S02E12: What We Achieved In Q1

Sam and Matilda are breaking down their Q1 wins, and making plans for Q2!

Next week is all about being totally AUDACIOUS...

Where to find Sam and Matilda:

SAM IG: @sammowrimo

Website: www.samantha-cummings.com

Book to start with:

Curse of the Wild (Moons & Magic Book 1) https://amzn.eu/d/3QHym3m

Most recent book:

Heart of the Wolf (Moons & Magic Book 2) https://amzn.eu/d/4HecH3a

MATILDA IG: @matildaswiftauthor

Website: www.MatildaSwift.com

Book to start with: https://books2read.com/TheSlayoftheLand (book #1 of The Heathervale Mysteries)

Most recent book: https://books2read.com/ButterLatethanNever (book #3 of The Slippery Spoon Mysteries)  

Mentioned on the show:

JOIN THE PEN TO PAYCHECK DISCORD: https://discord.gg/w7BjxmeXfF

Donate to the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/pentopaycheckauthorspodcast 

Transcript:

Welcome to your next step of the Self Publishing Mountain.

I'm Matilda Swift, author of Quintessentially British Cozy Mysteries.

And I'm Samantha Cummings, author of Young Adult Books About Magic, Myths and Monsters.

I've written the books, changed their covers, tweaked their blurbs, tried tools from a dozen ad courses, and I'm still not seeing success.

Now, we're working together to plot and plan our way from barely making ends meet to pulling in a living wage.

Join us on our journey where we'll be mastering the pen to snag that paycheck.

Hello and welcome to Pen to Paycheck Authors Podcast.

I'm Samantha Cummings, here with my co-host Matilda Swift, and we're here to write our way to financial success.

We're two indie authors with over a dozen books between us, and still a long way to go towards the quit the day job dream.

If that sounds familiar, listen along for our Mastery Through Missteps journey.

Each week we cover a topic to help along the way.

This week's topic is our Q1 review, but before we get into that, what are your friends and twinges of the week?

So many wins.

I feel like I'm not at the zen stage.

Last week, I just felt so calm and unflustered by things.

I'm at a different stage this week where I just feel like I'm peddling.

I'm peddling and I'm making movements, which just feels really good.

I haven't written in the past week because we hit a point with the co-written book where it needs lots of questions.

So there's a lot of questions back and forth.

And my co-writer is currently moving house and I was away in Edinburgh.

So it's been nice to have a headspace for some other stuff.

So I took the Nicholas Eric course the week before, and there was an extra session last week that was like an extended Q&A.

So I had time to digest that.

I had time to start the big Nicholas Eric five by five, get 25 ads going, testing system, which felt really good, but also a lot of kind of focused work and looking at the exact right attribution link and the exact right image and the exact right bit of copy.

So that felt good to get going.

It's also it's going well.

And it just feels like, you know, it almost like too, too good, as in, as in it's working as it should, which just feels like, well, that can't be right.

And also, because I'm I currently only have two books out and I'm working towards the kind of break even point of three books, which I'll have out in a couple of weeks.

It feels like almost too, too good to be true that like, once I've got more than three books, I'll be making literal profit, which is just not something I've experienced and feels like cheating, I guess.

So, I mean, also I need to get my book four out, but I just imagine I've had like four, five and six, I just be like making money from books.

Which yeah, the system works.

It has definitely felt a bit up and down.

Obviously, Facebook ads have been down recently, and Facebook and Amazon both have been up and down themselves.

So obviously, I don't want to count my chickens for that, but it feels nice to like have a thing that is, I'm making progress on and I feel like I can do to an extent, which just feels lovely and different.

And so that's going, I just had this week in Edinburgh where we visited so many bookshops and we did like a mystery, like an escape room that was a mystery.

And I bought a Cozy Mystery sci-fi book, which I know is a sort of new upcoming variation of the genre, which I'm excited by.

And yes, we just did so many like fun literary things.

And they ate hands down the world's best cinnamon bun, like no arguments possible.

I'm still like thinking of it maybe once an hour.

Oh, because someone I work with also said that they had the best cinnamon bun this weekend, so something's in the water.

No, they were in nuts.

It's so good.

I mean, that seems unlikely that it's so close, but yeah, I mean, I would like to know what it is, so I will continue trying.

But yeah, and it was like, I mean, it wasn't sunny every day, but the last day we were there, it was sunny.

So that's the memory it's left with, like just beautiful, sunny, and it's just the most beautiful, like architecture and it's like dark, dark stones everywhere.

And just everywhere you look is like an impressive, beautiful building.

And I was there with friends and like two of my friends from high school, both lived there separately.

And then one of them goes out with a friend of mine from sixth form and another friend of mine from high school came up with us.

So it was just like, I have not just hung out with a group.

And people, especially a group that you don't get together, it's not like your little clique.

It was just like a hangout and we just played board games.

And one of my friends brought his wife along and we just played games.

We went to the pub and went out for dinner.

And I was like, oh my god, this feels like such a relief.

It's so nice to have a weekend of doing that.

And I have been working so hard that I really appreciated it.

And I felt really relaxed.

And I really like the CINEMA bun.

I have some other wins as well.

I'm sure we've got our coffee going, which is so exciting and feels again like a real thing.

So, you know, we're peddling and making moves.

We're getting help.

We're paying for the podcast and people are supporting this.

That feels great.

The Discord's been really good this week.

It has some great questions.

I'm having a Zoom chat with another indie author, another Cozy Author this week just to add strategies.

