Posted on by hrchow12 · 3 Comments

2025 Author Year in Review

Get ready, because we’re about to get real in this one.



Welcome to my end-of-the-year writing review! This is where I try to take a bird’s eye view of the year and my writing year in general to sum up the big wins, the losses, areas I’m doing well in, and others I could improve. This is where I see if I hit my 2025 goals and make new goals and predictions for 2026.

Last year, I said 2025 could very well be the year that would make or break me. But naturally, there is very little that’s so black and white. My writing career took some big steps forward this year, and I had some fun surprises, but there were also some warning signs that have me trepidatious about 2026.

So, going into this post, I obviously have some big mixed feelings, and honestly, writing this post is going to be a little bit of a self-discovery adventure for me because at this moment, I really don’t know what the big rock takeaways from this year are.

The hope is, by the time I finish writing this, I’ll have a better idea—so let’s jump in and see!

first, the numbers

  • Words written: 70,000 (House of the Chosen, finished drafting) + 28,000 (A Witch’s Game of Moonlight & Mischief, finished drafting with E.P. Stavs) + 88,000 (Paranormal Mystery Title TBA) + 400 (Chase vs The Doom Spiral picture book) + 64,000 (So He Burned Down the World For You) = 250,400 words (-12% from last year)
  • Words revised: 90,000 (House of the Chosen) + 75,000 (A Witch’s Game of Moonlight & Mischief) + 86,000 (Paranormal Mystery Title TBA) + 400 (Chase vs The Doom Spiral picture book) = 251,000 (-14% from last year)
  • Words published: 83,000 (Into the Abyss) + 41,000 (A Churn in the Dark) = 124,000 (-2% from last year)
  • Words on sub: 67,000 (Exit Seats) + 75,000 (Codename: CNDRLA) = 142,000 words (-11% from last year)
  • 2025 Total Words Worked: 767,400 (-11% from last year)

Sales Numbers: ~535 self-published books sold (-9% from last year, includes audiobooks but not my titles with Whimsical Publishing.). Another 10,487 downloaded for free. (+10% last year’s count)

And the Goodreads numbers.

  • Odriel’s Heirs: 290 ratings (+12%) / 4.23 stars
  • Burning Shadows: 48 ratings (+20%) / 4.62 stars
  • Idriel’s Children: 91 ratings (+11%) / 4.40 stars
  • Night of Ash: 31 ratings (+11%) / 4.65 stars
  • Time’s Orphan: 98 ratings (+8%) / 4.60 stars
  • The Gatekeeper of Pericael: 115 ratings (+12%) / 4.10 stars
  • Into the Churn: 467 ratings (+38%) / 4.23 stars
  • Into the Fire: 112 ratings (+56%) / 4.50 stars
  • A Churn in the Dark: 53 ratings (+253%) / 4.58 stars
  • Into the Abyss: 47 (+1075%) / 4.72 stars
  • A Churn in the (Virtual) Society: 16 / 4.81 stars

    My Goodreads total: 1372 ratings (+32%) / 4.34 stars

If you want to compare the totals to last year more directly, my 2024 summary is here.

As far as words go, I’m not surprised I had less words this year. At the end of last year, I was questioning why I was pushing myself to move so fast, and that mentality continued through this year. With multiple books on sub, 6 books scheduled to release in the next 3 years, and the pervasive feeling that I was out of balance, I intentionally took a step back from writing intensity this year.

While I snagged two BookBub deals this year, they weren’t quite as successful as sales I’ve run in years past. That could be due to the fact that I’m getting farther away from release, so I’m seeing diminishing returns from the BookBub audience, or potentially just that with each passing year, my books are competing with more book releases as well as books currently on the market. (I’ll touch more on this later.)

Looking forward to 2026, I wouldn’t be surprised if my words-worked number goes down again, and I fully expect my self-published numbers to go down as I pivot to promoting my newer books (such as the completed Into the Churn series and my 2026 releases.)

the highlights

  • Through the work of our amazing agent, Kristen Terrette from Martin Literary, E.P. Stavs and I had two offers on our Quirky YA Paranormal, Midnight Falls, and we scored a 2-book deal with Charlesbridge Publishing for release in Fall 2027 & 2028. I cannot understate what a HUGE deal this was for us. I knew if I was going to continue moving forward, I needed to sign a deal with publisher through my agent this year, so this was truly a dream come true. It’s hard to wait, but Erin and I are SO excited for to see Midnight Falls launch in 2027.

