DONE! Hit Amazon Bestseller in Multicultural Romance within hours of publication (have managed to stay there for three months, now it’s off and on). It as also been on the African American Literature & Fiction, African American Romance, and African American Women’s Fiction Amazon Bestseller lists.
*Be interviewed by local radio and television stations:
Didn’t happen, but I have done a ton of blog interviews, guest posts, and features…Yay!!!
 |
| My manager, Lady Kayne and I. |
*Participate in the Writer’s Conference in my city: (Library Headquarters):
ALMOST! Scheduling changed and instead of the conference, a community event was held where local artist, writers, and musicians had the opportunity to share their talent and work. I held my first official Meet and Great as a local author two weeks after my book was published. That was also the day my sales ranking on Amazon hit its all time peak: #5 in Multicultural Romance and #17 in African American Literature & Fiction!
*Continue to make wonderful connections with other authors and readers:
This will forever be an ongoing activity, and one I enjoy the most. Having the opportunity to talk to readers via Twitter, Facebook, or in person, and listen to them share their thoughts about my story and characters has been a wonderful experience. It has given me the motivation to continue to write and explore other topics and continue to bring my characters to life.
It is so interesting to go back and look at January’s blog. After writing my list, I spoke of my next thing to do, which was start working on the second book in The Butterfly Memoirs Series, Jaded. I am so glad I did. Here it is, a year later, and because I put in the work a year ago, my publisher will be getting the full MS in a few days with a publication date of March 2013! Whoo Hoo!! I am so excited about that. See what putting in the work a year ago did? It’s actually paying off!
Now, what does MJ have in store for 2013?
*New blog! Yep that’s right! This Writer’s Life has made the transition from Blogger to Wordpress. All of my blogs have been moved.( Check out the pages entitled, Helpful Advice for Aspiring Authors and Quick Links to My Most Popular Posts for quick access.) The transition isn’t about Blogger because I have enjoyed working with this site. But I have two blogs that I write, this one and one for The Butterfly Memoirs. It’s taken a lot to keep both of them up and going for the past few months. With WordPress, I will be able to combine the two into one site, making blog writing content easier .
*New book release! As mentioned before, my second novel, Jaded, will be released in March. Now that I’ve learned my way around marketing and promoting one book, the challenge will be to do it with two! But before that comes final edits with my editor, final reads, and publishing day, and all the fun stuff in between. It’s work, sleepless nights for a while, and oh so worth it!
*Write book three in the Butterfly Memoirs Series: The third book, who’s title will not be released just yet, is a quarter of the way done. Characters have been outlined, story line plotted, even the first 6 chapters written. As soon as Jaded is published, I’ll dive into writing this story and giving it the same amount of love and attention that was given to AHNEB and Jaded. So looking forward to it!
*Super Secret Project: Yep, it ‘s a secret, nope not sharing just yet, but keep an eye on my blog and you’ll know in a few months….you’ll be glad you did.
*Radio Interview: Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to make it happen this year….LOL!
*Attend the Moonlight and Magnolias Georgia Romance Writer’s Conference or the Romance Writer’s of America Conference (to be held in my home town, hello!!!): Start the savings account, cause here I come!!!
So, those are my writing goals for 2013…how about you?
MJ
M. J. Kane 