So yeah, it just feels like I'm short for getting stuff because there's got so many wins going on.

So great work me.

How about you?

I wish I had that many wins going on.

I feel like I'm just slightly behind where you are.

So my win...

Just gonna cap on it before this is over.

That's true.

Life is a real world if I speak.

I didn't do that.

My win this week is that I'm still not doing any work at the moment.

So I've had a lot of time to dip into a lot of comp books.

So I was doing all of my comp and genre research over the last couple of weeks and saved a load of books to my Kindle.

And started reading them to get me kind of into the mindset because I'm starting edits for my next book this week, tomorrow.

It's the first tomorrow.

Yeah, tomorrow.

So it was just nice to get into the mindset to re-align myself with what the book is supposed to be, like where I'm trying to put it in the market.

And it's been like categorically the best thing that I could have done because if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have, like I've made loads of notes of what I need to change and to just like, I understand more what I'm trying to do.

So it's been great.

And I feel really positive that what I'm about to do is going to go very well, which is a very nice place to be.

The book is great.

It's just not to a specific market.

And so you're gonna find out what's the closest market and how do I bring it closer to the centre so that audiences find it will be like, yes, this.

Yes, because at the moment, it's a little bit, a little bit broad, probably a little bit too much in line or like attempting to be in line with more of a traditional, like a trad published book, which obviously is a completely different, it's just completely different to try and market it like that.

So like I've made a lot of notes of what I can do to make it more in the indie space.

And yeah, like it is just completely different.

Like indie books of this genre are just completely different.

And I love that.

And I like, I love reading them.

So I'm really excited to kind of kick up the pace a bit on this book and whip it into like the best shape it can be, because I know it's going to be a good book.

I love it so much.

And yeah, it's, that's like my big win of the week.

My win is that I'm not quite at the stage where you're at.

So I feel like everything's really slow.

And I feel, and this is probably because I've not been doing, like I've had two weeks off work, effectively, where I've just been milling around, just doing bits and bobs, which is obviously like, you do need time to do that.

But it makes me feel like I've stalled.

And like everything's just going really slow.

My socials feel like they're going really slow.

I'm posting consistently, but it's just like, it's not building up much excitement.

I'm like, I'm not getting a lot of traction.

I'm not seeing any number increases.

Like this has been like one of my worst months for like sales and Kindle and limited read throughs and stuff like I haven't had anyone reading.

So like just really stalled on that kind of front.

But obviously like the moving forward with the creative part feels like that's working.

So it's a strange, like I feel like I'm like I said last week, I'm like on a cusp.

I'm on the edge of something.

And I can't wait for like the dip down, like the roller coaster analogy.

I am on the up and I don't quite like it.

Like it feels like this is the worst part.

But I know like the rest of it's fun.

Two theories that you know, two theories behind the series that I'm currently working on and focusing on and that if I'm learning something on this, I'm thinking, oh, I can go and apply that to another series and see if I can kick up the marketing on that.

Whereas I think having standalones and ones where you think, oh, it's maybe if I were going to rewrite it, I could put it more close in this genre.

And I've got a series that was like, I could do with rewriting it and I wouldn't necessarily advertise it as it is.

But I've actually got two series that I feel like are more to market and are marketable.

And I think that even though we've got, you know, not a wildly different number of books, I think it's just easier to market a series and feels more like you can get on the, like pass the hill of rollercoaster a bit faster.

Yeah, so I'm almost at that point where I've almost got a complete series, obviously.

So I know that change is coming.

I just gotta be patient.

And I'm so impatient.

I can be so patient for some things.

It's so impatient.

Yeah, like it takes such a long time.

Oh, I'm almost there.

It's fine.

I forgot my other big one in the week, which I want to mention first is that the front door of my house no longer looks like a truck drive into it.

So exciting.

I had the stonemasons created beautiful hand carved stones to match the exterior of my house and the local stone.

And the builders came today and put it in.

And it was just like, oh, fantastic.

I no longer have to limbo out of my house, which is a real benefit.

I've been doing that for six months, literally, like the hip height Acre across the front door has gone.

So exciting.

And the next step someone's in tomorrow to fix the inside brickwork and then I get a new door and plastering and painting.

And in probably about a month, it'll be like nothing ever happened, which has been slow going, but really makes you appreciate, you know, having a front door.

And doors.

Yeah.

Yes, but also one of the builders who's coming tomorrow is going to, he's putting together a quote on Narnia for my attic.

So I can't say that might be revamping.

It's because it needs so many steps that I've really been putting off because it needs like, I have to take off some plaster and then put a new floor in and then get something to rewired and then get Narnia.

It's like, oh, I'm not sure what to do with the steps, but I'm gonna get moving on it at some point soon because it'll be so, so good.

Yeah.

So I am feeling on it.

Okay.

And this is the perfect day for it because we are on today, our second ever Q1 review.

How has the first quarter of 2025 gone for you?

It has gone.

It has gone.

I feel like it's gone.

It's gone.

Yeah, it's gone in the blink of an eye.

Like it's crazy.

I remember this time last year that I'd fit so much in the first quarter, but I also think that's because I had so much to do.

Like I listened to our last episode, that the last Q1 review today, and I was just like reeling off all of the things that I'd done, and they were all like quite big wins.

Like it was quite like big changes.

And that was nice to hear, but I feel like I'm like, oh, like I haven't done like hardly any of that sort of thing for a while.

But it's just because we're further down the line.

