2020 Year in Review
2019 was tough year for me as my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and my mother passed away just before Christmas. Life got in the way and I didn’t publish any new books. Little did I know what 2020 had in store for us.
I found my writing took on a more “reflective” tone and in January 2020, I released a novella called “Choices”. (Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...) It’s the story of an older man who reflects on the choices he’d made throughout his life while attending the 50th anniversary celebration of his university graduating class. I was fortunate enough to be able to read one of the drafts of the book to my mother at her bedside shortly before she passed away.
I was asked to record it for a local radio station, who aired it as a radio special over a couple of weeks in February as part of their “Stories for Seniors” program. They also released it on CD and distributed them to seniors’ residences in British Columbia.
My wife was going through chemotherapy for the first five months of 2020. At the start, I was allowed to accompany her into the hospital for her treatments, but once the pandemic hit, the hospital started restricting access and I was forced to just drop her off at the door and wait in the car for several hours while she went through each treatment. I wrote a poem called “The Brave & The Scared” (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRCjm...) which dealt with those frustrations.
Since I already had the recording of “Choices” from the radio station, I thought I would use it to create my first audiobook on Audible. Little did I know how much work that would turn out to be. The original recording sounded just fine, but didn’t meet their “technical requirements”. I spent five months re-mastering the recording and learned more about sound compression than I ever thought possible. The audiobook version of “Choices” was finally released in July.
Up until this year, I’d kept the digital versions of my books exclusive to Amazon. Historically, 56% of my book sales have been in paperbacks and it was convenient to have Amazon handle all of the shipping responsibilities and just have them send me my royalties. However, in 2020, the sales of physical books dropped off dramatically and only accounted for 15% of my sales. I suspect that this is at least partly due to the pandemic, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues in future years.
Due to that trend, I decided to make more of my books available in Kobo format. (Link: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/search?que...) I’ve also made them available in “Overdrive”, which is the service used for digital books by most libraries. I’ve now started using the “Libby” app myself to check out digital books from the library and find it quite easy to use on my tablet.
The only digital book of mine that I’ve left exclusive to Amazon is “The Back Nine”. That’s because, in some months, I earn more in royalties from “Kindle Unlimited” subscribers than I do from regular sales and you must have your digital book exclusive to Kindle to participate in that program.
In October, I released “Life-Changing Events” (Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...) which is a kidnapping story set in the southern, interior part of British Columbia. Part of the story takes place in the past, but the latter part of the story takes place in 2020. I had written the first draft of the book before the COVID-19 pandemic was even on the horizon, but then decided I had to rewrite the ending. How could I have a book set in 2020 and not even mention the pandemic? It turns out the rewrite was easier than I thought because it became just another life-changing event in the story.
Some of you expressed disappointment that “Choices” wasn’t released in paperback format, so I tried to rectify that by combining “Choices” and “Life-Changing Events” and releasing them together as a paperback (Link: https://www.amazon.com/Choices-Life-C...). As a bonus, I included a couple of my poems.
In October, I reached the threshold of having one thousand sales of my books. That might not sound like much to many of you when you hear of big-name authors having sales in the millions, but it was important to me. When I first started writing, I wasn’t convinced anyone would be interested in my books. My books have sold in Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany and India.
Once again, I made a small profit from my writing in 2020. I’m still not getting rich or famous, but it keeps my mind active. I’ve got a few ideas for my next project, but nothing that is causing me to burn the midnight oil. I know they say writers should try to write x-thousand words every day, but I’ve never been like that. I only write when I feel inspired. Let’s hope 2021 delivers some of that inspiration.
I found my writing took on a more “reflective” tone and in January 2020, I released a novella called “Choices”. (Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...) It’s the story of an older man who reflects on the choices he’d made throughout his life while attending the 50th anniversary celebration of his university graduating class. I was fortunate enough to be able to read one of the drafts of the book to my mother at her bedside shortly before she passed away.
I was asked to record it for a local radio station, who aired it as a radio special over a couple of weeks in February as part of their “Stories for Seniors” program. They also released it on CD and distributed them to seniors’ residences in British Columbia.
My wife was going through chemotherapy for the first five months of 2020. At the start, I was allowed to accompany her into the hospital for her treatments, but once the pandemic hit, the hospital started restricting access and I was forced to just drop her off at the door and wait in the car for several hours while she went through each treatment. I wrote a poem called “The Brave & The Scared” (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRCjm...) which dealt with those frustrations.
Since I already had the recording of “Choices” from the radio station, I thought I would use it to create my first audiobook on Audible. Little did I know how much work that would turn out to be. The original recording sounded just fine, but didn’t meet their “technical requirements”. I spent five months re-mastering the recording and learned more about sound compression than I ever thought possible. The audiobook version of “Choices” was finally released in July.
Up until this year, I’d kept the digital versions of my books exclusive to Amazon. Historically, 56% of my book sales have been in paperbacks and it was convenient to have Amazon handle all of the shipping responsibilities and just have them send me my royalties. However, in 2020, the sales of physical books dropped off dramatically and only accounted for 15% of my sales. I suspect that this is at least partly due to the pandemic, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues in future years.
Due to that trend, I decided to make more of my books available in Kobo format. (Link: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/search?que...) I’ve also made them available in “Overdrive”, which is the service used for digital books by most libraries. I’ve now started using the “Libby” app myself to check out digital books from the library and find it quite easy to use on my tablet.
The only digital book of mine that I’ve left exclusive to Amazon is “The Back Nine”. That’s because, in some months, I earn more in royalties from “Kindle Unlimited” subscribers than I do from regular sales and you must have your digital book exclusive to Kindle to participate in that program.
In October, I released “Life-Changing Events” (Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...) which is a kidnapping story set in the southern, interior part of British Columbia. Part of the story takes place in the past, but the latter part of the story takes place in 2020. I had written the first draft of the book before the COVID-19 pandemic was even on the horizon, but then decided I had to rewrite the ending. How could I have a book set in 2020 and not even mention the pandemic? It turns out the rewrite was easier than I thought because it became just another life-changing event in the story.
Some of you expressed disappointment that “Choices” wasn’t released in paperback format, so I tried to rectify that by combining “Choices” and “Life-Changing Events” and releasing them together as a paperback (Link: https://www.amazon.com/Choices-Life-C...). As a bonus, I included a couple of my poems.
In October, I reached the threshold of having one thousand sales of my books. That might not sound like much to many of you when you hear of big-name authors having sales in the millions, but it was important to me. When I first started writing, I wasn’t convinced anyone would be interested in my books. My books have sold in Canada, the United States, the UK, Germany and India.
Once again, I made a small profit from my writing in 2020. I’m still not getting rich or famous, but it keeps my mind active. I’ve got a few ideas for my next project, but nothing that is causing me to burn the midnight oil. I know they say writers should try to write x-thousand words every day, but I’ve never been like that. I only write when I feel inspired. Let’s hope 2021 delivers some of that inspiration.
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