January 14, 2013
2013, I Resolve…
New Years–a time for rest, rejuvenation and repair. A time to assess life. Do we settle into our routine, enjoy where it’s headed, or is it time to grab our purse, our iPhone, our car keys, and get out of there?
Here are my resolutions this year. Lots of them! But I see change in my future. I want to be ready:
Fiction
- Finish my current techno-thriller, Twenty-Four Days. It’s with an agent, looking for a publisher. Anyone interested?
- Market Twenty-Four Days when I find a publisher. I know that will fall to me so I want to be ready.
- I’ve drafted the prequel–To Hunt a Sub--and want to finish it. Let’s say the goal is progress on that.
- I have a historic fiction novel call Lucy, Daughter of Man. It’s Part I of a series that deals with man’s ability to solve problems. The setting is paleo times, the birth of human critical thinking skills. It’s a niche market so not surprisingly, no one has expressed any interest, thus I’m thinking of jumping into the ebook market.
- Work on the second in my paleo-historic fiction series. It’s drafted, but there’s lots of work before it’s ready. A novel takes me at least two years to write. I’m about 6 months into this one, so reasonably, ‘progress’ is all I’ll manage.
Non-fiction
- Write several more tech ed books to go along with the selection I offer on Amazon, Teachers Pay Teachers, and other outlets.
- Come up with one ebook mini each month to share as a Subscriber Special on my blog. These are all timely bundles that address topics of particular interest to tech teachers.
- Work on themed bundles that address specific topics, like Valentine Day, Veteran’s Day–those types of topics. Teachers like to tie into them with technology, but to date, I have few options. I want to fix that. Plus, this seems to be a popular trend on Teachers Pay Teachers. The top sellers all offer themed products.
- Finish editing the 7th and 8th grade tech ed curriculum.
- Pay more attention to other tech ed writing gigs.
- Again–as every year–figure out how to sell books on Google ebooks. It should be a vast market, but my sales are abysmal–5% of overall sales. I’ll research how other authors are making that venue work.
Blogs
- Continue publishing 3-4 articles a week on my core blogs Ask a Tech Teacher, Ask a Tech Teacher–Homeschool Edition, and WordDreams (this blog). I want to increase the number of posts on the art of writing. I love reading these on other writer’s blogs and get a lot of ideas from them. I want to return that favor to other writers looking for inspiration, innovation and the introduction of new ideas.
- Expand the reach of my blogs. I’ve read most of the articles that start “How to Write Blogs That Everyone Reads…” and they don’t work the way the author promises. Time to get creative. I’m at about a thousand readers a day on my core blogs. Where will I be at the end of 2012?
- Find guest bloggers for my blogs. I’ve reached out a bit, but not enough. My readers would benefit from other opinions.
- Decide what to do with Sizzle in Science. I started this blog out of my love for science, but when I run out of time (which is often), this one suffers. I should make a decision on its future rather than let it languish. That’s my bias for action. I hate inactivity.
- Clean up my blogs. Fix those little problems like broken links that I keep putting off. Maybe Spring Cleaning will hit the blogosphere.
- Find a writing community to participate in online. I have one, but I need more.
What are your resolutions? I want to learn from you.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Today’s Author and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and monthly contributor to Today’s Author. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