    What Book 2 will be is still up in the air. Erin and I are hoping it’ll be the second stand-alone book in our “Magical Tourism” series, but the publisher could ask for a direct sequel to Midnight Falls, so hopefully we’ll find out in 2026!
  • Whimsical Publishing acquired my NA Paranormal Mystery (title TBA) and book 1 of the planned trilogy is set to release on May 26th! This was also a huge deal for me. I didn’t have any releases planned after Into the Churn completed in September 2025, so I knew I had to successfully pitch to Whimsical if I wanted to have a 2026 release. Great news: they LOVED it 🥹, and I’m so excited to see what readers think of this new adventure!
  • With the release of Into the Abyss (book 3) and A Churn in the Virtual Society (book 3.5), the Into the Churn series was completed! This was a hugely satisfying moment, I’m so glad we were able to complete the series for the readers, and it’s so much more fun to be able to promote a completed series!
  • Codename: CNDRLA and Exit Seats went on submission, and The Ninth Circle went out to another round of editors! Being on submission is emotionally tough, but I think I finally got the hang of weathering it this year. (more on this later.) I’m beyond grateful to my amazing agent and her unending encouragement and commitment to getting these books out in the world.
  • I wrote and illustrated a picture book to help my 7-year-old with his anxiety meltdowns, and it WORKED. (Trust me, no one is more shocked here, then me.) Then, my friend with an anxious 5-year-old asked for a proof copy, and it helped them as well. Writing a book purely from the heart with no regard for market other than this one goal to help my son and kids like him was such a rewarding experience. I’m so proud of it, and I’m SO looking forward to self-publishing it February. There will be no fanfare and very little promotion; just a quiet satisfaction that it exists for kids and parents who need it.
  • I had three interesting opportunities pop up that I can’t actually talk about yet. While (being the pessimist that I am) I don’t expect them to transform my writing career in a significant way, I was so honored to be considered for these chances, and with some tremendous luck, maybe I’ll have an announcement or two to make next year.
  • I joined the WriteHive team for my second year as a writing mentor, and I’ve loved being able to pay forward my writing knowledge to the writing community.
  • In a huge surprise to me this year, I went to *8* in-person author signing events in my community at 4 different local book shops and my local library. And now my books are stocked in all 4 shops. 🥹 My local library surprised me by putting my photo on a BILLBOARD in our town, and The Hidden Lantern in Rosemary Beach recommended my books on the LOCAL NEWS! Not only that, but I established great relationships with The Book Rack in Fort Walton Beach and the Salt & Story in Niceville, and they have reached out TO ME multiple times asking if I would come do book events. I totally didn’t have any of this on my 2025 Bingo Card, but they made me feel so valued, and I’m so grateful our local book shops for their support.

What I learned

  • I have three lessons learned from last year I still feel in my bones this year and I feel like I’m still absorbing them, so I’ll list them again:
    • My promotional budget and energy is limited. Therefore, I need to pivot harder away from promoting my backlist to focus on upcoming releases. (Picture me yelling this at myself because it is easy to say but harder to execute, because, dang it, I love my backlist and I’m proud of it.) However, I only have so much time and money and I *have* to look forward and make smart business decisions. *insert Friends gif here of Ross Gellar yelling PIVOT!!!*
    • I have found balance and peace with my online presence as an author. While I will never be a viral sensation, I have found a style of content on each of 5 different platforms (Threads, TikTok, Instagram, WordPress, and Mailchimp) that I can be consistent with and that makes me smile. (Not as much as writing… but I’ll take what I can get.) Though my social media numbers aren’t going to knock a publisher’s socks off by any means, I’m consistent, I work hard, and I’m authentic, and honestly, I’m proud of that.
    • Sequel releases are still hard on me mentally. It’s been 2 solid years of sequel releases, so I’m SO ready for new series starts in 2026 and 2027. I really have no desire to ever write a series longer than a trilogy, and while I’ll allow for novellas as a neat little marketing tool to tide passionate readers over until the next release, novella releases are perhaps my least favorite type of release. Too many readers accidentally or intentionally skip over them, missing key components to the series flow, and it pains my author heart.
  • Somewhere above I mentioned that I figured out how to handle being on submission, and fair warning, there’s a lot of you who aren’t going to like this strategy, but it’s honestly the only thing I’ve found that works. For me, being on submission is tough because it feels like every day you fail a little more… even though you legit have no control (once the book is on sub) whether an editor will fall in love with your book or not. For me, it is a slow, repeated destruction of hope under the weight of an empty, silent inbox.

    I know that sounds dramatic and like, incredibly pessimistic, but I’m just being honest.

    So, in order to handle that, I had to shift my thinking. Essentially now, when a book goes on sub, inwardly, I already consider it dead. I even went so far as to rename the folder for those manuscripts “Purgatory.” (Also, because it makes me smile. I survive through dark humor.)

    That allows me to shift all of my mental energy to areas I can control: notably, my current works in progress and my next releases.

    Furthermore, there was a time in my life where I was writing not *for* market, but with market in mind… and honestly, I’m past that now. For the record, it didn’t seem to do me a lot of good on any front. My YA books were still “too PG-13” for current trends. The market was “too glutted” for my “on-trend” books, and the market was “too niche” for my more original concepts. In general, any conversation that included “market” was not super helpful.

    Once I reset my brain to consider the real possibility that none of my manuscripts might get picked up, regardless of whether they were “on trend,” or not, it made absolutely no sense to write for anyone but me and the people I love most.

    Writing the picture book, Chase vs. The Doom Spiral, especially drove this home for me. Objectively, I’m a lackluster illustrator, and that book will go (relatively) nowhere. But I love it. My son loves it. I *know* there are anxious kids out there that this book will make a difference for, and even if I’m only making a difference for 1 or 2 families, that’s still making a difference, and there is immense satisfaction in that.

    Continuing in this vein, I just finished drafting a book I imagine will be unmarketable, and you know, I’m fine with that too. Because it was cathartic and I loved writing it, and at the end of the day, that’s why I’m here. To process the world around me and grow as a person through writing.

    It’s that mindset that reminds me that numbers are just numbers — an infinite mirage of success that does not and will never define me.

