2023 was a whirlwind of a year for me. It stretched me in so many ways. Some of those were good, some were too much. It is also the year of social media for me. This is going to be kind of a long post, with several data tables. This is totally my type of thing, but for you? Well, you’ve been warned.

Leading with the numbers that matter most, I had a record year in sales, even though I didn’t publish a book in 2023. I went to sixteen comic cons, seven of which were over 350 miles away. My thought was that I needed to expand to a more regional role. I don’t think this is wrong, just wrong for where I’m at in my writing career. I hope to retire in 2027 from my day job. This would be a great strategy then, when I have the time and hopefully a dozen books to sell. In 2024, I’m scaling back to 11 comic cons, and only three are out of state. This gives me much more time to write and to increase my presence on social media. Speaking of social media . . ..

I started a Twitter account, which is great for connecting to the writer’s community (I stay away from politics!), I joined several Discord servers that cater to authors, book reviewers and readers. My buddy and fellow author, Roe Bushey, and I started our own YouTube channel and in general, I’ve made myself more accessible. All of this is good, but to an introvert like me, It’s a lot to digest. I’m going to focus my efforts on becoming more emmeshed in the writer’s Twitter space, producing more YouTube interviews and actually using this blog page. If I do these things, the followers/subscriber numbers will come. So I’m focused on what I can do, not the stats. I’m trying to decide what, if anything to do with Facebook, which means I’ll dither throughout the year. Finally for my book reviews on Amazon and Goodreads as well as newsletter subscribers, the best thing I can do is to publish more books. I’m fairly confident that I will get three out in 2024.

In addition to my dive into social media, I also participated in:

4 Video interviews
3 Written interviews
2 Live readings of Becoming A Druid
4 Fantasy Book contests entered
7 Author panels
2 Discord Buddy Reads of Becoming A Druid

2023 was a social media explosion for me. Between the socials and the comic cons, my writing suffered. Both are still important and I’m looking to increase my presence online, but 2024 is going to be about getting back to writing. Specifically, Desperate Dispatches, the next book in the Protectors of Pretanni is coming out in January. I should have a novella published in an “Inspired by Jules Verne” anthology in 2024. I should release The Halley Traveler, a dystopian scifi book set on Mars by summer.

Also throughout the year, when I’m not actively writing a novel, I will be writing novellas about the Elder Races on Pretanni and what pushed each race to leave Pretanni to the humans. They’ll be available on my website for $0.99 each. Once I’ve written all five Elder Race stories as well as one about Branok the Burly and his founding of the druids, I’ll bundle them together and publish them as a book. I have no set timeline for these. It will just be when inspiration hits, I’ll write one.

Here’s how I’d describe my writing years:

2021 New author with no idea what to do next
2022 Pound the pavement and sell some books
2023 So there’s this whole social media thing, and also pound the pavement even harder
2024 Write more and engage more with your audience

Finally, after the three books are published, I have to decide what to write next. My choices are:

A) Becoming A King, book five in Protectors of Pretanni
B) The first book in my fantasy series set in Iron Age Spain (same timeframe as Pretanni novels)
C) Book two in The Halley Traveler series
D) A dystopian scifi series set in a desert wasteland that pits cyborgs against humans

Leave a comment and let me know what you would like to see next from me

Mike