As of tomorrow morning, I’ll be spending the next three or four months as a full-time crime writer. As the headline says, I’ll be living the dream.
And yes, this has long been a dream. The six-year-old me is dancing round the room with glee at the prospect. The adult me, while very excited, is a bit more sanguine. See, I’ve seen the plan for the next three months and it’s going to be a busy time.
There are a few key things that need to happen:
• Book Two is going into production: I’m lining up my team with the aim of getting the book out before I get married in December. The pieces of this are lining up nicely, so it’s likely to happen. (I’m sharing no details yet just in case!)
• Writing the third book in the series: Yes, Emma and Dan are ready for yet another adventure. I’ve set myself quite a tough ask on this one, specifically because I’ll be doing this against the final months of wedding prep. However, with eight hours a day to write in (or just do writing related activities), again it feels doable.
• Making A Deadly Rejection into an audio book: This is something I’ve wanted to do since I first published the book in 2017 and a reader asked if there was an audio version. I had to disappoint this person because I just didn’t have time to research how to do it and put that into action. Now I have that time, so watch this space.
• Marketing A Deadly Rejection: As the second book in the series approaches and an audio version will be on the cards, this seems like a good time to do some more dedicated marketing for the first book. I haven’t made any time for this because I thought prioritising writing the second book make more sense.
There will, of course, be other bits and pieces, growing my email list, getting the blog back up and running, for example, but so far those are my priorities.
Will I achieve all this? I’m confident that I can, but I’ll be updating along the way so check back in with me and help me stay on track!