So like the changes that, and the things that I'm doing now are like just additions to stuff rather than starting big projects.

So I'm fine with that.

Yeah, it's been like, I made a list of all the things that I've like got stuck on my wall, on my big post-it wall.

I have done bits and pieces.

I definitely haven't completed everything.

So I'm gonna run through my list just because what is a list if you don't read it out loud.

I had create different TikTok channels.

And I keep saying, oh, man, I can hear myself.

So I'll try to stop.

We don't only talked about this recently, but it is on my wall.

So I'm gonna cross this off.

I wanted to create different TikTok channels to be very specific about what I was posting.

So far, I've just made one extra one to post quotes a la Kate Hall.

And that's been great.

It's been very fun.

I've started off kind of slow, but I plan to ramp it up.

And I also have a plan to start a new TikTok channel for the book that I'm gonna be working on soon.

So I feel like that's okay.

I've taken a step forwards and I'm running with it.

So that's fine.

I've ticked that off my list.

Like I did that.

Okay.

I also wanted to start a side hustle and obviously I've done that.

So I currently have a new little business called Book House Creative and I'm helping or will be helping people with their websites if I can scrounge up some customers.

And that website ready, could we put it in the show notes?

No, my website's not ready.

Because if you're doing websites, why would you have one?

I've got the domain, but I keep putting off making the actual website just because I don't plan on having anything on it.

I like this is something that we talk about a lot in my day-to-day, like 9-to-5 job, is if you do websites, you either have your own website and it's absolutely amazing, or you have your own website and it's literally one page and it's just your logo, and you're just that cool person that just has a logo on a web page.

So that's what I'm going for.

I'm going for minimal, just my logo on a page.

I have got that in my kind of, obviously it's in my list to do, but I haven't done it yet because Q1 has gone so fast.

So that is moving into Q2, but a very quick Q2 probably, I'll probably get that done in the next week or so.

But if anybody wants help with their current website, hit me up.

I can help.

CliftonStrengths is still on my list.

No, I listened to the podcast, the Q1 from last year.

I listened to our Christmas episode, we talked about our Q1 goals.

And I was like, reminded you and said, come on, it's gonna be time to get the CliftonStrengths.

I will pay you to do it.

I would just like you to do it.

This is tied up with my money problems.

Not money problems, but money mindset, is that I've just think to myself, oh, it's kind of a frivolous thing to spend money on.

So I haven't done it.

But I don't know why, because I do like frivolous spending every now and again.

So I need to...

It's slightly too much money, right?

I think like, if it were like even $10 cheaper, it would feel easier to kind of be an impulse purchase, but it's a choice purchase.

It's not impulse.

Yes, yes, I guess that's more it.

Yes, it's something that I could convince myself to not buy once I got to near the counter.

I'd be like, oh, no, actually, I'm going to put it back.

So that's how I feel about that.

And that's...

I don't know, like I feel like I should just do it.

Maybe when I get my 9 to 5 payday, when that comes around in a couple of days, that'll be the treat, because I want to start treating myself every payday because I never do.

So maybe, yeah, I'll treat myself to a close and shut.

Because it's constantly been on my wall, on my list, and I always look at it and think, oh, it'll be so fun.

I love things like that.

And I'm just...

From the attorney, my answer to Denani is frivolous.

I bought...

that's my win.

I got my unicorn horn delivered.

You did get your unicorn horn.

Yes, my kid had a unicorn horn.

That was number three or four frivolous rewards I let myself have for different income goals.

So maybe put it on a goals.

Like maybe don't reward yourself with it for nothing.

Maybe put it on a goals chart.

And like when I've done this thing, I'll give myself lift and strength test.

Okay.

That sounds good.

Cause I do have, obviously, when we talk about this, I've got some things that I need to do pretty soon.

So that would be a good wrap them up together.

Let's go on to my next thing.

Document writing stats, document writing stats.

Oh yeah, that's how I say it.

Document of writing stats.

I wanted to start documenting like my word counts every month, how much I've written, how much I've edited, my social numbers.

Just because when like, like I just want to see those numbers and I want to see those numbers going up, whether that happens or not, I don't know.

So, you know, like what gets measured gets managed.

Yes.

So I started that.

I'm just saying.

Yeah, I started that at the start of the year and I have filled in every month.

I do kind of love doing stats.

So I have that and I feel really good that I'm tracking things.

It feels like the right business thing to do.

Like, you got to track your numbers.

Cross that off my list.

I've got my character art that I did.

And although I want to carry on doing that, I'm posting on socials.

That's a big tick off my list.

I'm so glad we did that.

I've also still got my book comps and my author comps, which I've been working on for a year.

That was in queue on the last year.

And I was so, I felt so confident back then that I found the people that I was going to be tracking and found the books that I wanted to be in line with.

And it's literally taken me a year to actually figure that out, like a constant year.

I think that's a nice way to look at how, even though you think you're progressing, you're going to keep progressing even if you don't realize it.

Because I really, like, I thought that I had it.

But now I feel like I have it.

I see how many times the same topic comes around again and again.

And I think that is so interesting to be able to track as having this podcast, like, just to see how often we think we've understood something.

And then actually, there's always another layer to it.

So it is worth just, like, keep touch on the same topics again and again, and you kind of peel back another layer of something that you couldn't have, you couldn't have accessed before.

No, no, it's been, I feel like I've grown so much from last year.

When I listened to the podcast, I thought I, I just even look younger.

I look so much more innocent.