    That’s not to say I might not try for a marketable book again if the mood strikes, but I’ve shifted my thinking so that’s no longer the goal. The goal is to make the book I can be proudest of. The book that is THE MOST me. And with that in mind, being on submission just becomes the footnote on my journey, rather than the journey itself.

The bumps

  • Well, I think the most obvious one here is that I have to concede Inky & Heater IRL (my YA contemporary romance that reads like You’ve Got Mail + esports) is dead on sub, and has been shelved for the time being. It’s a bummer for sure, but one I’ve surprisingly come to terms with this year. I still hold the conviction that it will go out into the world one day, one way or another, so I can take this as an exercise in being patient with a smile still on my face.
  • This next one though, is going to take some words. I can’t decide if this was a series of small bumps that were all interconnected on the same theme, or just one big bump, so here we go:

I was accused by a trusted Beta reader (who is also an editor) of using A.I. to write one of my manuscripts, and then they confided in me that they use A.I. in all of their writing now. When I explained that from an ethical and personal standpoint, I would never use generative A.I. in my writing, they accused me of lying. It was awful and infuriating and just so sad. I know I’m not the first author to be falsely accused and I posted reels about the situation and my feelings about it on Instagram and TikTok. Needless to say, I will never be recommending or using that editor again, and I highly recommend if you use a beta reader or editor you make sure they have an explicit anti-gen-A.I. statement on their site, because many of them are not being transparent about usage.

But it truly just made so sad for the future of humanity, art, and connection. I also posted about it here. While, in general, I do have hope that we as humans, in the long run, won’t let A.I. degrade our creativity, our art, and our connection to one another — current trends are disturbing, and they are hurting creatives of all stripes: actors, authors, artists, narrators. It has made us question everything we see, hear, and read as authentic.

As such, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for creatives, and I know I’m not the only one. Even now, A.I. is flooding our authentic spaces with hollow replicas designed to deceive and scam; ultimately stifling the visibility & support of human thought and imagination.

If you think I’m being a ridiculous alarmist, I truly hope you are right, but I feel the shadow hanging over the human writing community all the same, and it’s another reason why I’ve redoubled my efforts to be as authentic and honest in my writing as possible. Both to underline the humanity of my work, but also because, in the near-term, I feel like there is a real possibility that A.I. generated content (and content at large) will effectively blot out what little visibility my works have.

To give you an idea of how the bookish landscape has changed in the past two decades (and this was largely before the added gen A.I. issue), here’s a post by NYT best-selling author, Jacqueline Cary, that also underscored the naturally increasing difficulty of creative visibility:

So yeah. Kind of Dark. I know. Not to mention, that AI-gen content is also flooding social media, which many authors (including myself) rely on to market their books and increase their visibility.

But I think in this moment, I, personally, feel the need to embrace the Stockdale Paradox, which I first became aware of in Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead but is well paraphrased here in Groysberg’s Article from Harvard Business School “What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership”:

‘Collins asked him about the personal characteristics of prisoners who did not make it out of the camps. “The optimists,” he replied. “Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart … This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”‘

So I guess what I’m saying, and what I’m still coming to terms with, is that the current reality is that this may very well be as “successful” as I get. In the current environment, the odds are very much against the growth of my visibility, sales, and numbers.

That doesn’t mean I won’t try to succeed.
It doesn’t mean I’ll stop learning how to adapt to this new environment.
Doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop showing up every day and giving it my all.

However, it does recage my idea of success. Because I have always viewed an increase in visibility as my litmus test for success. The desire to get my books to as many readers as I can who will love them like I do. To grow my audience.

But that friends, is a number. It is the mirage. And one that may be incompatible with the current reality.

So what do we do? What can we do under the weight of all this heaviness that neither you nor I realized we were going to get into when we started this post?!

Well, let’s talk a path forward. Let’s talk goals.

Because I am nothing if not stubborn as the stars in the sky.

Goals

If you’ve stuck with me this far, I must say, I am impressed. There was a lot more to unpack here than I thought, but *I* for one am feeling so much better. Like, so this what all the deep dark thoughts I was trying so hard to lock away were about? It’s all starting to make sense now. (Why yes, apparently my author recap this year is me processing a year’s worth of repressed brooding in real time. How exciting! This is really what writing is all about. *Self-five*)

Okay, with all of this in mind, let’s talk 2026. As always, I try to keep my goals measurable and attainable solely by own will-power. (Goal small. Dream big.) But as a theme for 2026, I want to focus less on the numbers and more from finding joy in writing and the author life. I want to take joy in reader impact and connection; in writing unapologetically authentic books that I am incredibly proud of not matter what the numbers say. I want to slow down EVEN more, put less pressure on myself to produce and focus on sustainable writing life balance.

Heck, even writing that fills me with warm fuzzies.

