In January, I was a freshly agented author. I’d written two whole manuscripts, and my agent had both out with separate batches of acquiring editors. I was at the top of the world. Now was the moment! Finally, I could spare a few months to focus on my online presence. It was time for social media and networking growth.
I wanted to support other writers. I wanted to find my readers! I wanted to connect.
Whelp, as December rolls around, I’m facing a tough but all too common reality: It seems unlikely my first two manuscripts will sell. First round of subs? Nothing but form declines. I’m about four months into the second round for one of the two manuscripts. Still nothing.
Years ago, this video went around of a python trying to swallow an alligator. Yeah, this news feels kinda like that? I’m doing my best to choke it down, but it hurts, and it’s definitely going to take some time to digest.
I’m nothing if not stubborn, though.
More than that, I feel like I didn’t “waste” the year. I poured my whole squishy heart into connecting with people. Every time posting felt too scary, I focused on boosting small creators and supporting fellow writers and editors—that was the light that made my introverted ass brave enough to say “hi.” I did see real growth.
So here’s how I did besides the failure to sell a book. An annual report, if you will. As with anything I post of this nature, I’m laying it all out there. Here’s my mistakes as much as my successes, my insecurities alongside the things that have my hyped. If you’re a fellow creator in anything resembling my situation, I hope this honesty helps!
Website Growth: Blogging
This year, I published about two blogs a month, so over 20 total.
Half my blogs were more professional, sharing resources or generally talking about writing, reading, and editing:
How to Give Feedback on Creative Writing
How to Find Beta Readers (and Whether to Pay)
Writing Advice for New Writers
Introducing Haunted Houses in Writing
How to Email Interested Literary Agents
Why Do People Hate AI Book Covers?
Poetry and Nature as Important Tools to Express Emotion
Finding an Editor Is Easy: Deciding What You Need (and Finding a Good Fit) Is the Hard Part
Haunting Reads for Ghost Pokemon: Lavender Town and My Love of Writing
Why Human Collabs Are Crucial to Creativity: My New Logo
These resource and recommendation blogs have been great for organic sharing. I’m comfortable linking to them in chats and comments because the information is genuinely helpful and relevant.
My other blogs recapped my newsletters, creating a backlog of “samples” that show the kind of content I love sharing. I’m so proud of these! I think, with a little massaging, they’ll turn into a really fun collection to share: clickable lists, a la 2000s internet, that share the kind of strange, uncanny, haunting content that makes my imagination’s heart skip a beat.
Each blog reflects the theme of the month:
SNOW: Scary Books, Art, and Mysteries in Snowy Settings
MUSHROOMS: Fungi in Scary Books, Art, and Weird History
CAVES: Scary Books and Old Art in Dark, Deep Places
HOUSES: Scary Books and Other Strange Content
APPLES: Scary Books and Other Strange Content
SUBMERGED: Underwater Horror Books and Other Strange Content
CATS: Oddball Books, Unsettling Art, and Strange Facts
EYES: Horror & Sci-fi Books, Art, and Other Strange Content
MERMAIDS: Scary Books and Other Strange Content
WOLVES: Scary Books and Other Strange Content
I’m still learning to read site traffic reports, so I’m not quite sure how much I grew . . . but I had more than zero traffic, which means growth happened!
Newsletter Growth
At the top of the year, I didn’t have a newsletter. I didn’t know how to create one, how to push it out there, or how to brand my content. I was at “zero” in every sense.
Ending the year, I’ve sent over 20 newsletter emails, around two a month. I learned how to format my newsletter via MailerLite, how to navigate its backend. I even worked with an amazing artist to get a logo made and brand bible made!
In the end, I went from zero subscribers to about 70 subscribers.
Does 70 subscribers feel small? Sometimes.
But most of the time, whenever I work on my newsletter, I feel sheer, unbridled, childish joy. I’m so freaking grateful for every single subscriber! I’m so happy to get to share this content I love. Since that’s my current status, I’m keeping the faith that I’m on the right track.
Social Media Growth
Especially after experiencing the downfall of Twitter, I don’t want to be dependent on any single platform for my online presence. I’m trying to focus way more on my own website, my newsletter, and my book writing. But a little platform use was inevitable for my goals, so I decided to shore up my presence on the platforms where I had a profile:
- Instagram: I started the year with 250 followers on a dead account, nothing related to writing, reading, or editing, and no engagement. I’m ending the year with about 650 followers. My 400+ new posts even included reels, which meant learning a completely new skill.
- Facebook: I started with 140 followers on my author page, and I’m ending with 160 followers. Not much difference despite all my posting. But you know what? Book clubs on Facebook were one of the best ways to push my newsletter out there, not to mention just enjoy chatting about books.
