“Surely,” I thought, “it’s far too early to do a year-end wrap-up.” And maybe it is, but the last one was at this time last year. So here we are.

It’s been a while, so I’ll preface this with my usual philosophy/statement of scale. Namely: I’m aware that these are tiny numbers. I’m not embarrassed; don’t be embarrassed for me. I’ve come to accept and enjoy what I do. Some people had a nice enough time reading something I wrote. That’s pretty neat. Also, it’s not my main source of income (I still have a day job, much to the annoyance of some of my coworkers), so we’re not starving over this.

I think it’s useful to say awkward things out loud. To refuse to buy into shame. So I’m transparent about the fact that not everyone out here is a millionaire, and believe that those of us who aren’t still deserve to talk about our experiences.

That said, here are some little charts.

Timeline of releases, which may be relevant:

• Most recent Healers book: Aug. 2022; no releases this year
• Therapist releases in April, June, July, and December, 2023 (books 2-5), plus the 1-4 omnibus in September

Amazon sales:

Breakdown: A side effect of caving to the “subtitle” thing is that the print and ebook versions have separated themselves on the charts. Anything with a subtitle is an ebook; anything without is a print book. Made even more obvious by the ebook vs. print columns (ebook on the left, print in the center, totals on the right).

That’s also apparently why it says “12 books” although I only have 9 (3 Healers novels, 5 Therapist novellas, and the Therapist omnibus). The Healers books are double-counted on this list, print vs. ebook.

Kindle Unlimited:

I also rejoined Kindle Unlimited (called KDP Select on the back end) late this year, after sitting it out for a couple of years. My sales on other storefronts were always minimal, even though I liked having that option in theory. But I didn’t have the energy/time to promote on those other storefronts and make them worth the effort.

Going back to being Amazon-exclusive is not a perfect decision, but I don’t regret it at this stage.

Ads:

I ran two in mid-December, both “bargain book” lists, along with a 99c deal on The Healers’ Road in the US. They didn’t seem to have much of an effect. I honestly don’t blame the lists, so I won’t name them. Before I try this again, I’ll rethink my description/blurb (possibly throwing myself at the mercy of Reddit, which can be … harsh but useful) and try some different lists. It wasn’t an expensive experiment, something like $75 total.

Royalties:

Like I always say. Coffee money, month to month. And that’s okay.

~Productivity~: wow, I hate that word and all it stands for

Last Christmas Eve, I started to track my writing streak. I had just started Therapist 2. I didn’t set any word count goals; I only wanted to keep after it, writing some amount every day. Eventually, I loosened that even further, counting editing, journaling, and eventually even beta reading under that streak. Any writing-related activity, essentially.

I have not broken that streak yet. Almost a year, and still going. I’ve finished four novellas; drafted two more that are in the beta reading/editing phase now; worked on a Healers novel (not #4) that I have temporarily shelved; and beta read …I’m terrible at keeping track of this… five novels for other people, I think?

To be fair, my notes on two of them were so disastrously late that I was of no use whatsoever, and I had to stop a sixth because I just didn’t know how to comment on/evaluate a genre (middle grade) far outside my wheelhouse. But I finished the other three in a reasonable timeframe, and will try harder not to flake out on people. Because it’s important.

I’m finishing out the year by line-editing a novel for my spouse. Line editing is basically an obsolete skill nowadays, thanks to software that can do it for you, but I’m happy to put this obsolete skill into use. I can sew by hand, I can cook lots of things from scratch, and by gum, I can slice and dice the hell out of a sentence.

Anyway, what I’m saying is that although this mental vacation into Light Fantasy Land has not been financially successful, it has sparked my imagination and gotten me writing consistently again. I say “I’ve had a great time” constantly because it’s true. It’s been a hell of a time. And I plan to return to my first series after this editing project is done, rested, refreshed, and ready to deal with the consequences of my plotting decisions. Ha.