Publishing Schedule for Next Year, Walking Away from Writing (at least for now), and Decided to Quit Bookfunnel

The Earl’s Jilted Bride and Worth the Risk will be out next year

Things have gone to a crawl with the edits. I am relying more on other people to do the edits for me at this point, thanks to my eyes. Both of these books are still in edits:

I am going around the other people’s schedules. They have lives of their own, and the fact that they’re willing to help me out is greatly appreciated. In the past, I did have an editor or two look over my books, along with a couple of beta readers. But the issue with my eyes have just forced my hand. I used to give the book a thorough read through. I can’t physically do that anymore. I have to hand over the reins to others on the entire editing side of things.

So I don’t know when these two books will be out, but I’m planning on them coming out next year.

My eyes are just not able to do the work anymore & it’s been nice to walk away from writing

I was able to go in and modify a scene this morning in Worth the Risk to eliminate a cliffhanger I had put in. Just in case I can’t do another book in this series, I am going to close up any cliffhangers remaining.

After one hour on the computer, I started getting the gritty feeling in my left eye. That’s a sign that my eyes are not liking the strain I’m putting them under. For almost a month, I have been off the computer except for checking my online bank account and doing my bookkeeping for the accountant, and my eyes felt wonderful. I didn’t need drops. They weren’t watering up anymore. I felt normal again.

Maybe it’s the burnout talking at this point, but I have enjoyed not writing anything for the past couple of months. I didn’t realize how bad the burnout was until I stopped making myself go to the computer. The eyes forced my hand on stopping with the writing, but the break has felt like a lot of pressure has been lifted from my shoulders. I still have story ideas. I just don’t want to write them. At least not now. I don’t know if I will ever want to write them. I would rather just let the stories play out in my head at this point.

I’m not sure what to make of all of this. In writing circles, it’s all about writing and publishing and promotion. If you aren’t writing all the time, you’re not a “real” writer. If you’re not producing books to sell, then you aren’t a “smart business-minded” writer. If you’re not making money, you’re not worth listening to because you don’t know what you’re talking about. And it’s like once you do establish your “brand”, you’re expected to do this for the rest of your life. It feels like you can’t quit because if you do, you are either a failure or you’re letting people down. I’ve been struggling with a lot of guilt over the fact that I don’t want to write anymore. At least, I don’t want to write right now. I don’t know if that will change or not. A part of it’s scary. And I don’t know what to do.

So I guess I’m taking a pause. I will let those books go through edits because they’re done, and I want them out there to complete the Marriage by Obligation Series. But I have decided to stop working on any other books, at least for the time being as I allow myself to decompress from the past decade where I did little else but write all the time. I started writing these romances back in 2008. It’s 2023. I realize that “real” and “serious” writers never quit, but if I am not considered a “real” or “serious” writer after getting over 100 written and published across the total amount of books I’ve done, then I will never be a “real” or “serious” writer. I’m exhausted, so I’m going to walk away from writing indefinitely.

I’m not going to worry about Bookfunnel

The main perk of Bookfunnel seems to be the ARCs, the newsletter swaps, and the part where you give away a book to have someone sign up for your email list. Since I have no plans to publish books beyond The Earl’s Jilted Bride and Worth the Risk, I see no value in being on Bookfunnel. I am going to close my account with them. I can’t do social media and do the newsletter swaps with other writers. My eyes won’t let me on the computer to do that. I have no intention (at least right now) of continuing my “writer business”, so there will be no more emails to send out to readers and no need to worry about ARCs. I was under the impression that Bookfunnel let you sell your books over there, but all Bookfunnel really does is let you do a link to a store you already have elsewhere (like Payhip). I’m done wasting my time on places that don’t do me any good.