But because Goals are supposed to be measurable, let’s talk some specifics too. Last year I’m proud to say I hit solidly hit 2.5/3 of my goals which you can find in my 2024 post. So in 2026, I’m aiming to…

  • Self-publish my picture book Chase vs. The Doom Spiral in February
  • Finish my revision of House of the Chosen and send it to my Agent in Jan/Feb timeframe
  • Send our co-WIP, A Witch’s Game of Mischief & Moonlight, to our agent in the Jan/Feb timeframe (this is the 0.5 goal that didn’t get completed last year, but we’re super close on this one)
  • Get my Paranormal Mystery (Title TBA on January 6th) coming from Whimsical Publishing out in the world on May 26th!
  • Finish book 2 of said Paranormal Mystery Series and send it to Whimsical Publishing in April
  • Revise my Quirky Cozy Dark Fantasy Romance (So He Burned Down the World For You) and send to my agent

Okay, well, there were more goals than I thought, but when you boil it down, it’s: publish 2 (easy), revise 3 (medium-time commitment), and draft 1 (time-consuming.) Honestly, I expect to accomplish all of these by June 1st. As for what the rest of the year will bring, who knows? Maybe it’ll be a lot or a little or somewhere in between, but I’m excited to have fun with it.

The sum up

That was SO MUCH MORE than I expected to cover in this post. Like, geez. While the numbers were less than last year, I’m reframing to see that as a datapoint rather than the goal. There were way more highlights than I thought, the bumps (while not necessarily many) were WAY heavier than I thought, and honestly I have more goals for next year than I thought.

I described the 2023 review as ‘effervescent’, the 2024 review was the one where I was way too honest, and apparently the 2025 one is where I went kind of dark. And it’s definitely making me laugh. I’m already looking forward to the 2026 review only because I have NO IDEA what it’s going to say next.

Prediction: 2026 year was the year I gave up the harsh expectations for myself, the year I don’t really have a lot of notes to write home about, and the year I’ve been the happiest author-wise that I’ve been in a long time.

Not a measurable goal, but joy is always the dream, and I hope you all find lots of it in 2026.

Till then, friends. Cheers, happy New Year, and thanks for reading.

Posted on by hrchow12

2024 Author Year in Review (that might be a touch too honest)



It’s time again for the end-of-the-year writing review. This is where I try to zoom out and look at the year from a thousand feet up, see the forest instead of the trees etc etc. Mainly, I’m trying to assess if I hit my goals, areas I could improve, and get a feel for what to aim for in 2025.

To be perfectly honest, in many ways, 2024 was not the writing year I hoped it would be. There were a quite a few disappointments and realizations behind the scenes that I’m still grappling with. But this year also held some fun surprises I wasn’t expecting too, so overall, it was definitely a mixed bag.

So what does that mean for 2025? Well, let’s dig into 2024 and see if we can take a guess.

first, the numbers

  • Words written: 67,000 (Exit Seats) + 31,000 (A Churn in the Dark novella) + 83,000 (Into the Abyss) + 35,000 (my half of Borrowed Magic & Other Catastrophes, coauthored with E.P. Stavs) + 40,000 (Surprise Novella, Title TBA) + 20,000 (House of the Chosen, still drafting) + 9,500 (still drafting Odds & Ends with E.P. Stavs = 285,500 words (+89% from last year)
  • Words revised: 67,000 (Exit Seats) + 31,000 (A Churn in the Dark) + 83,000 (Into the Abyss) + 70,000 (Borrowed Magic & Other Catastrophes) + 40,000 (Surprise Novella) = 291,000 (-10% from last year)
  • Words published: 94,000 (Into the Fire) + 32,000 (A Churn in the Dark) = 126,000 (-30% from last year)
  • Words on sub: 83,000 (Ninth Circle) + 76,000 (Midnight Falls) = 159,000 words (+55% from last year)
  • 2024 Total Words Worked: 861,500 (+8% from last year)

Sales Numbers: ~589 self-published books sold (-28% from last year, includes audiobooks but not my titles with Whimsical Publishing). Another 9,523 downloaded for free. (-58% last year’s count)

And the Goodreads numbers.

  • Odriel’s Heirs: 259 ratings (+19%) / 4.24 stars
  • Burning Shadows: 40 ratings (+25%) / 4.65 stars
  • Idriel’s Children: 82 ratings (+17%) / 4.44 stars
  • Night of Ash: 28 ratings (+17%) / 4.64 stars
  • Time’s Orphan: 91 ratings (+23%) / 4.62 stars
  • The Gatekeeper of Pericael: 103 ratings (+5%) / 4.10 stars
  • Into the Churn: 338 ratings (+139%) / 4.25 stars
  • Into the Fire: 72 ratings / 4.60 stars
  • A Churn in the Dark: 15 ratings / 4.80 stars
  • Into the Abyss: 4 ratings / 5 stars

    My Goodreads total: 1036 ratings (+57%) / 4.34 stars

If you want to compare the totals to last year more directly, my 2023 summary is here.

As far as words go, I think my efficiency is higher than ever, and it certainly shows. I drafted a ton this year… to the point I was actually asking myself why I was pushing myself to move so fast.

