I start thinking about my goals for the upcoming year in November. I always try to be realistic. The past couple of years, life has gobsmacked my goals–family crises, day job dilemmas, and so on. Nevertheless, I persist.
I thought I had my 2018 goals pretty much set. I’d printed them out for my annual goal-setting session with my critique group:
- Finish writing two werewolf books
- continue search for agent for dystopian women’s fiction novel.
- critique at least once per month
- 2 critique group writing retreats
- minimum 2 Thistle Dew retreats
- Active social media presence
- RWA/local chapter
- self publish cross genre novella
Do-able, right?
Well, the calendar had even flipped before life gobsmacked me again: one of my publishers is closing.
This could be awful, but the letter sent to the authors assured us that we will receive reversion of rights letters by June of 2018. This is a good thing. They are closing their doors, not going bankrupt, so the books they’ve published aren’t assets, the rights to which can be tied up in the courts for a long time.
But now I have decisions to make: do I want to self-publish these titles? Do I want to try to place them with another publisher? If you re-read my writing goal punch list, none of these scenarios are there.
At least I have choices. I have five already-edited books that will be 100% mine to do with what I will. That’s a good thing.