This is exactly the reason I caution myself against going into detail about my plans for the future: it could all change within a week of making the pronouncement!
Well, let’s get into this.
WHAT HAPPENED IN JANUARY
So while I had planned for January to be this unstoppable wrecking ball of productivity…basically the opposite happened. I’ll run down a little list of shit that I did actually manage to get finished, in case you missed my post whining about all the shit I did.
Read over and touched up every single motherfucking synopsis for Misty Vixen and Crystal Candy titles across websites, Kindle, and Smashwords + affiliate sites.
Remade most of my paperbacks, inside and out, including updating the back matter to more accurately reflect the current state of affairs.
Updated literally every available digital title’s back matter in a similar fashion.
Double-checked every single page of both Misty Vixen’s and Crystal Candy’s website, checked all the links, and remade all the banners.
Had an epic revelation that made all my cover art roughly 300% better (I mean, I think so at least) and remade ALLLLLLL the fucking covers. (Except the Starer Pack, for obvious reasons.)
Finished editing the last of my backlog of content I managed to get edited by another person (My Undead Lover + Exploration + Demoness III + The Former Princess).
Got some cover art made.
Canceled Maidens & Mayhem. Might use the characters from it in something else. Also, I’m going to continue Refuge. At some point.
Edited and FINALLY updated Kyra’s Game, my free incest story. Just two more chapters to go!
Released nude versions of Aria and Elora from Alien Harem, Ellie from Haven 3, and Ellie Lennox from Royal Lust.
Released the first Quickie, which contains about 10,000 words worth of brand new content in the form of a follow-up short to Hellcats, and another follow-up short to Exploration!
Managed to get a little bit of work done on Demoness V.
Planned Haven 4 and began working on it.
Released free Kindle versions of the Valkyries Trilogy that you can download here, and also released the Complete Trilogy (with bonus content), for my 1$/month Patrons here.
A handful of other minor and/or useless background things.
That, combined with the fact that it’s winter, and freezing, and gets dark at fucking 5PM, and then throw in the usual list of real-life BS that crops up and me trying to have even a tiny social life, and it means that I didn’t get nearly as much done writing-wise as I’d hoped.
However, the most significant thing that happened, is that I had a revelation that has altered the course of all my plans and probably my career. For the better, I hope. If you want to read a more fleshed out explanation, check this out.
In short: I’m shifting most of my focus to Haven. To do otherwise is fucking stupid on my part. The three Haven books that are out right now, for the month of January, have accounted for roughly 60% of my income. That’s insane. In short, Haven is outselling LITERALLY EVERYTHING by a HUGE factor. Meaning that I’d be a moron not to immediately get cracking on Haven 4, and 5, and 6, and so on.
Due to this reorganization, instead of switching between titles, I’ll be focusing on Haven until it is completed. That 80/20 split I mentioned earlier? Well, now Haven will always been in the 80% of my work day until it is complete, with the 20% being the thing that changes. Right now, Demoness V is in the 20%. Obviously, it’s going to take awhile to finish at this rate, for which I apologize. However, like I said in my update relating to this, the people have spoken, and they want more Haven, so hopefully most readers will be happy. After Demoness V, I’ll likely knock out Lust & Adventure IV. Then I’ll do something Sci-Fi. I’ll also try to wrap up Kyra’s Game, and write more Refuge.
But as I’ve had time to think about this some more, I’ve realized that there’s an even larger, what could be called a tectonic, shift in the way I’ve been looking at how I want to proceed, in terms of years, not just the next few months, with Misty Vixen.
Last year, after a lot of deliberation, I ultimately decided that Misty Vixen would just be my four shared universes for the foreseeable future. I’ve been gathering ideas for other series, stand-alone series that would, in some cases, be kind of different from what I’ve written so far. Originally, I decided that I would save these ideas for another pen name, one which would receive, when I could afford it, the kind of ‘royal treatment’, in terms of editing, formatting, marketing, cover art, etc. However, having actually done some more research recently into how much this kind of treatment would cost, I discovered that it would cost somewhere between 2,000$ and 3,000$ PER FUCKING BOOK. I…can’t afford that. I just can’t. I understand the idea that you’ve got to spend money to make money, and the concept of investment, but this is beyond my grasp currently.
So it made me realize that maybe I need to stop holding onto this notion of saving my ‘good’ ideas for this next level of investment, and instead just start putting them out there. When I had that thought, it made me feel…good? Relieved? Happy?
Clearly, I want to do this. I want to write titles outside of these four universes I have established. Because the ideas that I’ve come up with and set aside aren’t just more commercially viable (i.e. more popular/what’s selling) but are also ideas that I’m really excited about. Some of them are pretty different from what I’ve written so far. Now that holding them back for special treatment under a new pen name is off the table, I don’t really have any reason not to start working on some of them.
I’m not sure yet, but I think I’ll begin working on A Warm Place in the background, as I want to turn this into a series of novels. Depending on how things shake out, I might end up wanting to take my Haven momentum forward into the other series idea I have for my Post-Apocalyptic Universe. But again, we shall see. All I know for right now is that I’m focusing on Haven.
So, onto the next part!
WHAT I HOPE HAPPENS IN FEBRUARY
I’m almost positive I’ll get Haven 4 out before the end of this month. Right now, it’s fully planned out, and I’ve got the first chapter written, and I have the cover art!
I might be able to get Quickies #2, which will cover bonus content for Wanderlust & My Undead Lover, and will contain two brand new bonus shorts featuring those protagonists, out this month.
I’m hoping to get another chapter of Kyra’s Game out this month, and possibly even finish it.
I’ll make some progress on Demoness V. I should at least get it up to 1/3, possibly even 1/2 complete.
I’m going to try and knock out the new cover art for the Paranormal Passions Trilogy.
That’s it. If I can work hard with a lot of consistently, I may be able to get all this shit done.