Summer Experiment

 

This summer I'm going to be running a fun (and hopefully profitable) experiment where I'm promoting my backlist of novels.  Each old book gets a month where it will be on sale for 99 cents, a few paid promos, and Amazon ads to see if I can get some new readers.

I'll be paying close attention to what works and what doesn't and adjust each month.

For June, The Art of Lying, goes on sale and I'm running a promo on June 2nd with Bargain Booksy and on June 4th with The Fussy Librarian.  I'm also setting up three amazon ad campaigns for keywords, categories, and similar authors. 

What I'm hoping to gain

New readers which I hope leads to new reviews and new subscribers to my mailing list.  And I'm hoping those new readers continue to read my books, and grab the next few while they are on sale as well.   

Ideally, I would also like to make some money...because it's nice to have (and contrary to popular belief, it can bring happiness).  How much?  Well, I don't have an exact number but I would like to actually make money after promo and ad spend. That would be amazing.  To have enough to run ads and promos next month without worry.  Ideal situation!

What's next

Gather promo materials, schedule social media posts, get the ads set up, and make sure the price is set on all bookstore sites.  Then I need to gather starting data. How many subscribers I currently have on my newsletter, how many reviews the book has on Amazon, and write down what I've spent so far on promos so I can see if I was successful. 

I'll be back to tell you how the experiment works and what I'll be doing for July's book!!

The One Weekly Habit That Saves My Sanity (and My Manuscript)

 

If you aren’t looking back, how do you really know where you’re going?

In the indie author world, we talk a lot about the hustle. We talk about word counts, formatting tweaks, keyword research, and launch strategies. We write down our big, beautiful goals every January (or every single month, if you’re like me and prefer the "New Month, New Intentions" mindset).

But there is a massive difference between keeping yourself busy and actually moving your career forward.

For a long time, I found myself running in circles, wondering why I felt so exhausted yet somehow still stuck in the exact same place. That changed when I implemented the absolute heartbeat of my planning system: The Weekly Review.

Without taking a dedicated beat to look back, analyze what worked, and brutally assess what didn't, we are essentially driving with our eyes closed. For me, this past week’s review brought up some major revelations—both as a writer navigating the "messy middle" and as a human navigating, well, life.

Here is what a real-life, unfiltered weekly check-in looks like in my world right now.

🔮 The Creative Win: Trusting the Tools to Fight the "Messy Middle"

If you’ve ever written a book, you know about the "messy middle." It’s that glorious, terrifying territory in Draft 3 where the initial excitement of the story has burned off, the ending feels a million miles away, and you suddenly realize you have painted your characters into a massive, narrative corner.

That happened to me this week with Terra Firma (Book 2 of the Bloodlines of Power series). The plot felt muddy. The pacing felt off.

In the past, this is the exact moment where the self-doubt would swoop in to whisper that I didn't know what I was doing. But during my review, I realized something huge: This time, I didn’t doubt myself. Instead of spiraling, I trusted my system. I allowed myself the time and grace to simply brainstorm. I pulled out a unique tool that I love using when I'm stuck—my tarot cards—to look at the character dynamics from a completely fresh angle. I worked out the problems step-by-step, and guess what? It worked. I broke out of that corner and dove right back into full-on writing mode.

The lesson? When you have a weekly habit of reviewing your process, you start to realize that being "stuck" isn't a failure—it’s just a puzzle waiting for you to solve it.

⛈️ The Reality Check: Tracking the Things I Can't Control

But let’s be entirely real for a second. A good planning system shouldn't just track your business metrics and word counts; it has to have space for your humanity. Because while I was busy fixing my fictional world, the real world was throwing a lot of noise my way.

Lately, I’ve found myself wasting a lot of mental energy stressing over things completely out of my control:

• The Health Stuff: Lingering issues that I simply have to step back and let the medical experts handle.

• The Teenager Stuff: Navigating the wild, beautiful, and exhausting waters of parenting a teen boy.

• The Wild NYC Weather: Seriously, New York. One second I’m freezing and need a heavy jacket, and the next I’m actively sweating through a tank top on the subway platform.

When you don't have a place to acknowledge that stress, it builds up in the background like a computer running too many apps at once. Eventually, you crash.

