celebrating one year as a published novelist
happy first birthday to The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher! yesterday was Edna's birthday, which means my socials will be full of fun games, events, and giveaways this week—culminating in the release of the Remarkable Retirement audiobook this Friday!
officially, I'll be celebrating on Instagram only, for my own sanity. unofficially, I'll be posting everywhere! but if you want to participate in official celebratory events and (especially) giveaways, click below to follow me on Instagram.
click here to follow me on Instagram.
Penguicon 2024: April 26-28
okay, before I do the whole sappy what-a-year-it's-been thing: I'll be at Penguicon the upcoming weekend! join me at the Ann Arbor Marriott-Ypsilanti for a three-day convention for all things sci-fi, fantasy, and DIY. single-day passes are available for $50 in advance or $65 at the door.
here's my schedule:
Writer's Block Bookstore, Friday 6p.m. EST
Writer's Block Bookstore, Saturday 11a.m. EST
Reading, Saturday 12p.m. EST
Expanding Universes (panel), Saturday 2p.m. EST
Write What You Know: Putting YOU in Your Writing (presentation), Saturday 5p.m. EST
for a full event schedule, click here: link to event
note: Penguicon is requiring masking for all attendees this year, so don't forget your mask!
looking back on debut year
maybe because I'm a writer, or maybe because I'm neurodivergent, or maybe just because I'm human, I often feel compelled to reflect on things once a certain milestone has been reached. but for a long time, when it came to writing and publishing, I skipped that.
on one hand, there are so many possible milestones: finishing a draft, finishing a book, signing with an agent or publisher, selling a copy of your book, doing an event, hitting a bestseller list, winning an award, the list is endless. on the other hand, the goal posts are always moving—and so are even personal definitions of publishing success. it's hard to convince yourself to celebrate milestones when each milestone has you immediately thinking about the next one.
I fought with myself to not move goal posts before Remarkable Retirement came out, especially goal posts based on "goals" I had no control over, like goodreads adds. when Edna first appeared on goodreads, my goal was 250 adds by the end of the year. I hit that. then my goal was 500 adds by the end of the year. I hit that. then my goal was 750 adds by the end of the year. I hit that, and then I gave myself a stern talking-to, because 750 adds is pretty good, dammit, and please do not insist upon 1000.
(I won that argument with myself, and then I hit 1000 adds anyway, right around Christmas, after my sister's Tumblr post about the book took off. now it's over 18,000 adds, which is so far beyond any stretch goal I ever had that it's slightly dizzying.)
so here I am, writing a reflection about my year as a debut author.
sometimes it sucked
I'm not trying to be negative here, but I think we're all aware of the toxic positivity on writing socials. or, well, I should say: writing socials swing wildly between toxic positivity and the worst discourse you've ever seen in your life. but let's focus on the toxic positivity.
the point is, I do want to celebrate, and I am going to talk about some things I'm grateful for. but I don't want to pretend everything has been hunky-dory or that it was constant excitement and joy.
much of it was! but even some of the things I'm grateful for left me with a sizable chip on my shoulder that I had to work on filing down over the year. I was envious when other authors' books appeared in most-anticipated lists and bookstores everywhere while mine did not. I obsessed over goodreads numbers, even though goodreads adds are not sales.
(they are, however, one of the few numbers authors can look at easily and on their own. as a small-press author, I felt they at least told me something about the state of awareness about my book, which was my biggest concern prior to launch.)
I wore myself out trying to market the book before launch—not uncommon, especially for debut authors—and spent months afterward barely caring anymore. and, unfortunately, post-launch tends to feel like no one cares about your book anymore, because they're looking ahead to the NEW new releases.
sometimes it was amazing
while I didn't hit any major lists or get a mention in any trade mags, my goodreads adds skyrocketed when I made goodreads's list of the biggest sci-fi and fantasy releases for spring 2023. that will always be most memorable for the odd experience I had of getting SO excited that it bypassed excitement and flew into anxiety. like, emotionally I was HYPE AF, but physically I was having a full-on panic attack because my body didn't know what to do with all the excess excitement.
and while I didn't get accepted as a panelist to any major events, it always amazed me when someone reached out asking if I'd pretty please do an event for their library or reading group. or when I reached out to ask if I could pretty please do an event for their library or reading group, and they responded with "yes, absolutely! how much do you charge for that?"
how much do I charge?? girl I'm asking you to let me come??
(I know, I know. value my own time and all that. I am but a humble Millennial crushed under the boot of capitalism. if I get to do things I enjoy instead of being at a terrible, low-paying job all the time, it's like omg I really get to do this?? working in grocery stores for 10 years will do that to you.)
and, of course, THE single most amazing thing that happened was readers tagging me in positive reviews or messaging me to say how much they loved the book. I have a running document of all the lovely things people say about Edna, and I read it when I'm having a tough day.
will I do anything different for the next book?
honestly? probably not much.
for one thing, I know myself. I get overeager about things I love. so yeah, I'll probably spend more time than I need to screaming about the book on socials. and yeah, I'll probably say yes to more events than I should. and I'll probably still obsess over goodreads numbers, at least for a while.
but I actually loved my debut year, on the whole, and I don't regret anything I did. plus, with the demise of twitter, I've already taken a step back from socials: in general, I limit myself to (more or less) 15 minutes per platform per day, solely on the three platforms I've decided are my focus, and I give myself days off. so I think that'll help a little, although I admit cross-posting big news still gets exhausting.
maybe I'll try not to have an event each month, though. y'know, unless Mira wants to send me on a book tour or something.
links
click here for a complete schedule of this week's social media events: link
click here to follow me on Facebook: link
click here to follow me on BlueSky: link
click here to add The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher on GoodReads: link
click here to add The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher on StoryGraph: link
click here to buy The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher in paperback, hardcover, or large-print hardcover, or ebook: link
until next time!