Sales-wise, I worked my arse off promoting my Into the Churn series which had two releases this year, and so my self-published backlist naturally took a backseat in the promotion realm. The consistent downloads all year have been cool, but I think in 2025, I’ll try to snag another BookBub deal to really capitalize on the king of all promos.

the highlights

  • Into the Churn books #2.5, #3, and [redacted] were all greenlit! When I was writing Into the Fire (Into the Churn #2) I thought I’d have to settle for a duology, so this was huge news. Sales and interest really jumped with the cover rebrand, and I’m so thrilled we got to give this series the ending it deserves.
  • The Into the Churn series got an *amazing* audiobook adaption
  • The Ninth Circle & Midnight Falls went on sub! Being on submission is a journey, but I’m so lucky to have my amazing agent, Kristen Terrette from Martin Literary, to champion my books, and I’m excited to see where the journey takes these stories.
  • Several of my books won awards! Odriel’s Heirs won the 2024 YA IndieReader Discovery Awards, and each book in the trilogy one an Indie BRAG medallion. Idriel’s Children was A Wishing Shelf Book Award Silver Medal Winner, and The Gatekeeper of Pericael was a Literary Titan Gold Winner and a finalist in the 2024 International Readers’ Favorite Awards. Meanwhile Time’s Orphan was a bronze medalist in the 2024 International Readers’ Favorite Awards, a semifinalist in the 2024 book blogger novel of the year awards, and a semifinalist in the 2024 kindle book awards.
  • This year I joined the WriteHive team as a mentor in their mentorship program, and I’m so excited to pay forward everything I’ve picked up from the writing community.

What I learned

  • At this stage of the game in promoting my backlist, if it’s not a BookBub Promo, it’s probably not worth it. I’ve tried so many other newsletters and promotions, but they really just don’t measure up. However, I think I’m reaching the point in my backlist lifespan where I just kind of let them coast along and focus on promoting my current releases.
  • This year I entered quite a few book awards as I try to figure out which ones are worth entering. These remain my favorites:
  • So, last year, I listed social media, my newsletter, and this blog as all areas I maybe needed to grow in. I gotta tell ya though. Right now, I’m kind of at peace with the fact that I’ve consistently posted this year. I’m still on the look out for any epiphanies that may happen upon me, but I can exist in marathon (not sprint) mode, and I think that’s okay. Also, my newsletter subscribers increased by 60% and my website views increased 31% so that was pretty solid.
  • While I love working on sequels/series, and I 100% see the value in them, I’ll be real, releasing them isn’t as exciting. They’re harder to individually market, because you’re not courting new readers with a brand new book ripe with possibility, rather, you’re courting the readers who loved book one. (A much smaller population.) Which is all to say, I’ll be so stoked when the entire Into the Churn series is out there in September and I can market it as a completed unit. (Squee!!)

The bumps

  • Being on submission is mentally tougher than I thought it would be. There, I said it. I’m writing a separate post on why I think this is the case, but kin, I was not prepared. I think next year I need to slow down and take more time for my mental health to be able to shoulder this better.
  • So… I had a “stepping backward” moment with one of my manuscripts which was super disappointing. In the end, I had to make a decision in line with my values that unfortunately, also meant losing out an opportunity I was really looking forward to. I don’t regret the decision, but I think I’m still mourning the loss. I really can’t give the details, but just… blah.

Goals

All right, 2025, what are we going to do with you? As always, I try to keep my goals measurable and attainable. (Goal small. Dream big.) Last year I’m proud to say I hit all of my goals (Though I did not write the specific two next books itching at my brain… because sequel and co-WIPs jumped in front of them) So for 2025 I’m aiming to…

  • Get Into the Abyss out into the world in March and [redacted] out into the world in September to put a bow on the Into the Churn series.
  • Finish my two current drafts (House of the Chosen & the Odds & Ends co-WIP) and send to my agent.
  • Write the next book for Whimsical and send it their way!

With those details now, let’s zoom out. 2024 was an… unexpected year for me. I walked into 2024 thinking I would write the two books I had outlined, and instead I wrote *four* completely different ones. (Three sequels & a co-WIP) And while I’m happy with that, I think there’s still a part of me that’s desperate to write those other two books I’ve been daydreaming about.

Being on submission was harder than expected, and in a way, I’m half-expecting 2025 to be a make or break year for me. Also, the manuscript “step back” situation behind the scenes also hit me harder than expected. But no one said the journey would be a straight line or without bumps along the way.

With that in mind, I may try to purposely slow down, and make sure I’m taking more breaks for my mental health.

The sum up

So after last year’s effervescent wrap-up, I’m worried I’ve been too real with this one. But if I just want to give an accurate look at the ups and downs at the writing journey, this is all part of it.

It’s kind of funny because both my kids had a tough soccer season this year in the bottom of their age groups, and we discussed that sometimes we have learning years and sometimes we have performing years. Similarly, writing-wise, last year felt like a performing year for me, while this year felt more like a working year. It takes the working years to make the performing years happen, but that does not mean they are all equally exciting.

That said, I’m also very prepared for 2025 to be a working year too. Still, I’m here for it with tenacity to spare, and I’m excited to see what stories spill onto the page this year. Thanks for reading and cheers to another year of adventures!

Posted on by hrchow12

2023 Author Year in Review



Every year around this time, I try to take a step back and see how my writing year went. Did I accomplish my goals from last year? Was I productive? Did I grow? How can I do better next year?

Just at a glance, I can say without question that 2023 has been the biggest year for my small-potatoes writing career to date. Honestly, I’m still blown away, but I’m so excited to break it down and see if I can take a guess at what 2024 might hold.

