October 6, 2025
Did you face any hiccups in your publishing this year?
How did you navigate that?
Confession: I haven’t published anything major this year – yet. Yes, I’ve posted on my blog regularly, but this year has been a mixed bag in my writing journey. I even tried taking my writing to Medium, but couldn’t get any traction there. It made me feel like writing was a chore, not a joy.
The high point is that I’ve sold 90 books at festivals and book events. (And I have two craft shows scheduled before the end of the events.)
The low point is that I haven’t published a new book this year. And the book I published in November 2024 has gone nowhere, despite using a alternative route for publicity. (That didn’t work.) It didn’t help that the print copies of the Rimer Files were delayed and weren’t available for the last show of last year.)
On the bright side, I wrote a short story that will be part of an anthology to be released in November. The 10,000 words took me close to five months to complete. I rewrote the first 3000 words four times before I was satisfied with where the story was going. Once I finished, I was reluctant to let go of my protagonist, Amos Headley. There is so much more he could tell me.
Overall, it was a rough year.
At times, I felt like giving up. But my characters wouldn’t let me. Same for my readers. When one customer bought 9 of my books all at once, it gave me a needed push. But so did the readers who bought the entire Harmony Duprie series on line, all at once. Or one at a time, across one or two weeks.
But mostly, this year was a year of digging deep and staying with it.
How about all of you? How has your publishing year gone? I’ll be looking forward to the answers at the links below.
As always, until next time, please stay safe.
October 6, 2025
Did you face any hiccups in your publishing this year? How did you navigate that?
Well done with the sales and the anthology piece. My characters keep me going, they never give me a moments peace.
I’m tickled by the sales, too.
A rough year ? 2025 felt ominous from day one, – family illness, then more family illness, the news, then more news, every day. ”
Writing the earlier drafts of the book I’ll be publishing soon, all I could see for those characters was sadly reconciling themselves to everything thrown at them – by me. writers are so cruel.
Then I rebelled – Doesn’t have to be like this, fiction, so by Christmas Eve, the good can end happily,, let other pens dwell on guilt and misery, etc. How Can All This Be True ? Out soon…
I feel guilty too, putting my characters through some of the situations I put them in. But knowing there will be a somewhat happy ending helps.
90! That’s fantastic! I tried medium several years ago and it was the same result. I’m afraid that too much of this gig saps my drive. If I could just have reasonable growth and all that, I’d feel loads better—less like I’m wasting my time.
It was a lot of work. But I love talking to potential readers, even if it wears me out.