Today, I wanted to share some of my long term author goals, that are really more like big dreams that I am working toward someday making come true. Today's post won't be super long, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Here are my big author dreams.

1. Become a bestselling author. I don't care how this happens. I just want to one day be able to say that my work was desired by and touched many people.

2. I want to have my books available in bookstores, not only across the entire country, but internationally! I have made big leaps toward this, getting my book to individuals all over the world (thank you, my international readers!) but I want my books to be widely available in physical bookstores.

3. I want to give readers the same gleeful, giddy feeling I get when I read a really good book. I know this is not one I'll likely hear about much, but I still hope to one day make this happen. 

4. I want to be someone's favorite author (because they love my stories, not because they know me - though I'm definitely not discrediting how amazing it is for people who know me to tell me they love my books: Thank you guys <3).

5. I want to go on a full scale book tour, with readings and interviews! I would love this, and I'm planning to do my first small book tour when Fated releases this spring!

6. I want to consistently make enough money off my books that I don't have to work. I likely still will, because I love my job, but it would be nice if my writing was my main source of income.

Thank you all for reading, and for coming along with me on this crazy journey! I'd love to know... what are some of your big dreams?

As many of you know, I love being an author. I love writing, editing, designing, publishing. All of it. I also love my job. I love my family. I love a zillion other things that take my time and attention. 

Today, I wanted to talk about some of the strangeness that comes with being an author with a job, a family, and other interests.

I've written before on this blog responding to the endless question "How do you do it?" As in, "How do you do it with such little time on your hands and so many other things that life throws at you?" My simple and most accurate answer I always respond with is, "I'm really good with time management."

And I am. I have to be. 

I've recently started really pushing myself when it comes to my writing. I am working to produce more work in a year, more consistently publish, and I've also started to push myself to support other authors in their publishing endeavors with AzuresStar Press. All of this takes time. 

So does my job as a reading intervention specialist, which I absolutely adore. There's not a day that I go on site or work at the clinic that I don't feel a deep sense of pride for what I do. 

So does being a mom. Truly, there's not a day or an hour that I get to spend with my son that I don't love - though of course there are tricky moments - and that I don't wish I had more time with him. 

Okay. It may seem like I'm rambling, but that's kind of the point of this post. All of these things take up time and space in my brain. I'm passionate about all of it. And the number one way I'm able to attend to each of these things - and others - is to be very good with my time management, and be very aware of where my time and attention go. 

For example, I don't scroll on social media. Ever. When I am on social media, I check my feeds for content from people I support or for ideas, etc., it's always in a mindful, time-efficient way, and I VERY rarely stay online for more than about five minutes. I have a specific amount of time and a specific strategy for creating content for marketing, and it's done on the same days at the same times every week, almost always. 

I schedule in my writing, editing, and publishing duties into a window where I am neither working nor with my son (typically after he goes to bed), when my husband is having his downtime. I write, he plays games or does homework (depending on what our life looks like at the time), and we just sit together. And I always have a strategy in place to keep myself as productive as possible in this limited window.

On Tuesdays, I set aside half an hour to an hour to update all of my publishing things. I use this time to track book sales, make adjustments to my website, make phone calls to schedule events, etc. On the weekends, I take a little bit of time aside to prep my social media for the week and write out my blog posts.

Anyway. I'm very aware of my time, effort, and attention. That's not to say I robotically schedule out every minute of my time, or that I don't ever get to do anything fun. I still love to read and watch movies, I still go on walks when I can, I take vacations, and I still make time every Friday night to watch a scary movie with my husband. 

What I wanted to write about today is that the strangest thing about being an author with a job and a family is... I kind of always feel a little bit guilty when I get this question. To me, it feels like narrowed eyes, analytical glares, as if the person asking is really saying, "There's no way you can do all of this the way you say you do,"  or "There's no way you're really putting in as much attention to your job or your family as you say you are."

Maybe that's just me. Maybe that's just the guilty feeling I get for having so many interests. But a look at my schedule will definitely confirm the same thing I always tell people: I just pay very close attention to my time. 

Do you have anything like this that comes with what you do? Leave a comment or send me an email. I'd love to know!

For those of you who know me or who have been following this blog for a while, you know that I loooove making lists and setting goals.

More often than not, I achieve my goals, too, because I learned at a young age how to do two things:

1. Set goals that are achievable for me even if they are challenging
2. Set smaller goals and checkpoints so I’m consistently making progress or adjusting to make things happen

So when the new year rolls around, I get pretty excited. I set goals for every area of my life (and I categorize them, too, because I’m a dork). For my writing, over the last couple of years, I’ve really started to figure out what works for me, and I have big plans this year for keeping the momentum going. Today, I wanted to share them with you, in order from biggest to smallest.


GOAL #1: Successfully launch the final book in the Bound trilogy.
Micro goals include…

1. The process of finishing the editing, formatting, and cover design
2. Marketing, including some promotions and giveaways I’m planning
3. Putting the art I’ve made for the trilogy into an art book
4. Creating box sets
5. Setting up a book tour (probably local)

I am hoping to release this book by the end of April, and I’m making good progress. 


GOAL #2: Write, edit, and release my next big novel (I’m hoping for a fall release, if all goes well).
Thanks to the break I had to take from writing back in October and the beginning of November, I had time to do a general outline for this next book, and I am so excited to start writing it once I'm finished with Fated!


GOAL #3: Write another novel in preparation for next year, OR illustrate and release my next children’s book. I haven't decided which of these two things will get the most effort this year. I did write a new children's story last week after telling my kiddo a bedtime story we both really jived with, and if I do this one, I think I want to do watercolor illustrations, which excites me.


GOAL #4: Release my next poetry compilation.
Much of this poetry is already written, so this will not be a huge amount of work. The majority of work will go into compiling, editing, and designing prior to launch.


OTHER WRITING RELATED GOALS:

1. I think it’s time I make a booktok (TikTok account for book related things), so that’s on my list for this year, though it still scares me for some reason!
2. I have kept the goal of doing at least one author event every month, and I’m super excited to already be scheduling out! 
3. As far as book sales go, I would like to up my initial goal from last year, but I’ll be checking in and updating throughout the year. My starting goal for this year is 250 book sales. ​
4. I want to read at least one writing-related professional development book, attend at least one seminar or convention to improve my skills, and do at least one out of state book signing event. 

I think that's all the bigger things on my list this year. I'd love to know... what goals are you hoping to work on? What do you do to help you make progress? Let me know in the comments or send me an email!