Tags : Jo Schneider Karly Stratford Real Life The Academy Wins
This journey keeps
taking twists and turns. I find it both scary and exciting.
Three years ago I
quit my day job so I could go full-time with my writing.
Last year I barely
squeaked into the black. I actually made money after all of my expenses.
Granted it was only about $100, but I’ll take it!
I had grand plans for
this past year. You know, 2020?
Yeah, things didn’t
go exactly to plan.
First
I released the last
two of my Decker Family Romances in the spring. They did okay. Not as well as I
would have liked, but okay.
Second
The plan was to write
my YA military sci-fi series.
I started the first
book four times, wrote a total of 130k words, and had to scrap them all. Twice.
Pure frustration drove me to writing something more soft and fluffy.
Third
I wrote these three
sweet and clean romantic comedies for the summer. By this point in the year everyone
needed a good laugh, so I obliged. These were not on my radar at the beginning
of the year, but they have ended up being my most successful series so far!
I also enjoyed
writing my first curvy girl romance. I’m a plus-sized woman, and it was fun to
write about a bigger girl.
Fourth
Among all of this
romance craziness, I released another Academy story in this anthology. Writing
this Snow White retelling was so fun!
Fifth
Christmas is always a good time to release romances, and this year I jumped on the bandwagon. These four books gave me my best months ever on Amazon in November and December! Her Christmas Middle Blocker (another curvy girl romance) is in a collection with eight other books at the moment, but will likely be out soon.
Other milestones
I hit one million
page reads in 2020! After I hit one million, I managed to get almost 350k in a
month, so that was amazing!
These are some of the
highlights of 2020.
Marketing is getting
easier, but there are still days that I take a nap instead.
I’ve learned a lot
about fulfilling readers expectations, which has really helped my sales.
Thank you to everyone
who has supported me through this endeavor.
I’m glad 2020 is
over.
The hubby and I spent
the first two weeks of 2021 in a Covid-induced haze, so I’m starting the year a
bit late.
I have big plans, but
who knows what will happen?