So let’s get into it!

first, the numbers

  • Words written: 97,500 (Into the Fire+bonus chapters) + 17,000 (Exit Seats Zero Draft) + 36,250 (My half of the co-authored Midnight Falls) = 150,750 words (-30% from last year)
  • Words revised: 97,500 (Into the Fire) + 72,500 (Midnight Falls) + 71,500 (Inky & Heater IRL) + 83,000 (The Ninth Circle) = 324,500 words (+20% from last year)
  • Words published: 77,500 (Time’s Orphan) + 101,000 (Into the Churn+bonus chapters) = 178,500 (8x last year)
  • Words queried: 71,500 (Inky & Heater IRL) = 71,500 words (-60% from last year, but I signed with an AGENT!😱)
  • So moving forward, instead of words queried, I’ll tally words on sub (😱!): 71,500 (Inky & Heater IRL)
  • 2023 Total Words Worked: 796,750 words (+5% from last year)

Sales Numbers: ~816 self-published books sold (+16% from last year, includes audiobooks but not my title with Whimsical Publishing). Another ~22,457 downloaded for free. (112x last year’s count)

And the Goodreads numbers.

  • Odriel’s Heirs: 217 ratings (+30%) / 4.17 stars
  • Burning Shadows: 32 ratings (+88%) / 4.72 stars
  • Idriel’s Children: 70 ratings (+40%) / 4.43 stars
  • Night of Ash: 24 ratings (2.7x) / 4.75 stars
  • Time’s Orphan: 74 ratings (9.3x) / 4.57 stars
  • The Gatekeeper of Pericael: 98 ratings (+17%) / 4.12 stars
  • Into the Churn: 141 ratings (35.25x) / 4.38 stars
  • My Goodreads total: 659 ratings (+93%) / 4.36 stars

If you want to compare the totals to last year more directly, my 2022 summary is here. For many, these are still very small numbers, but this was a HUGE growth for me as far as exposure. And words-wise, it looks like I just about matched 2022, which is a consistency I’m super happy with, especially considering all the other exciting developments that happened this year!

the highlights

  • I SIGNED WITH AN AGENT!!! This was seriously a dream come true for me. After querying my YA Romance, Inky & Heater IRL, I got *3* agent offers and signed with the brilliant Kristen Terrette from Martin Literary. I am STILL processing.
  • And then Inky & Heater IRL went on sub! This was a huge step in my writing journey, and I’m so excited to see where this YA Romance goes next!
  • Several of my books won awards! Odriel’s Heirs was a silver medalist in 2022 International Readers’ Favorite Awards, A Wishing Shelf Book Award Bronze Medal Winner, and a Literary Titan Gold Winner. Idriel’s Children was a semi-finalist in both the 2023 Book Blogger Novel of the Year Award and the 2023 Kindle Book Awards. And The Gatekeeper of Pericael got an Indie BRAG Medallion.
  • I made the game-changing realization that I could price-match my books on Amazon for the sake of Bookbub promotions of free books (thank you to the amazing Carol Beth Anderson for showing me how this is done.) I cannot under-emphasize what a huge difference this made for me. For reference, I had 20,301 units ordered from Amazon alone this year, bringing me to a lifetime total of 30,874 since I published my first book in March 2020. So basically, I *tripled* the combined exposure I accumulated from 2020-2022 in a single year. After my free BookBub promotion, I kept the first book of my Odriel’s Heirs series free, which then triggered enough sales of the later books to generate more profit this year than in any other year since I’ve started publishing. And I will *definitely* be continuing to use BookBub free promotions in 2024.
  • I had my first ever in-person author events, readers actually came, and someone made me an Into the Churn bracelet. 😭 Into the Churn actually got onto the shelf of The Hidden Lantern and a Barnes and Noble. 🤩 Bucket-list item. CHECK.
  • And while I’m gushing about amazing Into the Churn things that happened. A special edition was featured in the Unplugged bookbox and had dyed edges and just a completely stunning design. I saw fanart from multiple readers, an amazing reader-made moodboard, there was an incredibly cinematic book trailer, @glamorouslyguilty cosplayed as Ezren, multiple readers messaged me how much my books meant to them, and in general, I just about died from happiness.
  • Into the Churn sold well enough that Whimsical Publishing greenlighted the sequel, Into the Fire, which is scheduled to launch in May 2024! I’ve been told ad nauseum that YA sci-fi doesn’t sell, but I can’t help but dream in trilogies, so this was SUCH an amazing surprise.
  • I co-authored a book with the incredible E.P. Stavs! Erin and I have been writing friends for awhile, and I’m a huge fan of her work, so it was so fun to create a story together! I really enjoyed our collaborative process and overall, we just had a blast with it. I can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store for our quirky paranormal, Midnight Falls!
  • My microfiction, When They’re Ready, got an honorable mention in the NYC Midnight 250-word challenge! So completely honored and blown away!