- Pinterest: I had a dead account with no posts at the top of the year. Now I’ve got a relevant, populated profile with around 600 monthly views and 15 followers. Since Pinterest really wasn’t a priority at all for me, I consider this a win.
- Goodreads: In January, I had 13 reviews and a single friend. I’m ending the year with about 70 reviews and 80 friends.
- LinkedIn: I started the year with about 250 connections, not to mention a slightly outdated profile that focused more on my academic editing. Now I’ve got around 750 connections, and my profile is way friendlier to any kind of client who might be considering my services.
Network Growth
Ah, networking, my old nemesis. I’m not a person who carries a lot of regrets around, but I do regret not being better about networking when I was in college and in my early career. I met so many incredible people, but my confidence was still the consistency of loose jelly, and I hadn’t quite grasped that all great endeavors ultimately take a village.
Today, I’ve got a way better grasp on what growth requires, for networking or otherwise. My confidence also holds its shape way better.
This year, I attended several Editors Freelancers Association (EFA) and Authors Guild events where I had to talk to people. I virtually attended the Northwest Editors Guild Conference, including both its virtual networking sessions. I showed up for several other events too, some poetry readings, a co-writing session. There’s even a handful of social media folks whose posts I actively recognize and get excited to see—a few of them might even recognize me.
Person by person, sentence by (sometimes nervous) sentence, I’m building my village.
What else?
Beyond all the growth areas I just listed, I was also nurturing other things:
- Reading. I read about 130 books this year!
- Editing. My day job! After editing nonfiction for years, I’m transitioning into editing fiction.
- Poetry and flash fiction. I wrote a poem a day for National Poetry Month (April), and I cranked out several more in October. Publishing-wise, I sold one poem to Baubles from Bones (Issue 7), another poem to After Happy Hour, and a flash fiction piece to Manawaker Podcast. Those publications spun off into two interview opportunities.
- Health. Almost by accident, thanks to a great gym membership sale, I got into strength training!
- Spanish. For a few months, I squeezed in Spanish lessons; my new Spanish confidence has been life changing.
- Travel and hosting. I hosted one sister in Lima for two weeks, and I’ll welcome the other soon! We visited Arequipa for the first time, and my husband and I just did a staycation in Azpitia.
Some people improve like oak trees. Steady and predictable. Growth for me is more like wildflower seeds taking root in a sketchy dirt median. A bit scraggly at first. Might not look (or even be) totally intentional. But I swear by summer it’s gonna be a *garden.*
Was it worth it?
Whew. Way to bring the heavy-hitting questions.
In short, yes. The long answer is more complicated and anxiety riddled, though. Have I accidentally become a Bookstagrammer? Eh, is that bad? Good? Should a fiction editor write book reviews? Should an author? Have I even gained enough followers for that debate to matter? Am I on the “wrong” platforms? Am I boosting creators the “right” way? Will any of this help me eventually sell my own books?
Look, I don’t know. I’m learning. I’m doing my best within the limits of my time and energy. But I can answer these two questions:
- What’s been the hardest part so far? The silence. When I was getting started, I was so scared of people being mean . . . I didn’t stop to consider they might not be there at all. I’d spend ages creating a carousel or reel or blog only to get literally zero interaction. It was crushing, honestly. It struck some old wounds I thought had totally healed. Uf, you’re watching content seemingly just like yours scroll by, succeeding, and mentally you’re twelve years old again, hiding under the fire escape at recess because you just cannot figure out how to play with the other kids. Mercifully, I seem to be moving past that stage. But I don’t know if there’s any preparing for that experience, and I’m sure I’ll face it again. I’ve realized you’ve got to love what you’re talking about enough to talk to yourself about it for a bit, at least as long as it takes you to build your skillset.
- What’s been the best part? For the first time, getting my books out there feels not just possible, but inevitable. Traditional publishing is still the real behemoth, but thousands of interesting beasts are thriving in its shadow. Hybrid, indie, self-pub. People are finding their readers in such unique, amazing ways. I still want to crack the trad market. But I don’t feel anymore that it’s got make-or-break power over whether my books will get to exist.
My main concern about this year, more than anything else, is simply this: I didn’t write.
Well, that’s a lie. I did write. But when it comes to book writing, I didn’t make nearly as much progress as I usually do in a year. When asking myself “was it worth it,” this is the issue that haunts me the most.
I want to be a part of the creative community, especially horror and sci-fi and romance. I want to boost all kinds of creators, including writers, and I want to talk about how the arts are collaborative and interconnected and vital to our societal “health.” At the same time, I want to make sure I carve out time to do my own creating. Heading into next year, my primary goal is to find a better balance.