Obviously I don't, like, I look as young as ever.

Yeah, I know I look more youthful than ever.

I'm sure.

I'm definitely up to the moisturizer.

But yeah, it sounded to me, I sounded so like bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

And now I feel like, yeah, I'm older and wiser.

That's fine.

I love that we can look back.

Yeah.

So I'm still progressing with my author comps and my book comps, but I do feel like I'm like 99% there.

Happy with that.

I had ads on my Q1.

I really thought I was going to have nailed ads at the start of this year, but I did push my publishing date for my next book, for the last book in this series.

I pushed it a month and a bit into the future.

So my ads kind of got pushed a bit into the future.

So ads are going into Q2 because I'm starting that this weekend.

I'm going to be setting up ads and doing all of that work.

So I'm fingers crossing that that's going to get crossed off earlier.

You know, that's like the end of Q2.

What was the last thing I had on my list?

Oh, reassessed my writing schedule for two books a year.

So I had this on my list for a while, is trying to figure out my writing schedule.

And remember a few weeks slash maybe a month or so ago where I realized how time works.

You know, that realization.

That was on my wall to do, is to nail your book schedules and your production.

And after I figured out how time works, I figured out my book schedule.

So that is a big tick on that.

And that was my Q1 goals, and I did some of them.

To varying degrees.

Yeah.

All right, I'll talk about mine, and we can maybe talk about some bigger stuff for Q2, like the concept things.

So I, I, when we were talking about Q1 goals, was like, I don't think I made any Q1 goals.

So we were kind of prepping the podcast.

Like, I think I forgot to make it this year.

Did not happen.

And I listened to the podcast, the one we did at Christmas time, kind of end of year one.

I was like, I was very wishy washy.

I didn't really make any concrete goals.

What was I thinking?

And then I thought maybe it's because I knew I had like two books out and a third one really hot on the heels.

I was like, maybe I shouldn't make any goals because I knew I'd just be busy in this.

And then I was flicking to my planner the other day.

I was like, oh, there they are.

I made myself a section of the planner that splits the year into four quarters, predefined with like columns for...

Sorry, there's a cat on it, so I can't really see.

Writing, publishing, and podcasting, and kind of put things in all the columns to queue on.

And I have not looked at it since, obviously, because I forgot it was there.

So I was looking to do it in the last couple of days to try and see actually how have I done.

The podcasting column, not so much.

Not done very well with that.

We've done different things, actually.

We meet one day on that and kind of have different review system.

So it was useful to see what I thought we would do.

And some of it is, it's underway, maybe in different ways than we planned.

But the most ticked column is writing.

So, and that's, that was where I had the biggest goals.

So one I had was to write the prequel to my current series.

And I don't really know why I put that in there, because I feasibly did not have any time to do it.

So I don't know why I put that in there.

Actually, that's not true.

I maybe could have done it had I not picked up this co-writing at this time.

I think we didn't have dates for the co-writing.

I have got on my list, start the co-writing, but I don't think I knew exactly kind of how far we're going to get through with it.

So I didn't write the prequel, but I'm going to write it when I'm on a retreat on a Greek island in May, because that's how fancy I am.

Yeah.

And I'm going with Writing Friends, so it's just writing and it's a group that will just do a lot of writing.

So that will feel really good that I know confidently I can get it done.

I also know what it's about.

I've got the cover for it.

I feel so excited.

You know what all this talk about?

Like, oh, write what your fans want, like write what the readers write in and say they want.

It's like they don't write to me and ask me for another book in the series.

But someone wrote to me the other day, I was like, oh, where is this book, this prequel that you've listed?

Write it where she saw it.

I was like, oh, it's actually not out yet, but it will be out soon.

It's like, oh, somebody really wants to read that book.

It's so exciting.

So anyway, it's called Artichoke Heart of Darkness, and the cover looks so cute.

And yeah, it will be out.

And I've also, I've got it in my schedule already.

So that is out, and I'm going to have it out in June.

Yeah, I think so.

And then I had a bunch of bonuses.

So bonuses for books one and two, they're out.

And they're warm bonuses.

They go in the back of the book, and they're like little newspapers.

And what's interesting actually is like the book one, it's not been downloaded loads, but it's been downloaded like, you know, sort of fairly consistently.

And book two, not a single one's been downloaded.

And I don't know if I just need to rethink how I'm presenting it because I'm not sure if it's not clear that like it's a different newspaper or if just people like, I like the concept, but I don't need to read every one.

So I think what I might do is do them for books one, two, and three, and then maybe not after that.

And if anything, I maybe could have just done a book one or maybe thought of a warmly just book one, but the books are stand alones.

I don't know.

Anyway, it's a nice experiment.

It's a slight bit of pain trying to get them ready for the same time as publication.

And in fact, the same time as the arcs go out.

So if they're not being a massive draw, I will maybe I'll stop at three.

And then I might also, you know, if they pick up in future, I can always add them back in.

So fine.

So anyway, so I got all those done as I wanted.

Sorry, can't move you out of the way.

I had ominous also to edit books two and three.

That's done.

And start the co-writing, also done.

So that's what really accomplished.

And also is like a really big list of stuff I've done so much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, one thing I haven't done that I need to do that's kind of related to this is like really cut my schedule.

Because I penciled in a schedule to get books, to get this co-writing book done and to get books four and five out this year.

But also to be on schedule to release books six and seven.

Like I had them already kind of in a rolling production.

And I was writing as if I was going to have books six out maybe early in the new year next year.

