With 2023 underway, it’s time to set some goals for the writing year ahead for Bryan Mack Books. This will be my third year as a self published author and there are still things I’ve wanted to do that I haven’t done yet. So it’s time to make a plan to make them happen!

1] BOOKS

New 2023 Books?

In 2020 I put out my first fiction book, The Valentine Trap.

I followed that up in 2021 with two more books, The Ghost In The Mirror and The Diamond Of Tomorrow.

2022 saw me only put out one book, The Serpent Strategy.

Book Five, A Girl Called Valentine, was started almost straight away after Book Four was done but a combination of things meant progress wasn’t as swift as it had been on the others. Those things were a change of Dreaded Day Job, the worthwhile distraction of the YouTube Channel Experiment, and having a major rethink over the content of the book’s plot. All those things together slowed me down with the result that I only put out the one book rather than the two I had planned for.

As far as 2023 is concerned, at the moment I’m on Page 202 of Book Five, which means I’ve only got another 100 pages to do, more or less, and then it’ll be done and it’s on to Book Six.

It’s interesting that what started out a trilogy has ended up being twice as many books as I planned for it to be. But I’m confident that when we hit Book Six that really will be the conclusion of what has become an interconnected run of books telling an ongoing story. With Book Seven, which is planned for 2024, we should be moving into standalone adventures for Valentine & Milo.

2] AUDIOBOOKS?

Will 2023 finally be the year I record my first audiobook? This has been on the To Do List from day one, but I still haven’t managed it. As an experienced voice over artist, I understand the potential pitfalls inherent in recording audiobooks and I’d rather delay the start of what will be a huge undertaking to make sure I get it right.

Part of the reason why I didn’t make a start on the audiobooks was discovering, during my tweaking of the first three books, that what I’d written wasn’t as easily say-able as I thought it was. Which meant re-reading all of them aloud and then adjusting them as a result to make sure they were. I’ve learned that I need to make that part of my writing process going forward.

Of course, there’s a fine line between preparation and procrastination…

3] YOUTUBE?

While a BookTuber channel is still something I’d like to do, my experience with the non-writing channel I did as an experiment tells me that this is something else that’s not a priority right now. Rest assured that it will happen, but I doubt it’ll be until after Book Six is finished.

4] PODCAST?

Again, this is something I am keen on doing, and it would certainly be easier than a YouTube channel. But my concern is that I would end up podcasting about writing rather than doing any actual writing!

5] EMAILS!

I’m doing a lot better on the email front and receive a lot less than I used to. But I still have a huge backlog that I need to work through, some of which have been unopened for about five years!

6] READING

I still have thirty-one unread writing advice books that I either haven’t even started or started but never finished. I really need to make some headway on getting through the Need To Read Pile this year. If I can get that number down to about a dozen or so, or better still single figures, I’ll be happy!

 

So. The Grand Masterplan for Bryan Mack Books in 2023 is to finish Book Five, write Book Six, make sure they’re say-able, read all my unread emails and writing advice books and get ready to finally start recording those audiobooks!

The Self Publishing Adventure continues – feel free to join me!