My three words for 2024
2023 was a real milestone year for me, and I think I learnt A LOT. I’ve covered all the ups and downs in a previous post (which you can read following the link below), but in this post, I’m going to be looking ahead to next year - and hopefully being a bit more positive! Let’s see… 😆
2023: my work year in review →
Changes I made in 2023
At the tail end of this year, as my writing work eased off, I started to consolidate various things in my web design business in preparation for 2024, knowing that this was going to be a very different work year for me.
There are a few things I did this year, to help me get prepared for 2024:
1) Raised my price for custom design
I’ve known for a while that my custom design package was too cheap, and I’m not sure exactly what was holding me back from raising the price.
I have been building websites professionally for four years now, and without wanting to sound really arrogant, I do know my stuff! When I started to look around, similar website designers with the same number of years experience were charging a lot more.
So, I sat down and methodically worked out a fair price for my custom design: £3000, for a site with four books. That cost fairly represents the time spent building it.
If clients have more books, then extra pages can be added for an additional fee.
I think this price reflects my expertise and the comprehensive service my custom design package offers.
I also know that there are authors out there who are willing to pay this for a bespoke, tailor-made, full-service experience, where I take literally ALL the stress out of the process for them.
In fact, almost as though the universe wanted to validate my decision, the week after I raised my price, I booked a project for 2024 for more than double the standard package price (the author has written a lot of books!).
2) Began moving all my CRM stuff across to Squarespace
I’ve used Bonsai for contracts and invoicing since I launched my business, and have been happy with it, but it’s expensive. And I don’t use all its functionality.
And then they implemented a change without me realising, meaning clients could pay invoices directly through their platform.
One day, I sent an invoice, and someone paid it through Bonsai, rather than transferring the money directly to my account.
This was probably me not paying attention, but Bonsai took a HUGE cut of the invoice and it pissed me off.
Anyway this all coincided with Squarespace launching project management tools within the platform.
More about Squarespace’s project management features →
It’s still early days for this but I’ve been using Squarespace to send most of my invoices for the past month and it’s been surprisingly smooth.
I still lose a portion of the invoice if people pay directly using Paypal or Stripe but there are no additional fees from Squarespace, as I’m on the Commerce plan anyway - unlike with Bonsai.
I’m hopeful that Squarespace will soon launch contract-signing functionality so that I can finally leave Bonsai completely.
I really like the efficiency of having everything run through one platform. It just makes life so much easier.
(More about efficiency coming up…!)
3) Integrated scheduling on my website
I’ve offered website updates for past clients ever since I launched my business.
The most common update I do is when a client announces a new book and wants to add a new page about the new book to their site.
I love working with past clients. But to save us all time, I wanted to streamline the process.
So, I’ve introduced scheduling, and packages of time (eg ‘add new book package’) that clients can book directly! Because - yes you guessed it - Squarespace has it all built in.
This means people can book some time in my calendar and pay a 50% deposit for the time through Squarespace, all without me having to send a single email.
I am also using the scheduling function for my Author Website in a Day package and my VIP Author Design Days.
I absolutely love how quick and easy this makes the process for everyone!
My three words for 2024
I’ll be honest - I rarely sit down properly and take the time to plan ahead. Perhaps because the nature of the writing life is that everything is so unpredictable.
But this year I want to be more intentional. More proactive and less reactive.
As I get older (I’m turning 43 in January - WHAT! 😲) I have a real sense that I want to maximise my time.
Obviously, I’ve always felt that way to some degree, but there’s a definite new sense that time is not infinite, and that I want to spend every second doing things that move me further towards my long-term goals.
And on that note, after a lot of thinking and heart-searching, I’ve come up with three words - or values - to focus on next year.
These are the filters I want to run all my business decisions through, to make sure that what I’m doing aligns with my ultimate aims for my business.
My three words are:
Efficiency
Stability
and
Joy 😊
Efficiency
I’ll start with the least sexy one!!
I’d always thought - rather arrogantly - that I was a pretty efficient person. But this year I’ve dropped lots of balls.
And I’ve realised that as I have more and more to deal with (having a young child alongside basically two jobs does mean my brain is always full), I need to get more efficient so that I can stay on top of everything. And also reduce stress.
So, as I said above, I’m planning on being more proactive, and more organised.
I want to plan ahead more, be more intentional, and perhaps a little more rigid with my calendar.
I used to think I liked the flexibility of freelance life - and I do, to some extent - but I think it can also backfire. Having no structure or routine to your days sometimes means you just end up working all the time, dealing with whatever’s right in front of you and not taking time to think ahead.
So instead, in 2024 I’m going to have set dates and times for specific types of work.
For example, I’ve reserved Fridays for Author Website in a Day projects, Author VIP Design Days and also for updates for existing clients.
On Mondays, the first thing I will do will be to write my blog post for the week.
I’ve also planned out all the dates I have available for custom web design for the whole of 2024.