But I think I just want to spread out more.

I don't know why I wanted to get them out so quickly.

Part of it is like if you start on three months, you know three and three months, you think I need to give up quite a pace.

But I cannot, so I don't know what I'm thinking about.

I need to be realistic.

So I'm gonna have one, two, three out in three months.

Zero is gonna come out in June.

And then after that, I think it's gonna go to every three months after that.

And so I want to really put my year plan and kind of see how that works.

I think it's feasible.

The last book will be out in December, so book five will be out in December, which fine.

I think that'll be okay.

Hang on, we can't, I'm absolutely on this.

I could just see a little paw sticking up.

I know.

Because the build has been here all day.

They've just been really like, for a while, one has been sick and the other one's like sat in my lap.

And it's been so noisy.

People have been cutting through stone in the front of my house all day and obviously petrifying.

So yes, I'm not going to take her off my lap, but she has sat exactly 100% on what we agreed.

Okay, she's gone, but helpfully left a lot of fur behind.

I'll blow that out of the way.

Okay, so I had those two releases.

I'm just going to read things that I did first, to clarify myself.

I did Facebook Ads Tick.

I did Arc Team Management really well.

Book 2's Arc was out only a week before the book release, which I wish I had gone on sooner.

But actually, people reviews up really quickly, and it was really nice to kind of see that and see how keen people were to put books, book reviews up.

I would say it's far from all the Arc Team members.

And I think after Book 3, I might have a little rejig and, you know, get people to reapply and call the people who are not posting, but people who are doing great jobs.

I absolutely love that.

I had to update my website to add in the new book, so I did that.

And I had to complete the co-writing contract that we were working on at the start of the quarter.

So that was great.

Things I've a bit done, but not done enough.

I wanted to consistently TikTok, which I've done sometimes and not others, which is not consistent, but when I did it, it was consistent.

And then they didn't do it, it was consistently not doing it.

Yeah.

So yes.

And I still think, even though I think TikTok is not the venue for advertising Cozy Mysteries, or even promoting Cozy Mysteries at all, I think it's going to feed into a lot of stuff we do in Q2, and we'll kind of talk about that in a little bit.

So I do think I'm going to keep that on my Q2 list.

And I want to be really deliberate about my choice of what I'm doing on TikTok, on social media in general.

And I think that is quite a change from last year.

I'm sure if I went through and listened to the many, many times I promised myself I'd get into social media last year, I would have maybe the same reaction as you've had some other things similarly.

I've just like, oh, I thought I understood what I was trying to do.

And a lot of it was just like, I should do this, so I need to do it.

And now I think I'm at a stage of figuring out like, what do I want to get from it, and how am I going to get that?

So that's going to continue on Q2, but it may be in a different way.

And then add to routines.

I have really been rubbish in my routines, actually, and part of it is just because I've been really overworked.

So I do want to get back into some good routines, and not kind of flip-flop between like manic crazy business where my house is a tip, and a weekend off where I see other humans and washpots.

So I want to get that sorted, and then re-evaluate my budgets.

I've sort of looked at things, but I haven't, I think partly that I haven't really had enough data.

I spoke to Helen about this at the start of the year.

I haven't had enough data to give me what I would benefit from in re-evaluating things.

And I think realistically, I probably won't until late in Q2.

Just being able to think about reliably how much money you put into ads, and how much you get out of ads.

Yeah, and how regularly I'm going to release, I think those things will impact my budget.

So I don't need to look at it now.

Realistically, I still have a day job, and I'm in a learning phase where I want to be preparing myself for when I don't have that.

But I don't need to arbitrarily make another budget.

So I've looked at it, but I haven't moved enough with it.

And one thing I've done that I haven't done, that I really want to do, because I think it'll be a huge help, but it's a bit self-sabotage, you're not doing it, is I need to update my JIRA.

I need, that's part of routines, right?

It's just getting better at not having to think about every single step and not having to think and like remember, oh, I forgot I need to, you know, for example, make the bonus materials for Book 3, or add the front and back matter or test the recipes.

And there's so many bits and pieces that I cannot keep relying on myself to remember it, and it's taking up too much kind of working memory.

Yeah, so, but I think I've done really well.

And I'm going to skip over the parts of podcasting that we'll talk about that separately, the things I haven't done, but we have also talked about it in other ways.

So looking at it, I thought, gosh, that's so too much.

Like, it's a lot of work, but actually I've been drafting my Q2 and it doesn't look massively any better, but the things on it are smaller.

So in terms of writing, I need to do a couple of drafts of the co-written book.

I need to write my prequel and edit that.

And I need to figure out what's going to be on that writing list in terms of books four and books five, because I like to have a rolling schedule and currently I'm completely out of roll.

I'm about to release book three and I don't have any other bits and pieces.

I've got a little bit of the start and the plans of book zero and book four, but that's not enough, so I need to figure out how to get a roll back on.

And then publishing, I've got book three out, I need to put book four on pre-order, I need to plan the other release in the series, and I need to release the prequel.

And what I want to do in fact is plan promos.

So because I'm not going to have monthly releases anymore, I need to have monthly somethings, which can be things like putting out a box set, can be putting out a promo deal, anything, but I want to have something going monthly, I need to update that Jira and revaluing my budgets.

And I'm going to start ads for my first series and try and figure out how to get that working.

Now I've kind of learned enough from doing this.

Some of it, I think I'm still tweaking the blurb to figure out what I want my to look like.

