It’s Ok If You Didn’t Accomplish All You Wanted in 2023
Don't compare yourself to other authors
If your social media feed looks anything like mine, you have spent the last couple weeks inundated with End-Of-The-Year reflections and highlights.
It can be painful to watch everyone else’s pretty pictures, happy videos, and favorite memories if you wrapped up 2023 with goals unmet…perhaps so far away, they were even unseen.
Let me remind you: it’s okay if you didn’t get as much done last year as you had hoped. We don’t tie self-worth or career level to a check-off list. You are a good writer whether you Did It All, Did Some, or Did Just A Smidge in 2023.
Every January, so many of us set high expectations and lofty goals, excited for fresh beginnings. And every close of December (usually alongside a holiday hangover), we wince in guilt and failure for not seizing every moment.
But every moment isn’t for seizing. Some…many…dare I say, most…moments are simply for enjoying. Or reflecting. As a writer, part of your creative process is to leave enough brain space to notice and ponder and feel…and then pour those reflections into your writing.
Seizing every single moment with productivity—whether marketing-related or otherwise—can leave us too dry to write anymore.
So don’t feel like a failure if last year had unmet career goals. Instead, reframe the year as one where you treasured and honored your creative mind or peace or health instead.
Better For Next Year
Avoiding the Unmet Goals Guilt next year starts now. In January.
You have heard me talk (a lot!) about my belief in “Minimalist Book Marketing.” This is your year to apply this mindset and process to your author career. It is about focusing on small (but foundational) goals, steadily and consistently. About celebrating the fact that you did SOMETHING, instead of being overwhelmed and admitting you did nothing.
If you’ve ever wondered—yes, but how do I apply that? Or how do I stay on top of a minimalist strategy? Well, I put together the perfect tool to help you with that.
Introducing my new 2024 Book Marketing Planner!
This physical, spiral-bound planner is made for the overwhelmed author. It is slim. (Just 39 pages. None of those behemoth planners that give you a headache just looking at them.) It includes pages that will help you:
walk through an intentional, simple marketing strategy for the year (and breakdown what my “Minimalist Book Marketing” strategy is)
research and record your goals and deadlines for any events or contests you are interested in
financial tracker sheet to make sure those marketing expenses don’t get away from you
assessment blocks so you stay on top of what is/isn’t working and pivot accordingly
Tips and reminders from me sprinkled throughout, noting when to start preparing for important sales opportunities so you never start from behind
If this sounds like the tool you need, purchase at the button below.
Note: this link should work for both U.S. and international orders. But if you are outside the U.S. and find it isn’t working for you, please shoot me an email (you can just reply to this newsletter) and I will troubleshoot the issue for you.
And if you DID meet your 2023 goals…Congratulations! I still recommend this planner for you, too. Because it’s important to get your goals out of your head and onto the page. Let’s free up as much of that brain space as possible…so you can go even farther.
This marketing guide is quite cool and handy....