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Summer 2016 goal review

Spice Pirates cover

Maybe I should spend less time making covers and more time writing.

I’m going to be wandering the country next week (2016 big roadtrip #3!!), so I thought I’d do my quarterly review a little early this time.

1. Write at least 30 minutes a day.

I’ve been writing a bit here and there, but it seems like there’s always another, more pressing project to work on instead. I’m going to try writing for 30 minutes every morning when I wake up, so that even if I don’t get a chance to write something later, I’ll have hit my goal. We’ll see how that works.

2. Finish something every month.

I wrote a short story for a contest, “Special,” about post-apocalyptic people living in caves. And I just finished a chapter of one of my novels-in-progress, tentatively titled Waylaid on the Road to Nowhere. Including “A Place to Die” in January, that’s 3 things out of the 6 I should have by this point.

3. Publish at least 4 of those finished things.

I published “A Place to Die” in January. It’s available for $.99 at Amazon or free if you join my mailing list. I’m now two stories behind.

4. Continue the focus on increased marketing.

I’ve been experimenting with Facebook ads. While I get great engagement for the money spent, it’s not translating to sales. I just participated in an Evolved Publishing day at Instafreebie which resulted in a ton of signups for my newsletter, but I’m not sure if the people who signed up will either open my next newsletter or buy my other stuff.

I’m doing a multi-author book fair in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in a couple weeks that I’m hoping will get me some attention and sales.

5. Read 100 books.

I’ve read 35 books so far this year, which Goodreads tells me is 14 behind. But there’s a good chance I won’t have internet for part of my trip next week, so I’m hoping to catch up.

6. Continue the focus on being healthy.

I got a couple kayaks for my graduation present to myself, and I’ve been trying to either ride my bike 10+ miles or kayak at least a couple times a week. I’ve cut most processed food from my diet, eating a lot of veggies and protein. I think if I could just cut Pepsi from my diet, I’d be doing pretty well – too bad I need the caffeine to function.

Overall

Like always, I’ve been overly optimistic about how much free time I’ll have to work on everything (writing, marketing, school, research projects, etc). And like always, my time management skills aren’t what they should be. So I’ll end with an optimistic promise to catch up, and we’ll all have a good laugh in October about this.

If you’ve set goals for yourself, how’re they going so far this year?

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