Yeah, but maybe I just need to stop fiddling with that and just get some ads and test things.

So yeah, thinking about Q2.

I think there's also some things on there that we've not, that I've not included because they're kind of more conceptual that I think maybe we could talk about, at least touch on a little bit.

And then we'll talk about in the next episodes.

How, because I think we're on to kind of like, what's the vibe of Q2?

Yeah, I don't think the vibe of Q1 has very much been for me.

Like you were saying, it went really quickly.

I was like, I feel like I lived every second of those three months.

And like, I feel like I really worked every second of those three months, like worked, like, you know, 24 hours a day.

I feel like I did like at the start, but maybe because I've just had two weeks off, I like, it's just slightly skewed my memory.

Like I don't, I never, I don't remember last week.

I don't remember the like yesterday, half the time.

So I'm just remembering the good times.

I just, I just know the relaxation.

I don't want to think about the absolutely manic scramble I did to edit a book and like find a new editor and all of that stuff.

But it was hard going.

But yes, I feel like my Q1 was like by necessity, like a real slog.

Yeah.

And, and in a way that I think it was useful to experience.

And it didn't feel like a slog every day, but like, kind of by the end of it, I'd reached stage, I feel like this is not a sustainable pace.

It feels physically and like mentally exhausting.

And I think at the moment, I'm still being quite slow because I think I'm still easing back from that.

And I don't, I don't mind being slow.

I think I couldn't go fast for a little bit.

So I think, how do I kind of get back on the work ethic course while not having to kind of not having to have fuel or nothing?

And I think, I think part of Q2, what will make it feel like I'm really working hard, but not going through that like a tense, you know, every second of every day, actual physical, like at the page work, is doing a lot of mindset stuff and picking that back up again.

And really making sure rather than like working hard and then doing like mindless staring at a phone, I want to like work moderately and do some mindset things.

And I know we've got coming up planned, not even necessarily just mindset stuff, but like, I don't know what you'd call it.

Like we talk about like narrative.

That's not really a word for what it is.

I think like brand sort of branding, but that's a really not helpful term for it.

Yeah, it's more like lifestyle.

It's, I feel like it falls under lifestyle.

Like, what, like how we want to be and how that presents in the real world.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, I think trying, oh yeah, I think trying to like live an author life is maybe where we're kind of going towards.

And like some of that is that incorporates things like how do we like share things and what do we share on social media?

And how do we build that side of ourselves?

And how do we kind of keep ads rolling rather than just being like sporadically trying things and then and then stopping?

And how?

Yeah, how are we getting things?

And I'm not sure consistency is the word, but you know what I mean?

Like getting things to where we want them to be in a whole business sense.

I mean, like holistic is like the vibe for next quarter.

Yeah, and I think, and I don't want it to, I don't want to just have that be online either.

I think I really want that to be an outside of social media experiment as well.

Putting ourselves out there more in the real world, in whatever capacity that shows up in.

Like I think there were a few things for me personally this year that are definitely going to put me more in an outside, you know, outside of the internet situations.

But I want to lean into that as well, because I feel like that's, everything is always, obviously, there's an online podcast, and we're always talking about social media, and we're selling our books online, but there's a whole world out there that we could tap into.

And that we will be tapping in to, right?

Like I think even in like the writer space, so we're both going to SPS this summer.

I have got a chat this weekend with someone who's from the, I just know from the Cozy Mystery Clubhouse group, like, and it's, and I've met someone else who we just know from the Discord.

I feel definitely like that's something I didn't do before this quarter.

Yeah, that is, you know, obviously I've been to SPS before, but it's that felt like a kind of pre organized eating.

I think I'm definitely putting myself out there more in a way that feels like, not feels like it is something that you see bigger authors do that you hear people like, Oh, I just, I wanted to arrange some meetings with some other authors.

And now it feels really like a step up to be able to ask people that to be able to offer that and like, it feels reciprocal and even being in the discord, you know, it feels like a good way to be in the author world.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Like an author in the world.

Yeah, that's the discord has been great for that.

For my like Q2, I've got that discord is definitely something that I want to lean more into.

We're just talking about this before we started recording that I've got a young adult fantasy discord.

But at the moment, it's quite limited to the types of people who are in it.

And there's quite a lot of people who are in earlier stages of writing.

And I really want to find people who are like my stage or above.

And getting those people on discord would be great.

Or just finding those people anywhere would be great, because it's hard to find those spaces.

Like, I don't know where people are hanging out.

And I want to hang out with them.

But I also actually forgot this.

I've got this, this is hiding on my little pinboard.

Q1 was to reach out to local authors, and I didn't do that.

So I know that I've got a few local authors around me, who I've kind of like spoken to on socials in the past, and were always like, oh, we should grab a coffee.

And then just, like, that's my go-to line.

Yeah, we'll grab a coffee.

And then I completely forget for like a year.

I just, I would like to go and actually spend time with you.

I just forget.

Like I make, I'm so like great at making plans.

And I literally, once I close the message, like I don't, I won't think about it again for six months.

So that is something that I definitely want to do for Q2, is there's two people who live local to me who are indie authors.

And I'm going to make a coffee date with both of them and be an outside author.

Because that's the world that I want to-

Can you make coffee with both of them together and make a little club?

I mean, could, yeah, we could do.

That would be, that would be weird and fun.

I don't know how I feel about being the person that brings people who don't know each other together.

It's like when you have a party and you mix social groups.

But maybe I could be the facilitator, so I might put that out there.

