I’d like to make New Year’s resolutions, but I know what I am and that is someone who never sticks to resolutions. Instead, I like to make myself promises I know I might not keep.

So, what’s on the agenda this year?

First, I’m going to read more. I used to read at least one book every week. That’s a minimum of fifty books every year. In 2017, I read half of that (not counting the books I’ve beta read or edited for friends, of course). The problem was that I got busy. When I finally sat down to read most days, my poor eyes were so tired, that it took everything in me just to stay focused. It just wasn’t as pleasurable as it used to be, no matter how good the book was. So, the plan is to read earlier in the day, on breaks, and/or in the mornings, before the day has had its way with me.

And what about my writing. God, my writing…

Okay, here’s the shit show I’ve created for myself:

UNFINISHED PROJECTS: For some reason, I have two folders for these: In Progress and WIPs needing rewrites/outlines. Both files contain projects I’ve started writing or at least started outlining. So, not counting the ones I haven’t moved to these folders yet, I have 46 unfinished projects.

FORTY.

SIX.

How does a person not finish that many things? In my defense, I am actively working on most of them, which might make things worse. Too many thoughts in my head.

We won’t even talk about the ideas I’ve got listed for later. You know, when I finish these others ones.

My goal is to at least write a first draft for half of these. I don’t think that’s aiming too high…

FINISHED/ON SUBMISSION/PREPPING FOR PUBLICATION: These are completed stories/novels/novellas that I’m either submitting to publishers, considering publishing myself, or editing because I hate them. Got 54 of these. Of these 54 finished projects, 9 are novels/novellas.  (EDIT: I have signed a couple of these novellas with publishers since writing this post.)

I plan to make some decisions on at least the novels/novellas, because seriously.

SCHEDULED FOR PUBLICATION: This is something that in most cases, I have no control over. I have 8 projects signed with various publications. Most of these are scheduled for publication in early 2018, but 2 have no publication date as of yet, so… yeah.

I also promised myself I’d be better at staying on top of household chores.

Let’s all laugh.

I promise myself this every year, and every year, I end up falling behind. Housework just isn’t a priority, I guess. Sorry family. I will try. Again. As always.

And marketing. I do try to learn as much as I can about book promotion, and then I make an attempt to use what I’ve learned. I try to network, to tweet without being annoying and to Facebook without making my page a total “buy my shit” nightmare, and I try to make the rounds of book blogs and such with each new release (this is almost harder than the query process, by the way) but it’s hard. I started Deviant Dolls as part of this marketing effort, but it’s also not the easiest gig. You’ve gotta keep people motivated, stay on top of shit, and constantly think up new ways to promote everyone’s books effectively. Am I succeeding?

Sadly, I don’t think so. Spinning my wheels mostly.

In 2018, I promise to be more aggressive with my marketing. I also want to be smarter about it and I want to make Deviant Dolls way more effective for everyone involved. We’ll see what happens.

Oh, and blogging. I know I’ve been the worst this year at updating this blog. Terrible. This isn’t the only place I write things for, though, and that makes it more challenging. I write monthly articles for Underground Book Reviews and I try to post something for the Deviant Dolls blog now and then, so, often, when it comes time to write something here, I’m out of ideas or just don’t feel like it.

That will change, though. I’ve already got some posts lined up, and they won’t all be about writing. No, really. They won’t.

I think that’s it. Enough for one year’s worth of broken promises anyway. How about you? Got any goals for 2018?