What I learned

  • Zero drafts (a dialogue-only draft written before the first draft that reads much like a screenplay) are my jam. I think I started this in 2022, but I totally honed this part of my process in 2023. In general, this is the year I really felt like I had my writing process down pat and really maximized efficiency with juggling WIPs.
  • BookBub Promos for free books are where it is AT, pricing the first book in a series at free is a fantastic marketing strategy for me, and I will be utilizing both of these epiphanies in 2024.
  • Entering book awards is very fulfilling for me and can result in some excellent feedback and I will continue to enter in the future. On the flip-side, I also invested in some recommended trade reviews, but I didn’t really find that to be worthwhile or satisfying in any way.
  • A street team is an effective and fun way to build hype for a book release. In 2023, I did this for the first time with Into the Churn, and we totally had a blast. I can’t wait to jump into it again with my Into the Fire team.
  • I was so much more consistent with my engagement on Instagram and Twitter this year. Although I didn’t get a big follower increase, overall, I was much more confident in just being myself, and on Instagram, I finally felt like I was striking a decent balance between getting the word out about my books and just being my bookish, weirdo self while not over-extending myself.
  • In-person events, while so fun and fulfilling, didn’t generate many sales for me. I think I still have a lot to learn about when and where to hold these to maximize efficacy.
  • YA sci-fi… is a hard sell. Boo. I hate that I have that I even have to put this on here, but I’m trying to be honest. When I first published YA sci-fi, I knew if it took off that I had enough sci-fi stories I was itching to write that I could happily specialize and build a brand as a YA sci-fi author. Unfortunately, despite the amazing feedback on the book itself, getting it out into the world and finding its reader niche has been difficult. Hopefully, I’ll update this with better news in 2024, but as of right now, (unless something miraculous happens with Into the Fire) I fully expect to be moving away from YA sci-fi for the forseeable future. However, while I do love sci-fi, since I’m a huge genre-hopper as a reader and a writer, this is just another bittersweet step in the journey. This past year, I’ve loved shaping up both my first YA romance and my first YA horror, and I’m excited to jump back into dark fantasy this spring. I’m still trying to find my brand, but this year I learned that I really do need to pay attention to the market as well if I want to my writing career to progress. Kind of a hard lesson to swallow but also an important one, and a learning opportunity I’m so grateful for.

What I still need to work on

  • BookTok. I should still probably try harder to get into this sphere, but I still feel like I haven’t the faintest idea how to attack that goliath. I am HERE for your suggestions.
  • Newsletter. Despite all the stuff that happened this year, I don’t know if I sent out a single newsletter update. Although I try only to send them out when I have book news, I definitely need to send them out more often then the ‘never’ frequency I’m approaching right now. I have a hard time with the fact that the number one thing I can do to decrease my subscribers is send out a newsletter. 😂
  • Odriel’s Heirs covers. This year I attempted (twice) to get a character art cover of Time’s Orphan to match the other two hardcovers of Odriel’s Heirs, but it didn’t work out. So I ended up taking all the hardcover versions down since I didn’t want to create incomplete sets. 😭 One day, I’d still like to get these as well as an amazing omnibus cover, and maybe even makeover Gatekeeper’s cover? But it’s probably more of a dream than a goal. If you have any amazing cover artists you’d like to shout out, I’d love to see their links!
  • This blog. I really don’t try to market this blog, write a lot of posts, or increase traffic and… maybe I should? I don’t know. Still waffling on this one.

Goals

So what next? As always, I try to keep my goals measurable and attainable. (Goal small. Dream big.) Last year I’m proud to say I hit 5/6 of my goals (but since Storybound Fest was cancelled, I didn’t get to check that one off.) And for this year I’m aiming to:

  • Get Into the Fire out into the world in May!
  • Finish my revision of Midnight Falls with E.P. Stavs and send it to my agent, Kristen, to see what she thinks!
  • Write the two next books itching at my brain!

Okay, I’m wrapping it up, I swear! Looking at the big picture, 2023 was a huge revision year for me, so I think that means 2024 will be a drafting year. Overall though, this has, by far, been my best writing year to date, and I’m so grateful for everyone who’ve believed in my books and made this possible: Whimsical Publishing, Kristen Terrette, E.P. Stavs, and everyone else who’ve taken the time to leave a book review or a kind word. Thank you so much. Your support truly means the world to me, and I wouldn’t be able to do this without you. Cheers to continuing this crazy journey in 2024. I can’t wait to see what happens next. As always, thanks so much for reading!

Thanks for the memories, 2023! Bring on 2024!
Posted on by hrchow12

2022 Writing Sum-up!



So this is the time of the year where I try to reflect on how the last twelve months of my writing life went. Was it… productive? Fun? Fulfilling? Disappointing? What did I learn? What did I do well? What could I improve for next year?

And, you all… a LOT happened this year, and my small potatoes writing career took some big steps. So let’s take a look!

first, the numbers

  • Words written: 55,000 (The Ninth Circle) + 77,000 (Time’s Orphan) + 22,000 (Night of Ash) + 60,000 (Inky & Heater IRL) = 214,000 words (3 complete, 1 partial)
  • Words revised: 77,000 (TO) + 22,000 (NoA) + 99,000 (ItC) + 75,000 (TBA) = 273,000 words (4 books)
  • Words published: 22,000 words (1 book)
  • Words queried: 99,000 (ItC) + 75,000 (TBA) = 174,000 words (2 books)
  • 2022 Total Words Worked: 758,000 words

Sales Numbers: 650+ self-published books sold. Another 200ish downloaded for free. (Draft to Digital makes it little harder to distinguish between which books were bought and which were downloaded for free)

And the Goodreads numbers.

