Precipice
noun
a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.
a situation of great peril
***
Okay, so I hope that second definition isn’t applicable.
I feel like I’m on a precipice. Last month I gave my notice at my day job and December 30th was my last day. That very same day, I drove south for a ten day vacation.
Yesterday was the first day that I woke up and had nowhere to go. It was weird. But also exciting. We rolled into town to return from our vacation late Sunday evening. I loved on the animals who thought we might never return. I browsed through the mail, watered my neglected plants, and pet the animals some more!
Then, I checked my book revenues and was super excited to see that I was making more money than I was spending. Love when that happens. Plus it’s encouraging. Knowing I was going to be changing jobs, I’ve been focusing on my book advertising for a couple of months now. I invested in an ads course to learn how to market my books. I’ve been coming home from an eight hour day and putting in a couple more hours each day on the course, fine tuning blurbs, creating ads, researching keywords, etc. I’ve been in this book business for over ten years now and have always invested a lot of time in researching the industry, so I was shocked to realize how much I still had to do on each book I’ve published. It’s daunting, but I’ve kept myself focused and slowly started to work my way through the coursework. Though I still have a lot to do, it was super encouraging to see profit. Especially, since I plan to hyper focus on it this month.
Next month, I have to look for my next day job, so this month it’s all writing, all the time. I’m going to finish edits on book two in my Trickstering series (I have more to do than I hoped – crying face,) but it will be a stronger book because of the great feedback I received.
I haven’t even had a moment to think beyond this month. I want to make major headway this month on my main 2022 writing goal. MAKE MY WRITING VIABLE AGAIN. I haven’t quite defined what “viable” means in that sentence. I want my books to be profitable. I want to complete (maybe two) series that haven’t been completed. I would LOVE to do some book events. I miss getting out there with readers so much! I would – eventually – like to write full time again. I don’t know if I can do that in 2022. I suspect that will be a 2023 goal. And, honestly, “full time” might be more than I want anyway. I actually enjoy working for the social aspect, so maybe I just want my book profits to become my main income and I’ll get some sort of part time job so that I can avoid becoming a hermit who never showers or gets dressed. I’m not quite sure.
However, I’m excited for a new adventure even though I haven’t yet figured out what it will be.
What is in store for your 2022? Or maybe just the balance of your January? I'd love to hear from you.
Comments