Planning for 2024
What's in store for next year?
Last week I looked at the results of my 2023 efforts, and this week I’m casting my eye ahead to 2024.
My 2023 was, as previously noted, more than a little chaotic. I started by putting out a story, Ohio Johnson and the Fountain of Youth, that my husband and I had dreamed up several years ago, to absolutely no fanfare, which I followed up with my sexy baseball coach series (under my current favorite pen name) and an erotic Mardi Gras tale. Soon afterward I discovered gangbang stories, then tried my hand at an erotic romance series, and threw a bunch of other stuff at the wall.
Meanwhile I was figuring out stuff like newsletters, paid promotions, social media — it was largely a year of learning, making mistakes, going down blind alleys, and, at its best, writing some blisteringly hot smut. I’d say 2023 was a success, despite my many errors.
For 2024, I want to apply some of what I learned to find more success in both the writing and the selling of smut. To that end, I have turned again to my friend Trello, which I use for my publishing pipeline overview, to put together a publishing goals pipeline.
Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (that is, “SMART”; god we IT types like our acronyms …). So I’ve set myself some very basic and, I hope, SMART, goals for 2024:
Publish a story/novella once a month on “wide” platforms
Publish a story/novella once a month on Kindle Unlimited
Publish four pieces on Medium each month
Publish a piece of Substack each week
Clear an average of $300 each month from my combined revenue streams
These are all achievable, for the most part: last year I put out 36 titles, about half on Kindle Unlimited; I had an insane story-a-day on Medium in April, but since then have used that platform mostly for work-in-progress samples and a few experimental pieces; and I’m doing two or three Substack stories a week. Sales-wise, I had two months — August and October — where I earned about $270 from sales and subscriptions, so while that $300 is an ambitious goal, I feel that smart marketing and focusing on niches and series that are working for me can make it a reality.
My big change for 2024 is going to be rationalizing my publication schedule. In 2023, I was often rushing to publish something too soon after it was finished, without giving much thought to how it could be marketed or where it fit in my catalogue. My goal was to build up that mythical “dirty 30” and achieve passive income nirvana; and while I have hit a bit of a passive income steady state on the Kindle Unlimited side, let me tell you, gentle reader, it is hardly nirvana …
A twice-a-month cadence is much more manageable than what I was doing in 2023, and lends itself to planning. You can see in the screenshot above that I’ve already started mapping out the first couple months of 2024: in January you can expect something extra spicy from my brother Quentin (this title will not be available on Amazon …), plus a gangbang on Kindle Unlimited (I’ve narrowed it down to two candidates); and in February, I’m doing a sequel to “Matin, Midi, Minuit,” and probably a KU gangbang (though I’ve also got a Fox Run Swingers’ Club idea). The “Fox Run Swingers”, “All For One and One For All”, and “Mapping the Boundaries of Love” stories will almost certainly stay in KU, as they continue to attract readers on that platform; “Winning With the Wildcats”, “Fun for Four”, and various uncategorized stories will go into the “wide” bucket.
I’m hoping that this approach is going to be good for you, the reader — you’ll be able to predict when things are coming out, and you’ll have time to finish reading the latest title before being hit with appeals to grab the next. And it should also be good for me — I’ll be able to plan better what projects I’m working on, and hopefully avoid some of the more challenging predicaments I put myself in during 2023 (more on those in coming weeks, as I continue my “My Filthy Hobby” pieces).