Accountability report: I am terrified, but I did it!

I have been struggling with anxiety over this for a year now, but guess what? I’m ready! Today, I launched AbigailBarnette.com. Or, you could look at it as, “I opened the world’s first Abigail Barnette themed online bookstore.”

I’ve been dragging my feet a bit on this one. I had to make a phone call, which was obstacle #1. I kept making excuses like, “Oh, I don’t have time to work on that.” Well, time made itself available to me. I’ve had awful writer’s block for the past few weeks, due in part to stress over my husband’s ongoing medical issue. All I’ve been able to do is proofread, format… and work on deeply repetitive tasks like finishing the set up on a Shopify store. I no longer had any excuse.

Even after a full year of planning and tinkering and researching, amassing inventory, testing and retesting, I’m so afraid. But I’m optimistic. This is a really important step in owning my art. I’ll be able to release special editions exclusively to the shop. I can offer my eBooks directly and release titles a week or two early for readers who decide to shop with me. I’m really excited about this. Currently, orders can only be shipped to the U.S., which I explain on the FAQ there, but take my anxiety level in this post into consideration and you’ll understand.

So, here’s to Abigail Barnette’s new venture. Now, onto the rest of the accountability:

Word Count For 2025: 63086

Her Brother’s Billionaire Best Friend releases February 4 (I wish I could cross this one off, but I can’t until I’m happy with the paperback.)

• Heavy, daily promo until release day (I did better with this release than I ever have in the past, promotion wise. I’m pretty happy with what I did.)
• 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 (This has been a continual thing.)
  • Adjustments as needed, if any (Please, no more.) (We should, finally, be done after the next proof.)

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 (I didn’t end up doing ARCs for this title)
• 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 (Whoops! Better adjust our expectations here!)
• 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 (In progress) (outsourced)
• Blurb
• Establish pre-order
• Format for Kindle and Ingram
  • Table of Contents
  • Front Matter
  • Update Book Links
  • Back Matter
• Format Paperback (outsourced)
  • Format
  • Cover
  • Order Proof
  • Adjustments as needed, if any

The Vampire’s Willing Captive releases July 15

• Fablemere promo campaign May 2 (Missed this by a mile!)
• Birthday campaign July 1
• Heavy promo July 1
• One last read through just in case
• Cover
• Blurb
• Establish pre-order (might not get a chance on this one)
• 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

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 (not necessary, integrated to website)