The first day of 2021 fell on a Friday, the day that I write my weekly blog post. Because I wrote the post on New Year’s Day, I decided to take a chance and draft a set of writer’s New Year’s Resolutions.

Through the wonders of our 365-day calendar, the last day of 2021 also happens to fall on a Friday. Because today is New Year’s Eve, it seems only fair to review those resolutions I made at the beginning of the year and see what happened.

Last January, I made five New Year’s Resolutions. Here they are:

1. I resolved to write at least 500 words of fiction per day until I finished the fantasy novel that John and I were writing: Prophecy’s Malignant Son.

2. I resolved to learn more about advertising and marketing our fiction books.

3. I resolved to develop a marketing strategy before the next book was released to help improve its visibility and to attract potential readers.

4. I resolved to come up with a more complete outline for the next novel that John and I planned to write and to start writing that new novel before the end of June 2021.

5. I resolved to keep writing and publishing this blog every Friday for the rest of 2021.

So, how did it go? (Hint: You can probably guess that it went fairly well, or I wouldn’t be talking about it right now.)

Resolution number 1: Somehow, I managed to come up with 500 words a day until John and I finished the first draft of Prophecy’s Malignant Son. We completed the book in the spring of 2021 and self-published it in July.

Resolution number 2: I definitely learned more about advertising and marketing. I’ve taken online classes, watched training video’s, including the “KDP University” materials, and even started advertising our books on Amazon using Amazon’s marketing service.

Resolution number 3: I did not succeed at this resolution. Sadly, there was no marketing strategy in place when we released Prophecy’s Malignant Son. Despite all those videos and classes, marketing is still a mystery to me. I know far more about marketing than I did at the start of 2021, but I still have a long way to go.

Resolution number 4: I did indeed prepare an outline for our next novel, and writing began during our trip to Colorado in June. The manuscript is currently over 100,000 words and is planned for a release in the spring.

Resolution number 5: As of the writing and publishing of today’s blog post, I succeeded at this resolution. Yay!!!

Meeting 4 out of 5 of the New Year’s resolutions for 2021 doesn’t seem too bad.

Anyway, I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve and a great year in 2022!

Talk to you next Friday.

Susan 12/31/2021