  • Odriel’s Heirs: 165 ratings / 4.33 stars
  • Burning Shadows: 17 ratings / 4.94 stars
  • Idriel’s Children: 50 ratings / 4.34 stars
  • Night of Ash: 9 ratings / 5 stars
  • Time’s Orphan: 8 ratings / 4.88 stars
  • The Gatekeeper of Pericael: 84 ratings / 4.08 stars
  • Into the Churn: 4 ratings / 5 stars
  • My Goodreads total: 341 ratings / 4.34 stars

For reference, the 2021 total was 214 copies sold, 136,000 written, and 554,000 words worked. So yeah. Obviously, still small potatoes. But numbers wise, this years kicked the pants off of last year in pretty much every single way, and that wasn’t even the best part!

The best parts

  • I got not one, but TWO publishing deals with Whimsical Publishing, and I absolutely ADORE working with them. It has been the best experience. And not only that, but I actually had another 2 publishing offers from small presses this year. 😱 This was new and exciting territory for me, and I was absolutely thrilled to make the leap from self-pub to small press with a publisher that loves me books as much as I do. 💛
  • Then, my YA paranormal, The Ninth Circle, got picked up for a WriteHive mentorship with EJ Dawson! 🎉 What?! Is this even real life? The first call was so awesome, and I can’t wait to whip the manuscript into shape with them!
  • The Gatekeeper of Pericael was a semi-finalist in the Book Blogger Novel of the Year Awards. I love my upper middle grade fantasy, but it can be so hard to market, so this was an exciting moment!
  • Odriel’s Heirs got over 100 Amazon ratings and finally got BookBub US and International marketing deals! 🎉 I was so stoked to get more exposure for my first book child, and I definitely had a positive experience with these. Fingers crossed I can get more books accepted in the future!
  • I got accepted to be a participating author at both OwlCon 2023 and StoryBound Fest 2023! StoryBound Fest will be my first in-person author convention, and I’m pretty nervous! So that’ll be an exciting new challenge for next year.

What I learned

  • This year, I really nailed down my outlining process with the Save the Cat formula, which really helped me churn out those first drafts. Thanks to Story Genius and an obsession with K-drama, I also had a crucial epiphany on how to develop likable, relatable characters.
  • I love dual-POV and the depth it brings to a story. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back.
  • I grew a lot more comfortable as a critique partner and have collected a few more writing friends who I can reliably swap feedback with.
  • I also was able to consistently read and review books on my book blog here! 62 and counting this year! This has been great way to give back to the writing community, bring more traffic to my little site here, and also sharpen my critiquing skills.
  • I learned how to create decent covers in Canva Pro! This was a super fun tool for my creative process and marketing purposes, but if I ever self-pub in the future, I’m glad I can use this as a viable option to cut costs. (However, if anyone has any recommendations on graphic design online resources, they would be so appreciated! I definitely still have room for improvement. 😅
  • Making playlists for my books and WIPs on Spotify is ridiculously transportive, and I can’t believe I didn’t discover this earlier. I now have a playlist for every single one, and it is an amazing way to get in the writing mindset and pivot quickly between WIPs.
  • Finally, I learned that small presses can be amazing, and honestly I wish I had investigated/considered them a more with first two books I queried.

What I still need to work on

  • Oh boy. So much. I’ve been making some strides in the last few months, but the balance of writing and social media engagement still eludes me, although I feel like I’ve grown more comfortable being my ridiculous, goofy self in reels and selfies. And I actually have a TikTok now – who would’ve thought that?!
  • Advertisements. I tried again this year, buutttt still failing big on this one. If anyone wants to point me toward some learning resources, I would LOVE that.
  • Querying agents. I had several full requests this year, but per percentage of queries I send out, my numbers are nothing to write home about. As I’ll probably end up querying two WIPs next year, I definitely want to focus on sharpening my query materials to boost my request stats next year.
  • Minimizing publishing expenses. Although writing is definitely more of a passion project for me than a business (thank goodness for the day job!), I definitely want to start streamlining my expenses so I can write long-term without permanently denting my wallet. Moving to small press helped immensely this year, and while I hope to publish more with small presses in the future, if I ever selfpub again, I’ll be streamlining my process to cut costs.
  • A brand? Right now I’ve been kind of all over the place: YA Epic Fantasy, MG Fantasy, YA Sci-fi, YA Paranormal, YA fairytale retelling, YA romance… I know one day, if I decide to really get serious, I’ll probably need to pick a lane of some nature, but right now I’m just having fun, so I’ll save that conundrum for future me.

Goals

So what can I go after? As always, I try to keep my goals measurable and attainable.

  • Get Time’s Orphan out into the world on February 8th, and officially complete my first series. 🎉
  • Launch Into the Churn on April 4th… and cross my fingers that it does well enough to write the sequel. 🤞 (p.s. If you read it and want more, don’t forget to rate, review, & spread the word on social media!)
  • Revise my YA Paranormal with my mentor and toss it into the query trenches
  • Revise my YA Romance and storm the query trenches with that one too!
  • Attend Storybound Fest and live to tell about it. (Did I mention I was nervous?!) 😅
  • And of course, write the next book. I have three outlines waiting for me, but I’m not sure which will win out here, so it’ll be exciting to see what I’m working on next.

So yeah, it’s been an incredibly fantastic writing year for me, and I’m so grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had and the people that have supported and encouraged me along the way. 💛 Here’s to more growth and adventures in 2023. As always, thanks so much for reading!

So thrilled with how much I’ve grown this year as a writer and so proud of these two books. I can’t wait to see them out into the world!