  The only thing left is cinnamon rolls.  We decimated the rest.

Activity is another area where I'm hitting the Start Today thing.  I walked Friday and Saturday with Hubs.  We did about 1.8 miles.  It's a start.  Do something active every day... starting today.  I haven't weighed myself since 12/21 but then I was at 174.0.  Not great, but I'm not whipping myself over it either.  

Oh yeah, Christmas was this past week...  Well, we didn't really do anything out of the ordinary except eat lasagna, pumpkin cheesecake, and cinnamon rolls.  We don't get each other gifts, per se.  This year's gift was Starlink for both of us.  It's totally worth it.  The tree still looks pretty as seen on my Christmas post.  We have loads of cards underneath it.  I'll take it down after 1/1/25.  

I think that's probably about it.  I'll do some kind of wrap-up posts for the year or something in the coming days.  Until then, enjoy the last few days of 2024 and get ready for a bright and shiny 2025.

How was your last week of '24?

I almost forgot.  We weighed the cats for their 2-year birthdays.  Sawyer was at 17 pounds 6 ounces.  Finn was at 13 pounds 1 ounce.  Neither of them are fat cats.  I mean, Sawyer's a moose, but he's not chubby.  Finn's thin by comparison but he's also tall.  Who would've thunk that they'd be this huge when they were just little bitty kitties?  

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 12/28/24

It's the last wrap-up of the year.  Sorry it is more exciting.

No new books this week.

Books Read: 

I didn't finish any books this week.

DNFs: 

12/21/24 - cozy mystery old paperback - no, not the same one I had on the DNF list last week.  I DNF'd that one early in the day and this one late in the day.  I wanted to like it, but sadly, I couldn't make it past the first few pages.  Bleh and meh and a little derp.

Currently reading... I've been reading CHILD STAR - the autobiography of Shirley Temple Black.  It's not a fast read, but it is an interesting one.  I expect this book to carry me through into next year.

What's been on your reading list for this past week?

Start Today

Start today.  Whatever it is.  Whatever you want.  Start today working toward your goal.  You don't have to wait until the New Year.  You don't have to wait until Monday.  You don't have to wait until the beginning or the ending of anything.  If you want it, start today.

Personally, I've been slacking on my work.  If you've followed along on my Sunday Update posts, you'll see that I have done much of anything (except marketing) for a while now.  My book notes have been sitting here next to me all that time, untouched and ignored.  I started last night.  I sat down here after dinner and opened the manuscript.  I read a little bit of it to get back in the groove and then I got back to work.  

Start today.  Every day.  So what if I started last night?  I'll start today, too.  Every new day is an opportunity to start again.  Last night, I started back to editing.  Today, I'll start making this two days in a row.  Tomorrow, I'll start making it a habit.  

I also need to start exercising again.  I'll get back to my 'do something active everyday' starting today.  Even if I just ride the bike for 5 minutes, it'll be a start.  

There's nothing stopping you.  Or me.  Or any of us.  

What are you starting today?

Thursday This n That

I hope y'all had a lovely Christmas and got all the goodies you were wanting.  

You know those little cups you get with a bottle of cough syrup?  I have a bunch of those, so I gave two to the cats.  Apparently, best Christmas gift ever.  Yes, I am a wee bit of a hoarder.  Which is why I have a stack of like ten cough syrup cups in my medicine cabinet.  Hey, if I think it could come in useful one day, I keep it.  Lo and behold, these came in useful because they are now entertaining the cats.  Those two disappear or get chewed, I'll throw them out and get two more.  Tada.

My Christmas Lasagna turned out awesome.  Layers of sauce, noodles, a ricotta/cottage cheese/parm mixture, a ground beef & pork mixture, Portobello mushrooms... All topped with mozzarella and baked to a golden brown.  Mmmm.  And it's even better as leftovers - which is good because we have a LOT of leftovers.  Not your typical Christmas fare, but it worked for us.

Last night's Call the Midwife Christmas special was awesome.  There's just something about that show that gives me a happy.

I know it's Thursday, but it feels like Monday.

We have this new-to-me channel - Blossom.  It's a little bit eco-freako, but it has a couple good shows on it.  One that I've become a little addicted to is Space Invaders.  It's a cross between a renovation show and Hoarders.  They take a family with a clutter problem, take all of their stuff to a warehouse and while the family is going through all their stuff to get rid of what they don't need, the show renovates their home to make it more livable.  And it's all in Australia, which is cool for me, too.  Another show that I can't quite remember the title of is about people building their dream homes in the country.  In the UK.  Also, cool.

Yes, I have a problem with frittering my time away on TV shows when I should be doing something productive.  I need a self-intervention.  Maybe I'll work on that for the next week and see if I can't start the New Year with a better attitude.  That'd be good.  Right?

Okay, enough about me.  What's up with you?

Merry Christmas

From my house to yours, I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas...

and a Happy Hanukkah, too.  Or Happy whatever you celebrate that makes you happy and brings peace into your world.  

It's quiet at the Sanderson household this morning.  Well, quiet other than Finn playing with the packing paper and his 'rolling ball on a track' thing.  Sawyer's sleeping.  I hope all is quiet and peaceful at your homes today, too.  :hugs: