Heidi Burke
- Jan 15, 2022
- 3 min read

My Goal Posts didn't move ... they escaped

First off, I did make goals for this year. I wrote them down on a post-it, so that's super official. That said, the post-it has since disappeared, so I'm going to be doing this off of memory.

I mean, I did go through my "files" (read stack of papers on my desk) and found this stack of post-its.

This all makes sense. I promise.

So, basically I don't do resolutions. I do goals. Because semantics and I like to feel original ... but also because I tend to pick goal posts that are somewhat out of my hands to complete. I mean, you resolve to exercise everyday. You can't really "resolve" to get more book sales because unless you are buying the books yourself, there is not a fool proof way to guarantee that. You can resolve to do something you think will get you more sales, but it doesn't work then it doesn't work.

So calling them goals gives me something to aim for but still gives me the wiggle room to do it whatever way I feel like in the moment because I am a creature of whimsy and I will not do long term planning. So there.

So last year my two goals were:

Get one more of my books up past 100 Amazon ratings (Accomplished with Spellsmith & Carver some time in the late summer).
Reach 5000 lifetime audiobook sales (I surprised myself by hitting this in like March which made it anticlimactic. Currently at 5,603)

So this year, let's stretch.

Get TWO more of my books past 100 Amazon ratings.
Reach 7000 in lifetime audiobook sales.
Try to do at least one promotional thing a week day for my books (so 5 a week)
Reach 2000 overall ratings on Goodreads

Plans:

Goal 1:

Going over my books that are the closest to 100 reviews, I have:

Now you'd think that would make Beggar Magic the obvious horse in this game, but it's the oldest (publishing date wise) book on the list and in spite of efforts, it's been stuck around 90 ratings on Amazon for a LONG time. Like I think it accrued two reviews all of last year. I'm going to do some work to push it, but I think it will actually be easier to get 11 reviews for To Court a Queen than 4 for Beggar Magic at this point.

That said, I'm probably going to be contacting review bloggers and offering some copies and otherwise trying to push these books up to 100. I feel like I should do a betting thing where they're in a horse race. Beggar Magic is the aging champion who wants to see if it has one more race left. To Court a Queen is the young upstart champion who wants to take all Beggar Magic's wreaths or crowns or whatever it is they give horses (I was NOT a horse girl growing up. Cats all the way. Cat races would be really entertaining in a frustrating way)

Goal 2:

Reach 7000 in lifetime audiobook sales.

This one I'm hoping will kind of happen naturally. I do have a handful of books I am hoping to move into audio format this year. Mainly Reunion, Power On, and Power Play. Three launches should drive sales. Also, goal 3 should advance this goal ... so I don't have a lot to say here.

Goal 3:

Do something promotional for one or more of my books every week day.

This is the only one that could possibly count as a resolution because it is something I have control over and am doing on my own. I'm being easy on myself, though. Like I count very small effort items (like applying to BookBub or scheduling a sales based social media post) as a promo, so most of the time this will only take about 5 minutes ... but I am hoping little efforts add up over time.

Last year I started working full time for an employer (as opposed to my self-employed writing stuff) for the first time in years, and it's been fine, but while I've been able to keep my writing on track (writing still isn't a chore to me. Generally speaking I like doing it), the marketing kind of fell by the wayside and it did hurt my sales. Trying to just make myself take five minutes a day to do SOMETHING to sell books as well as write them, I hope will make a dent in the opposite direction.

Goal 4:

Reach 2000 ratings on Goodreads. I'm at 1887 as I write this, so this isn't particularly hard, but still, it will be nice to mark going over this milestone, and I'd probably forget to if I didn't make a thing of it.

So that's everything! Looking forward to see how everything shakes down next year!