Author Wrapped - Looking Back at My Writing Journey This Year

Hi everyone!

I skipped last week, and I wanted to get a blog post in, but I can't feel too bad, because last weekend, I finished rewriting Severed, and I can't wait to get it out to you all in just a few short months!

I know I still have another week left of 2024, but with all the holiday festivities, I wanted to be sure to get this in.

This year has been a huge year for my writing. This year, I've had the most growth, tried the most new things, and had the most success I've had since I started publishing back in 2017. Today, I'd like to share a summary of the big things with you. Here's what happened this year:

New Things I Tried
This year, I really tried to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to my writing. I tried a ton of new things this year, and thanks to that, I learned a lot.

• Hiring out for an editor. This year is the first year I actually took the chance on hiring an outside editor for my newest YA fantasy novel, Bound, and while it wasn't a totally different experience than what I normally have on my own, doing so pushed me to make a couple of small but very effective changes to my writing process.
• Going all in on design. This is the first year that I went all in with my cover and graphics design, and boy, did those designs change throughout the process! I am very happy with the things I have continued to learn about book design throughout the year, and I can't wait to apply them in my next work!
• Running a KickStarter. This year, I ran my very first KickStarter to fund Bound's book launch and sequel production. I learned a ridiculous amount of things from this process, but one huge takeaway I had was the skill to develop my own promotional materials (both digital and physical). 
• Creating an email list. I know... only seven years into my writing did I finally get the guts to start an email list. I still feel a little bit weird about emailing people, but I'm working to get over that. I figure if they don't want to read what I send them, they'll just delete it or unsubscribe anyway. 
• Hosting a book signing. Oh, gosh. This one was scary for me. Not the events themselves, actually, but just getting up the guts to make the phone call was nerve wracking. I'm so glad that I did, though. 
• Running a giveaway. I actually ran a handful of giveaways this year, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how much they boost engagement for my works. To everyone who won a free book this year, thank you for your support, and congrats! Keep an eye out for future giveaways!
• Shipping internationally. I've learned so much this year about what it takes to ship your books out of the United States, and I think I'm getting pretty good at it!
• Creating an application for Advance Reader Copies. This was a new one for me. I send my book out to beta readers every time, but Severed will be the first book I've ever had ARC read. Pretty exciting.

Amazing Things That Happened
Thanks to the amazing, supportive people I have in my life, my steady writing bedtime routine, and my willingness to try new things this year, some truly awesome things have happened. 

• I went from being afraid to call the bookstore to hosting two successful book signings! In my first book signing, I sold nine books, and in my second signing, I sold THIRTY books! It was crazy!
• This year, I was featured in TWO articles for my writing endeavors. I've linked them here: 
  • ​​​https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/parenting/15-authors-to-look-out-for-in-2025/ar-AA1rvRXm?ocid=BingNewsSerp ​
  • https://michellewhitingsocial.medium.com/discover-breyanna-evans-the-self-made-author-uplifting-the-literary-community-in-utah-83fc2134720e ​

• ​I donated 14 copies of Especially You to a 4th grade classroom. This experience came out of a very lovely conversation I had with a couple of teachers at my most recent book signing. I was thrilled I had the opportunity to send some books, bookmarks, and a letter to this class.  
• This year I sold books not only out of the state, but out of the country! I ended up shipping a handful of the books out myself, along with some book merch, as well.

My Stats For The Year
When I started this year out, I'd created a pretty vague five-year goal sheet to keep track of my writing goals. I started this year with the goal that I would sell fifty books. This year, I have sold a hundred and thirty-one books - almost three times my goal! Although I have been publishing for over seven years now, it's always been a side thing I did, and I never cared much about how many books I sold. This year has been a wild ride for my book sales, and although I still have a kiddo and a full time job, and I still do my writing in the late evening hours before bed, I am so thrilled about the progress I have made, and I plan to continue making this steady progress moving forward.

Here are the rest of my stats for the year:

• Books published: 2 (Especially You - January, Bound - September)
• Story Words Written: Approximately 97,000
• Blog Posts Published: 38
• Email List Growth: 0 to 25
• Book Signing Events: 2 with 1 scheduled
• Children's Stories Written: 3
• YA Fantasy Books Written: 1 (Severed - Coming March 2025)
• Books Prepped For Next Year: 3
• Books Sold: 131
• Books Given Away: 19
• Countries my books were sent to: 9
  • Spain, Russia, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Pakistan, North Macedonia, USA

University of Utah Reading Clinic Affiliated Work: 

• Phonics Books Illustrated, Formatted, and Published: 26 books!

Thank you all so much for joining me this year. It's been a wild ride, and I can't wait to see what 2025 has in store. For now, stay awesome, keep dreaming, and I'll see you next time. Happy holidays, all!