January 2026
I apologize for not being here last week. You may have seen the crazy weather Kentucky & Tennessee had. On top of that, I didn’t do my Zoom call, because it looked like we might lose power. As I look outside we still have ice on top of snow, and it’s not getting above freezing until the ned of next week.
As I think back to what this month has been like. There are a lot of wins.
Started a new series connected to two others, and that backlist reinvigoration is happening
Chasity and I took our Bellehaven series wide, and earned about 10 times what we earned on Amazon in the last few months (they were in KU)
I’m almost done with two books
Some of my confidence is coming back
I’ve realized that I must be consistent on posting on social media, and I can’t inflate those numbers by being in a pod, or anything like that. You see those a lot on IG, it will inflate the numbers, but if you stop using the pod (at least for me), I can see that I actually get further push without the pod
Expanding my ARC reach did in fact help push my release for January
My Chirp Deal was successful, and it’s pushed me to set up promotions through March.
There were a few disappointments
I didn’t hit my preorder goal for Levi (missed it by 16 preorders). Sixteen is a small amount though, and I’ll take it for the win it is. Preorders for Dakota (the second book in the series) look like they’re going to outpace Levi. So that is a positive.
I feel like I’m rebuilding from the ground up, in certain aspects. After being in this business since 2013, it’s daunting. However, I’m learning a lot about what my past looked like, compared to what the present is.
One of the ways I’m doing that, is using the Book Report Series Tool. It took a while to get it set up, but using it, I know that if I can get a reader into my Moonshine Task Force Series through book two, I have good earned average for the rest of the series, and then that goes through the second-generation series, and will lead to third-generation series.
The read-through percentage is also really good information. The reason for the drop off in #5 to #6 is because #5 was free at one point in a crazy successful Bookbub run that had over 100,000 downloads of book #5.
It’s really interesting to see for me where people drop off in the second-generation series as well. I should’ve ended it at book #6, and I had that gut feeling I should’ve. From now on, I will follow those gut feelings.
I don’t include book #1 of either of those series because they are loss leaders, and there are a ton of downloads on those. It skews the numbers.
It’s interesting to note the same thing happened with my first full series as well at book six.
Goals for February:
Release book two in my Laurel Springs MC Series
Set up the ARC campaigns for two books I want to get more eyes on later in the year
Push preorders
Nail down my social media to one book/series, instead of trying to promote them all. I will use my newsletter to promote backlist.
Make sure I have my promotion scheduled for the following couple of months
Did you hit your January goals?