Because maybe you've got other people they would bring if it was going to be like a little group thing.

Yes, yeah, that's very true.

Yeah, okay.

I will make that my Q2 goal, is to bring multiple people together online and offline.

I also have my ads, like I want to run ads for my next release in May.

So I'm going to start ads this coming month.

And I'm looking forward to that because I know like you've done so much ad work recently that I can pick your brain.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I'm going to start thinking about that this week.

So that's ongoing.

I actually really want to set up a big marketing plan for my September release, which technically also starts this coming month.

So in April, for September release, I think the marketing, the like the brief outline that I did for it a month or so ago was to start in April.

So I really want to get that on the go.

I want to get like the teasers going.

I want to start trying to drum up interest on that and really think about that whole, like can of worms I'm about to open.

Because I feel like it is a kind of worms, kind of magical worms.

So that's-

Kind of like worms covered in like soil, like leaf rotten and soil from the forest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or a kind of slugs like in Harry Potter.

Just like spewing out of my mouth, which is probably more than likely.

Where else am I on my list?

Mindset books, like you said, I've got loads.

I like at the start of the year, added loads of mindset books to my Kindle, and then didn't turn my Kindle on for three months.

So I've just charged it and have started reading books on Kindle again.

And I have a lot of mindset books on there that I want to get back into.

Like you say, don't scroll on your phone at night.

Do some nice reading where you feel like you're enriching your brain and all that stuff.

Because last year, I read a few that helped me so much.

They're still lingering in my brain.

I still think about them whenever I'm having mingling doubts or just when I'm trying to find inspiration.

This stuff is there.

I feel like I'm falling back on to good foundations.

I also just think like giving yourself the treat of reading them says like, I respect your plans enough to invest time in building the mindset you need to yourself.

Because I think often these mindset books, they don't tell you things you don't know.

They just A, say it in a voice that is different from your own and B, they are you showing up for yourself in a way that I can find hard to do in other ways.

So I think those mindset books really, we find really valuable.

Yeah, I do like it when other people tell me things because as much as I want to believe myself, if someone else tells me, I'll think, oh, yeah, okay.

I was right all along.

There's nothing better than thinking that.

Like, oh, yeah, I knew that.

Like, I'm so good.

Also on my list is keeping leading into socials.

I don't want to fall off socials because I feel like I'm floundering a little bit.

And I were talking about this last week of the week before about my energy levels for socials.

The energy levels are still there, but there is something in the back of my head that's saying you're not progressing with this.

And that's okay.

I think what's really known with your socials, like, it's really clear that they are good.

Like they are good quality.

They're what you would see other people doing and get success with and they are in themselves good.

Like I think my socials are like, I find them like-

Oh, I love your socials.

They're cute, but it's not a thing that I think, oh, that's the only thing I'm good at, whereas I think it's a thing you are particularly good at.

And then having no one watch them is like, what, what, what?

Yeah.

I will learn the way of TikTok in particular.

I mean, Instagram, I've kind of given up on it.

I just do Instagram for fun, but I don't really get anywhere with Instagram.

But TikTok for a while, I was doing so well, then they obviously could tell that I was trying and they punished me for it.

So I will have the last laugh because as soon I'm going to be an absolutely famous person and they're going to be begging me to do promos and I will not do promos for them.

I bet you might though if you're paid enough.

I, it depends.

I'm open to discussions.

Better be a good budget.

I really need to get more into book funnel.

I know you were saying that you want to make sure you've got like a promo running every month and I'm the same.

I mean like bigger, like I want to go like book giveaways and stuff.

Yeah.

And book discounts at a big deal size.

But I also do think I need to get back in book funnel.

I mean, because I'll have a pre-call, so I will put it in there that I think is useful.

But I really, I think it's usually for the rest of a while, but I've been off it for so long.

It's like I just, the admin hassle has kind of fallen off my plate, and it's not much admin hassle.

It's just like a thing you need to get in the habit of.

So it will be useful to get back into it again.

Yeah, because I still I'm not on huge numbers for my mailing list, and I want to have a little bit of an influx before this third book comes out.

So I am going to try and get into hopefully like a couple of things every month for the next couple of months, and really try and utilize what I've got there.

Because it's easy to just not do it because it's admin.

It's just more admin.

But yeah, I need to build up my email list.

Yeah, it does work well.

When you put the time in, but you have to do the digging to see like, what are the best things to do?

Sometimes I just feel like I'm, because I don't know, because I'm just lazy, I guess.

I just can't, I just open it up, and I'm like, oh, another day, another day.

But I have got a couple of things set up for the next month.

So I'm feeling like I'm off to a good start with that.

Let's see what else we've got.

Oh, my Book 3 release, which is coming out in May.

I'm very excited about, but I feel like I need to get more excited about it.

I think it's because it's not, it's off my plate.

So the excitement has died down.

But when I get that back from Editors, I think that that will be good.

But I can't wait to release that and have a whole series out for the first time in my life.

Woohoo!

That's such a milestone after 10 years of writing books.

It is a milestone though.

It is a milestone.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

No, I'm very proud of myself.

I think that's it mostly.

It's just like, yeah, trying to put myself out there more and do more author things.

Like really be more of an outside of the office author.

Yeah, it's so easy just to exist in the glare of your laptop screen and just not really get a sense of what anyone else is doing or how you can do things differently if that's not your natural inclination.

And you know, so much of my improvement is areas come from having this conversation every week.

They just articulating thoughts and business ideas.

