I wanted to break down the different elements of my author business. First and foremost, writing and publishing books. Because that is what being an author is defined as. So when I think about writing and getting my books out to people I think about a few different splits:

• Self-Published Books and Trad Published Books – In January of 2025, Heifer was released in French as Genisse. In June of this yea,r Fake Out Make Out will be published. So I have 2 traditionally published books. Yay! Hoping for more, stay tuned for updates here (but you’re going to get the most up-to-date details by subscribing to my newsletter). I still have a back catalog of a dozen books that have been self-published. They all need marketing support. Last year I released new editions of my AYA books. I have been making progress on the conclusion of the Feminina series. So while there is absolutely growth in my traditionally published books, my self-published books aren’t going away and they still need marketing support. I don’t see myself completely hanging up my self-publishing hat and never having to maintain or update those books again. It’s a forever thing. 
• Fiction and Non-Fiction – I believe I talked about this in some of my goal videos back in 2024 and 2025, but as much as I love the Author Your Ambition series and how it has helped people, and as much as I love the dopamine hit of seeing those sales, my goal as an author is to be known for my fiction. For the novels and the characters. So the best advice is to follow the money, follow the metrics. When you put content out and something hits, okay, make that again but make it a little different. The algorithm likes that. Looking at my sales form 2020 onward, so when I had Author Your Ambition books out there, best practices would say I should only be writing and publishing non-fiction books about self-publishing. I should double down there. In some ways, I have. I focus on this channel. I am open to consults again, because I want to help people. But I realized if I followed this advice, I would never reach my real goal of being known for my fiction. So I made the intentional choice to NOT promote my non-fiction. It exists. I will reference it in a video when it makes sense. I will repost when someone tags me and my non-fiction books. But I have put and will continue to put the lion’s share of my effort and time behind my fiction. My writing craft. That’s what I want. I do still have the itch I need to scratch to help people, that’s not going away. But I need to be really specific about how much of my time and effort goes there. 
• Online retail vs other channels (brick-and-mortar or direct) – I started self-publishing in 2015 when a lot of book industry people were still looking down on self-publishing. Like super insulting. I had some not-so-great experiences trying to table at local book events or get my books into local book stores. Fast forward to today, and there has been a sea change. And bookstores want more indie titles; they want to book events to bring people in. And I moved too slowly to realize these opportunities. I still get the majority of my sales from online retail, but I specifically want to participate and sell more at local events, with local bookstores, and direct from my website. So, stay tuned for if I can make that happen. 

The second part of my business is helping other authors. In 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, the bulk of my revenue came from coaching and helping others. I also didn’t get to write as much of my own. I prioritized clients over my own books, which was the right thing to do, but also bit me in the behind on my own sales.  But I had to cut that back and then completely cut that off as my available time reduced and became less reliable. (As in nap time was gone.)

• Working on my own stuff and helping others – So I don’t foresee a time when I don’t want to help other authors. But I think if I can get more books out and I can focus more on connecting with readers, that is naturally going to eat into my available time to do consults with other authors or even manage this channel. I don’t have any active plans to stop posting on this channel. I have my consults open, for now, but I fully reserve the right to shut those off again if it is interfering with my capital G goal of writing more and better stories. 

I really appreciate being able to talk through my goals and my thought process with you all. I hope it helps give you some food for thought as you plan for your author career and ways you can adjust and refocus as needed.