I’m going to be a god damn bestseller again.

Look, I don’t know where I’m getting this burst of self-confidence from, but I know it. I know 2025 is my year. And a lot of times people will say, “Don’t say that! You’ll jinx it!” but I don’t feel anything but utter certainty about this right now. I’m going to have a great publishing year in 2025. Nothing can interfere with that. I’m not just manifesting right now. It’s a fact.

But the thing is, in my vision of how 2025 is going to go down: I work my ass off. I promote shamelessly. I time releases right. I vibe, strive, and survive, baby!

Accountability is part of that. I’m going to hold myself accountable by posting my entire plan of attack, task by task, update as needed, and when I accomplish one of them, I’ll cross it off. I’m going to set deadlines (one of my biggest fears) and pre-orders and be totally transparent. That way, when I succeed, I’ll have a record of just how fucking hard I worked.

And if you’re interested, you can journey with me. Surprise! I made a Discord for authors keeping track of their publishing who want to encourage each other and cheer each other on. I realized at some point that my original drive to tell stories and pursue publication happened because I was surrounded by people on the same path, who were excited by the same things. If that’s what you’re looking for, join the Bestsellers Together Discord. And it’s totally separate from the Trout Nation Discord so we can pop on and ask a quick question without then spending hours distracted by memes or snarkery.

I’ve also created a new version of The Big Damn Writing Tracker, the word tracking spreadsheet I’ve used and shared in years past. You can find it here. To use the sheet, click “File” in the upper left corner and select “make a copy” to save it to your own Google Drive for your private use. Or, download it. I’m pretty sure it’s compatible with Excel. If it’s not, that’s just corporate greed at work. Just enter your project titles and word counts in the white spaces and let math take care of the rest!

But the most important part of this whole thing is going to be keeping track of my tasks. Here’s my list. I usually put these in a bullet journal that I abandon by February, leading to panic and chaos and disorganization. Making my to-do list public will hold me accountable. More tasks will crop up, because I also want to publish The Mage’s Reluctant Assistant this year. Some items are already crossed off, since I did them while still writing this post.

Her Brother’s Billionaire Best Friend releases February 4

• Heavy, daily promo until release day
• Send out ARC emails
• Search manuscript one last time for “actually,” “clearly,” and “really”. Eliminate as many as I can stand.
• Format for Kindle and Smashwords
  • Table of Contents
  • Front Matter
  • Update Book Links
  • Back Matter
  • Pre-Order link to Her Billionaire Boyfriend
• Upload manuscript to Smashwords by Jan. 15
• Upload manuscript to Kindle by Jan. 31
• Format Paperback
  • Format
  • Cover
  • Order Proof
  • Adjustments as needed, if any

Her Billionaire Boyfriend releases May 6

• Combine into one file from original proofs
• Staggered promo with HBBBF from February 14
• Heavy promo from March 1
• Cover
• Cover reveal February 14
• Blurb
• Establish Pre-Order Link
• Final proof
• Send out ARC emails
• Format for Kindle and Smashwords
  • Table of Contents
  • Front Matter
  • Update Book Links
  • Back Matter
  • Pre-Order link to Her Billionaire
• Upload to Kindle, Smashwords
• Format for Paperback
  • Format
  • Cover
  • Order Proof
  • Adjustments as needed, if any

Her Billionaire releases September 30

• Final Proof
• Cover
• Blurb
• Staggered promo with HBB from June 1
• Heavy promo from July 1
• Establish pre-order link
• Format for Kindle, Smashwords
  • Table of Contents
  • Front Matter
  • Update Book Links
  • Back Matter
• Format for Paperback

Alpha Queen Ascending releases April 15

• One last read through just in case
• Cover
• Blurb
• Establish pre-order
• Format for Kindle and Ingram
  • Table of Contents
  • Front Matter
  • Update Book Links
  • Back Matter
• Format Paperback
  • Format
  • Cover
  • Order Proof
  • Adjustments as needed, if any

The Vampire’s Willing Captive releases July 15

• Fablemere promo campaign May 2
• Birthday campaign July 1
• Heavy promo July 1
• One last read through just in case
• Cover
• Blurb
• Establish pre-order
• Format for Kindle and Ingram
  • Table of Contents
  • Front Matter
  • Update Book Links
  • Back Matter
• Format Paperback
  • Format
  • Cover
  • Order Proof
  • Adjustments as needed, if any

Books I Want To Finish This Year:

• A Kingdom of Wonder and Terror
• The Business Centaur’s Virgin Assistant
• Untitled Sophie book
• The Breakaway
• The Turning
• Filthy, Rich

Word Count For 2025:

Miscellaneous:

• Get Abigail Barnette website up
  • Call web provider
  • Link Shopify
  • Promote Shopify
  • Add ebooks

• Paperbacks of The Boyfriend and Sophie
  • Download manuscripts
  • Format
  • Cover
  • Upload
  • Order proof
  • Adjustments as needed, if any
  • Add to Shopify

• Launch Shopify
  • Blog post
  • Promote across socials
  • Add link to Trout Nation website
  • Add link to Abigail Barnette website