I mean, I think like, I do know things and I have tried things and I can try more things.

And there's like, oh, sorry, another cat's on me.

And yeah, and I think being able to see and like note my progress and my knowledge and my skills has been so valuable to making me feel confident enough to approach other people.

So that has been great.

And I want to do more of it.

And I think I've gained a lot from it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think we're doing very well.

As we've been talking, I've been making another list of things I can't forget.

Like they kind of like little offshoots of my Q2 goals, like very specific stuff.

Right, I think maybe, I don't think we've got any more to add.

Are you feeling like we've successfully recapped?

I think we've definitely covered everything.

I think that was, yeah.

I think interestingly, we definitely had more concrete and specific goals than we have done in the past.

Just like, here's my list, I achieved it.

It wasn't like, I think people who had such vague things like, you know, understand my marketing funnel and make my brand.

It's like, what is that?

Or how do I take that off a list?

Where this time I was like, yes, I planned this book, I released this book.

I planned to, I can't see my list now because again, I've got another cat on me.

But yeah, another port in the air.

That's the thing and I did it.

So yes, that feels like a really good list and I want to make sure my Q2 list looks like that.

But also I do think I maybe need to think of things that are not just write the book, edit the book, release the book.

That's what I had to do in Q1 because I had some big publishing goals.

But right now I want to maybe focus more on business goals and make sure I'm putting those things in, it's all that mind stuff stuff and that author creation stuff will be good.

Yeah, yeah, agreed.

Q2 is gonna be great.

Q2 will be the start of the actual roller coaster after the climb.

Yes.

The first big dip, but in a fun way.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to it.

So next week we are talking about Audacity.

I can't even believe it.

Why are we discussing that?

What does it have to do with self-publishing?

Yes, I am so excited by this.

I think it was my idea.

So I'm gonna feel really proud of myself.

Yeah.

It came out of our last meeting day.

And I think we're just talking about growing in our careers and where we could expand, like where we maybe not expanded previously.

And thinking about other authors that we see online a lot who, like, who are no better or worse than we are, right?

So who are just like relatively new, have books that are good, and I know they're doing some business stuff, right?

And then the way that they just feel different, and they're just like really able to confidently put themselves out there and set big goals publicly, and be big personas of social media.

And that wasn't to say that we wanted to do that.

It's not to say we wanted to be out there having a really specific honed social media brand.

It was just like, what would we like to do that would kind of have that same level of audacity, that would say like we deserve to take up space and we...

Sorry if there's making noise of cats on the microphone arm.

This is the most cat heavy episode.

But you know, they're in the books, they're in my books, they're in the podcast.

Yeah, and I think how can we take up space?

And like this idea of like being our author selves, how can we get bigger in a way that don't necessarily feel comfortable, but feel possible?

So we made a list of things that would feel audacious to us, that like, normally we would say, oh, I can't do that.

I couldn't do that.

Yeah, and just like, just do it.

Let's do it.

What's the worst that could happen?

Someone says no?

Okay.

But one of them was like, set up this coffee and like say to people, we'd love you to support us a podcast if you appreciate it.

On which note, we do have a coffee, links are in the show notes if you want to just chip in a few quid as a one-off or regularly, just for the podcast that you know and love.

Yeah, that's, and we did that almost immediately.

We had that audacious thought of making a little bit of money to help with the podcast.

And it was so easily done.

And once we'd done it, it kind of felt like less audacious than maybe other people would think.

Other people are just like, well, yeah, you set up a podcast.

So obviously you need to start having a little bit of money trickling in.

It's like, oh, we're so like English and like, oh, I don't want to ask people to like part with their hard earned money.

But yeah, we're not feeling like that anymore.

I don't want to be that person that holds themselves back for fear of what other people think.

And I can't wait to talk through my audacious list and make plans.

We need to make a more audacious list.

Yeah, didn't feel super audacious about like, yeah, of course, so I can review my list and think what...

I might like stretch, stretch audacity goals.

Yeah.

So what feels, what feels too much that like I really couldn't do.

And maybe once I've done a few more ticks off the record list, I'd be like, yeah, I could do those.

Yeah, that would be fun.

Yeah, some really like bold as anything.

Like if I was Taylor Swift, yeah, if I was the Taylor Swift, we've said this before, if I was the Taylor Swift of young adults, what would I be doing?

Wouldn't you be doing?

I mean, I know.

So yes, I think that I think will be a good episode and hopefully be inspiring and maybe if everyone can be thinking about their audacity lists, we'll be able to chat about those in the Discord.

One thing we talk about the Discord is we have a question of the week and this week will be, how was your Q1?

What goals did you achieve?

What are you going to do for Q2?

So looking forward to seeing what everyone's set for that.

I'm imagining some really different lists for everyone, which will be really interesting to see.

Because I do think mine is very functional, like writing and publishing.

I would maybe like to have a separate list for like mindset or a separate list for, I don't know, audacity.

So yeah, I think I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Yes, anything else to add?

No, that's it from me.

Thank you very much to everyone for listening.

Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review.

I don't think we can have that many reviews, and I'd like some reviews on this show.

Because we are like in the top 10 percent of podcasting right now, with how absolutely on it we are, and how many people are listening, which is fantastic.

But got to drop those reviews so that other people know to listen to us.

Yeah, thank you very much for tuning in.

Thank you to everybody who has donated on Ko-fi so far.

And don't forget if you want to donate, there's a link in the show notes.

And we will see you next week.

Goodbye.

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