Because my weekly review specifically includes a space to log my mental and emotional state, I caught the rising stress before it could spiral into full-blown burnout. It served as a gentle reminder to lean hard into my real-world lifelines: journaling, meditation, and therapy.

Your Planner is an Anchor, Not a Taskmaster

Success as an indie author isn't about executing a flawless, robotic schedule. It’s about building a system that allows you to adjust when life gets loud, weather gets weird, and plots get muddy.

By taking 20 minutes at the end of every week to sit down with my coffee and review the data, I give myself the clarity to conquer the next seven days and the confidence to know that I am exactly where I need to be.

Over to you: Do you have a regular planning system? Is a intentional weekly review part of your routine, or do you tend to "plan it and forget it"? Let’s chat in the comments below—I’d love to know how you stay grounded!

My way or the highway?

 

I realized something the other day, and it's making me sit with some very uncomfortable feelings.

Back in college, teachers told me that I needed to lose some weight to make it as an actor, and instead of following that advice I did the exact opposite - I thought, "I'll show them! I'll do what I want and make it on my own!"  But I didn't, I moved to NYC and auditioned and had casting directors, coaches, and teachers tell me I needed to lose a little weight to make it as an actor.  Again...I didn't listen, I got mad, thought I can do this on my own and a few years later I quit.

And I'm doing something similar now with my writing career - marketing in particular - because I keep hearing from people that I need to put more effort into my social media, post more with more intention, do the TikTok videos, network with people, put yourself out there more - and instead of following that advice, I've been thinking - well, I'll show them! I'll do what I want and make it on my own, doing it my way! Yikes!

The thing is, I've been wanting to get back to short form videos (TikTok, Reels, etc) but when someone tells me that's what I should be doing, I think - says who?!? - no thanks, not any more.  And I realized this becasue my son is the exact same way and it's been frustrating me for awhile...and now I know why, we are very very similar (maybe too much) and it's putting up a mirror to all the things I've done "my way" that didn't work and instead of changing course, I held my ground, dug my heels in and failed. 

I want to talk about me and my books and my writing career and author journey. I like being on video (theatre major, remember?!?!) but I've been resisting starting again because of the prevailing advice telling me I should. UGH! I want to have fun and do things my way and I can, but I also need to start and just do the damn thing. 

Have you ever had someone else's behavior show you how you've been? Was that a positive or negative thing for you? Let me know in the comments below. 

Stuck

 

I've been feeling stuck.  In life, in my writing, in my career, in my health...in general.

Third draft revisions aren't going as smoothly as I would like - I've reached the messy middle and it is very, very messy.  Past Jenn didn't do Present Jenn many favors with her open ended notes and "fix this later" messages. Listen, I know I'll be able to write my way out of the painted corner I find myself in, but it's not helping my overall stuck mood.

The economy stinks right now and although I love the my VA clients (I'm a Virtual Assistant) I need a few more and they are no where to be found lately so I've been seeking some other remote job opportunities and let me tell you, if you don't already know from experience, the job market is the pits right now. And so I'm pondering my life's direction and choices and cursing a little that I got a BFA in Theatre Performance and not accounting or something (although me and math aren't friendly so I would have flunked out rather than graduate with that major).

My knees hurt, my lower back hurts, and I turn 50 in just a few short months so I know I should be moving my body and eating a few more veggies than I do right now, but...with all the other stuff going on, food is the thing I turn to for comfort. And that puts me into a vicious cycle of eating something yummy to keep me distracted from feeling the negative feelings...but then I start feeling bad because I abandoned the goals and habits I set for myself...so then I feel the negative feelings again. Ugh, it's very frustrating and something I'm working on with my therapist but it's slow going.

The thing is, I know what needs to be done in almost every circumstance above (minus the job stuff...I have some things to try but I'm not 100% sure they will work) it's just getting myself to do them, to get out of the stuck feeling and back onto the right track, the unstuck place.

When you feel stuck what do you do to get out of it?

I've started with making sure I'm drinking enough water throughout the day, doing my skincare twice a day, taking my meds religiously in the morning, and listening to either Taylor Swift or Harry Styles.