Well, I’m happy with how 2020 is moving along so far. Good progress on my next two novels, a lot of foundational work for school and writing done, and even some artistic progress on various projects.
All in all, 2020 is shaping up to be a solid year! If I can maintain something close to this pace for the whole year, it will be a major accomplishment!
So I’m committed to publishing 3 novels this year, and I’m going to strive for 4. A lot of this hinges on setting aside enough money for school ($1,500/semester, which is every 3 months) and editing costs ($1,500 per novel, which is every 3 months), so I’ve got to save up about $1,000 a month for the entire year.
That’s slightly less than half my salary (after taxes) at the store I work at. Sooooo… a LOT of saving.
Now, I’m already a bit up. I have some savings put away that if I fall short by a bit, I should be okay. And, of course, hopefully the book sales will pick up a little and that will contribute to things like cover art and incidental expenses (advertising, at some point). So it’s not quite as dire as it appears, but it is going to be a tonne of work for the near future. And I started off by spending $500 on a new laptop to make sure I don’t risk my “work” laptop at school (my work laptop is an older Macbook Air, but I really like it and it has served me faithfully and successfully for many years, so I don’t want to risk losing all the stuff I have on it unless I have no other choice).
In addition, I still have a bunch of short stories to write and submit to places, and some audio versions of stories to record. Loads of work, is what I’m saying.
But that’s okay! As I said, things are off to a solid start! Here’s hoping I can keep it up!