Vellichor Ink

Every year I do a yearly wrap-up for books read. I typically set a reading goal in January and steadily tick down my number all year long. The last couple of years I’ve been more focused on writing than reading (one of my goals in 2025 to try and find a better balance of this!) so I also did a yearly wrap-up of words last year!

I thought it would be fun to do a My Year in Numbers for my last post of 2024. So, without further ado…

39 turns around the sun.

59 Books read so far (I’ll probably add another one or two to this before the year is through)

97,687 Words written (including this blog). My hope is that I’ll find some time stashed somewhere to write a little bit, but the reality of the holidays is that my time is swept up with baking, gift wrapping, magic making, creating art, cooking, watching Christmas Movies, spending time with friends and family, and on and on. There’s just very little room for writing. But…maybe? Maybe in that weird liminal time between Christmas and the New Year I’ll find some time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys). We shall see. At the time I’m writing this and scheduling its post, I have my doubts. Except, I’m looking at that number and it’s so close to 100,000. The desire to hit that number might be stronger than the pull of the holiday season…

2 Books published. Everything is turned in and ready to go, so I’m counting Pathfinder as donezo and published. Its release date is the last day of this year, so it counts!

251 copies sold. A further breakdown for anyone curious, 53 of those are digital copies and 198 are paperback copies.

1 new writing group joined. And I am so grateful for it.

8 new writer friends made for my weekly writing meetings. These women have become my confidants, my free therapy, the people I bounce ideas off of, and some of my biggest supporters in this whole writing endeavor. I cant imagine going through this without them!

6 in-person events to market the book. The book release party, three Markets, open-mic night for the writer’s group, and a library event. It was so outside my comfort zone to participate in those events, but it was also so good for me. I met loads of local readers and got my name out there. I handed out countless bookmarks and stickers and hopefully found some new readers!

I wasn’t going to talk numbers as far as finances go, but if any new indie author finds this and wants to know, I know it would have been super helpful to me, so here goes.

$2,112.36 TOTAL spent on In the Light of the Moon. That is everything from an editor to the year of Canva pro to the cost of the local markets to cost of books ordered to the cost of the LLC, marketing, etc. It’s everything.

$1,256.99 total sales. Even if you’re not a math whiz you can see that the total cost is quite a bit higher than the sales. So…

-$855.37 total loss. But, as one of my besties pointed out, people pay way more to make their dreams come true. And she’s so right. Some of the cost from this year wont ever get spent again and I can carry on writing and publishing and the subsequent books will be cheaper.

There are loads of other numbers I could include in this post. Like 1 international move, 19 years of marriage celebrated, 13 years around the sun for the teen, 1 new puppy, 7 months of separation, 1 funeral, countless steps made in my quest for routine and self-care, 3 weddings attended, or the thousands of dollars worth of things lost to mold thanks to said international move–just to name a few. But I’m going to keep the focus on the books and words. Nevertheless, here’s to a gentle Holiday Season and a quiet 2025.

It’s been a hell of a year, that’s for sure. When we rang in 2024 I didn’t have a business name, a plan, or an editor. I barely had a pen name. I could have never imagined what this year was going to bring. Standing here looking towards 2025 and all that I know/hope is coming up, I cant help but be a little hopeful. Because if, through the absolute shit that this year has been I can have seen one of my lifelong dreams to fruition, then who knows what the next year holds. Lots and lots of possibility.