The first three months of 2015 were pretty soild. I met most of my goals, and while I had trouble in some areas I’ve made corrections that I think will yield a very successful second quarter of the year.
What went right: I got everything published that I wanted to in the quarter. Hat Trick Overtime: Summer Camp published in January, followed by Flipping for Him in February. I learned a lot of great stuff with FFH to as I put that out under the imprint that Will and I have established for ourselves: J&W Books. I even took the additional step and signed a contract to have FFH become an audiobook and I’m excited to see what an audiobook can do for a title’s performance overall.
Where I didn’t meet my goals: I didn’t create enough new words. With the goal to write 10,000 words a week, I managed an average of 3,852 per week. Yes, I was busy getting FFH ready to roll out, marketing on Hat Trick Overtime and doing some revamping on the website as well as traveling for my day job a few days per month. What I’d like to find in Q2 is the ability to write the weekly word count regardless of what else is going on. I feel like I ought to be able to get it all fit in, I just need to figure out the right formula for my time management.
Hat Trick 3 posed some issues in the quarter, too. I got stuck. After going back to the drawing board for a few days, I eliminated one of the sub plots and that seems to make it more manageable as I was writing more freely on it at the end of the quarter. I’m excited for this last book in the series and the story it’ll tell, I just have to write it. In talking with the publisher, we’ve decided to push its release back to September so that I can take a little extra time with it, both for writing and for beta readers. So it’ll still be out in the summer, but late summer rather than early.
Other good stuff: One of my overall goals this year is to get more work out there. I’ve been writing on a new short story that I’m going to submit by the end of this month. Since the story is nearly through it’s beta read phase, I’m going to give you all a sneak peek of it later this week. I’m in progress on another short that’ll be headed headed out the door by the end of May…more on that when it’s closer to completion. After these two stories are in the can, it’ll be Hat Trick 3 all the time!
I started hosting YA YAY! on WON Radio back in January too. We did two episodes in Q1 and I’m excited for the guests I’ve got lined up for our monthly shows in Q2. That’ll kick off with Bryan Cohen, author of the Ted Saves the World series. He’ll be on the show April 28 at 7pm ET.
There was a whole lot of great reading in the quarter too. I’m very happy I’ve managed to balance my reading time better in the last few months because there’s so much out there I want to read. You can check out my reviews of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story by David Levithan, I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson, Ted Saves the World by Bryan Cohen, Jack & Louisa: Act I by Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Kate Wetherhead and Misplaced Affection by Wade Kelly over at jeffandwill.com, which is where I do the majority of my book reviews. There’s also The Understatement of the Year by Sarina Bowen, which I reviewed for PuckBuddys.com.
Q2 is already opened good with work on the shorts I mentioned above, plus getting ready for Rainbow Book Fair in NYC. Looking forward to a quarter of goal achievement!
