Sunday, January 5, 2020

New Year, Same Me

With the recent passing of New Year Eve / Day many people are deep in the new year, new me time. They flock to the gym in droves, buy fitness equipment and food for new diets, they fill our planners and create lists of new projects they will accomplish. It is the never ending cycle of people trying to reinvent themselves and become an improved version of who they were the previous year.

Yes, I went to the gym today. But I also went to the gym last weekend. I am participating in a 5k in Lake Havasu this coming Saturday but I also ran in the Rock N Roll 5k and 10k here last November. I plan on publishing this year just as I did in 2019. I have a different view on the new year revolution. I don't reinvent myself but instead I try to take what I learned and grow, building upon the previous year.

Last year I took part in more than two dozen Coffee House Tour signings as well as a few larger events. This year I am going to do a handful of the CHT signings (I am the marketing director so I want to make sure I participate) and have increased the number of larger events. I have learned which of the coffee shops and book stores I have done the best so I will focus on those for 2020 while using what I found to be the most successful and see if I can do even better at those locations this year. Another thing I know I can do to improve both smaller and bigger signings is to have a broader selection of books.

In 2018 I released Just Deal With It, my humor book about being a casino dealer in Las Vegas. In early 2019 the second book in my Sharing Strength series, Fish, was published. Both books are doing well when I go to shows but I know developing my book availability is important. In 2020 I am planning to release four books. The third and fourth books in my Sharing Strength series, Crash and Combat, are set to be published in the first half of the year. Breathe is a suspense scheduled for release mid-summer and Chocolate Covered Cherries, my only romance, is supposed to be out just before the holidays. All of these will allow me to grow my reader base and hopefully increase my sales as well.

I set goals every years but they are not a new form of myself, simply a way to keep moving forward. I will be using some tools I have learned from friends and will share with you all how these tools and goals are progressing. I would also love to hear some of your goals and how you use each new year to help grow from the year before.

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