2024 in Review & Expectations of 2025

I was surprised to find that the last yearly post I wrote like this was 2020/2021. I haven’t set any writing goals in three years! I’ve never completely quit writing, but I’ve came close. Every year I have wrote and published a few short stories and several 100-word drabbles, just enough to call myself a writer. I likely didn’t write the yearly reviews simply because there wasn’t much to say. So, let’s look at the numbers for the last four years:

In 2021 I published three stories. (Total word count 1569)

In 2022 I published 8 stories. (Total word count 2748)

In 2023 I published 2 stories. (Total word count 200)

In 2024 I published 7 new stories. (Total word count 5319)

If we were to judge success by my output, then so far my peek was in 2019. That year I published 110 stories and 43,509 words. At this point, I count the fact that I’m still writing as success!

I may not have published in quantity, but I do have a few accomplishments to brag about. I made my first professional sale in 2022 to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The story, A Time to Sing, was published in 2023. In 2024, I reformatted my first anthology, Misfits & Oddities, from 8.5×11 to 6×9 so that all my books are the same size. I also published two new anthologies in 2024: Frights & Flights and Recirculated Tales. The audiobook for Frights & Flights is currently in production, and hopefully, Recirculated Tales will be as well soon.

I’m rather proud of the fact that with the help of AI and a good photo editing program that I created the covers for my two newest anthologies. This is an admission that comes with risk because some of my friends have publically declared that they will unfriend anyone using AI art. I honestly don’t see the issue, but that’s a discussion for a post all by itself.

In 2021, I was halfway through editing my dad’s book Smoke of the Fire. Even though I have worked on it here and there, I’m still about halfway through those edits. I’m also still only halfway through editing my own book Explorer VIA. If I haven’t told you before, let me tell you now and with my whole throat: I hate editing. It is the main reason that I have spent so much time writing short stories. It doesn’t take much to distract me when I’m editing simply because I don’t want to do it. Oh look, I need to update my budget, play a couple games of pool and watch a little TikTok. Whoops, where did the time go? The first draft is fun to write. Anything after that is more like work.

How do we judge success?

This question has many different answers. For me, success today is finishing this post, editing it (yuck), and taking off the trash. I would count myself successful this year if on 1/2/2026 I’m using a new laptop to write the yearly update while sitting under a gazebo located on a tropical beach. Or maybe I actually finish the edits on my dad’s book and write next year’s post on my old computer after losing 50 pounds. Honestly, as long as I’ve published a new story and not went any further into debt I’ll take it!

This marks my 10th year of writing and publishing! So from experience, let’s talk about what hasn’t worked. I have published hundreds of stories through non-paying magazines and websites for exposure. It makes the ego feel good when you get an acceptance, but I can’t tell that I’ve gained any followers through exposure. In fact, I didn’t gain any followers after publishing in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction either and it is a professional, well-known magazine. Exposure will get you arrested, but it doesn’t seem to work in the publishing world.

This blog hasn’t gained me any followers either, but here I am wasting my time. I’ve gave away hundreds of ebooks through Amazon and gained zero followers and a handful of reviews. I’ve advertized my books on Facebook, Amazon, and through other magazines. The advertisements did sell a few books but not enough to cover the expense. I tried reading my published drabbles on TikTok, but 99% of the followers I’ve gained are either Russian bots or women hoping I’ll click their profile link to some dark corner of the web. My local library had a local author book fest this year. I brought 10 copies of all five of my anthologies and came home with every single book. I’m giving them a squinty side eye right now. That-didn’t-work might be the name of my memoirs one day.

So, what are my goals for 2025? Apparently, I need to set a few because just winging it isn’t working either.

1) This year I will set up a table at a couple conventions and/or bookfests and try my luck selling books face to face. The worst thing that could happen would be that I lose a couple hundred bucks and end up with a second box of my own books to look at.

2) I plan to publish a few short stories in anthologies and/or online. I need that yes from a third party every so often to keep me motivated.

3) I have two more mini-anthologies that I’m considering publishing this year. The first would be an anthology of drabbles that I have gathered over the years. I have published over a hundred drabbles that I can put in the collection as reprints, and I have nearly that many more that have never been published. The second would be a collection of stories inspired by the life and works of Earnest Hemingway that would be similar to my Poe-ish Tales anthology.

4) I plan on continuing my edits on my dad’s book. I should’ve listed this goal first because I plan on giving it priority. My father will be 74 this year, and I want him to see his book in print during his lifetime. We never know how much time we have, so it is time to stop putting this off.