And finally, I’ve bought myself a paper planner!!!
A very fancy planner that’s designed especially for freelancers, and has lots of pages to fill in, with useful metrics, alongside a diary.
I use Google Calendar for my diary and regularly forget to write things in it, leading to me being double-booked or just forgetting things in general.
I want to take more of the planning in my life offline. I want to empty out my brain using pen and paper, and also take pride in writing down my goals for the week, and measuring metrics such as income for the month on something other than a fiddly spreadsheet.
I spend so much time at my laptop, getting backache, and I really hope that having a tangible, analogue planner will force me to take some time away from the screen.
Time will tell, of course. But I’m hopeful this will help me be more efficient.
Plus you know, like most writers, stationery was my first love… 😉
Stability
I mentioned in my previous blog post that it’s a really foolish thing to wish for stability when you’re trying to make a living as a writer.
It’s just about the most unstable career you can imagine. But in 2023 I realised just how important stability is to me. And how stressed and anxious I get without it.
I’ve thought long and hard about what went wrong for me in 2023, and I think it’s that writing became my sole source of income, and I hated the pressure this brought.
So in 2024, I want to shift the focus slightly so that web design brings in my core income - the income I need to survive - and so that income from writing becomes my ‘bonus’ money.
This is how it was for me in the early days of my writing career and it worked really well for me.
I want to feel more positive about writing as a career. I’m trying to see the long-term picture - to accept that it’s not a normal, linear career, that there will be ups and downs and that I have to see the downs as just part of the journey.
And I think that’s easier to do if I’m not relying on it to pay my bills.
I want to fall back in love with writing. I want to bring the joy back. And on that note…
Joy!
Joy is my final word for 2024.
I didn’t feel like 2023 had much joy in it for me.
I want to find more joy in my work. I want to spend less time stressing, and have more time off!
I want to fall back in love with writing. I don’t want to write something because I am contractually obliged to. I want to write something because I can’t not write it. Because I’m obsessed with it, because the idea won’t leave me alone.
I know there are different types of authors out there.
Some authors publish multiple books per year, written specifically for an audience/genre, and can generate a nice income from that method.
Then there are authors who only publish one book every few years, and who don’t write specifically for a market, but write whatever the hell they like.
(I am envious of those authors!)
I think I fall somewhere in between.
I want to keep writing, and I love the two genres I’ve published in so far, but I know now that I can’t write multiple books per year. And I don’t want to write books just for the market.
I’ve made myself a promise - I won’t start writing again until an idea is too strong or powerful to ignore.
It’s tricky - I feel anxious about taking a step back from writing, when I know I could definitely write another book over the next six months.
But I think the effort involved in writing a book cannot be underestimated.
And if I’m going to expend that effort it’s got to be on something that:
a) makes me a ton of money (impossible to predict, so this option is moot!)
or
b) lights up my heart.
So yes, finding the joy in my work - and in my writing - is going to be a key focus for me in 2024.
Life’s too short after all!
I also want to read more books! I hardly read any in 2023, and I’m really ashamed!
Plans for 2024
Now that I’ve finalised my three words, I’ve been thinking about how I want to implement things in my business in 2024.
Web design services / packages
As I mentioned above, I’ve raised the price of my custom design package for 2024.
I’ve also decided that I’m going to set a limit of 11 custom design packages per year.
One per month, except in August when I try to have the month off.
I already have 3 custom design projects booked in - which means I only have 8 spots left next year! (so if you’re interested - then please do get in touch - I’m currently booking from April onwards)
With my Author Website in a Day package, as I mentioned before, I’ll be reserving Fridays for these.
Except for the Fridays I’ll be working on custom web design (as a custom web client, you get my undivided love and attention for the two weeks I’ll be working on your site!)
In line with my determination to be efficient, I’ve blocked off all these dates in my calendar for 2024 already.
What could go wrong?!
When it comes to my author web design course, I’m hoping to run three sales periods in 2024, and also promote it using a ‘get your author website sorted’ 5-day challenge in February, so keep your eyes peeled for more info on that if it sounds like it might be the kick up the backside you need to get yours done!
Blogging & SEO
I’ve loved getting back into blogging in the second half of 2023. I’m DEFINITELY going to continue with this in 2024.
However, I need to get a bit more strategic with it.
I’m far from an expert at SEO, and I know there’s a lot of good content on this site that isn’t getting picked up or ranked as highly in Google as I’d like.
So blogging is going to be a key focus for me, but I also want to improve the way I do it. So: quality not quantity.
I’ve been posting twice a week for the last few months, but I’m going to drop down to one post per week from now on.
This isn’t a lifestyle blog. I don’t have people hanging on my every word, and I worry that publishing too frequently means that posts get missed, or overlooked, and really useful content gets buried down the page too quickly.
Marketing
Blogging has been my only marketing tool to date really (alongside my newsletter, which kind of goes hand in hand).
I want to investigate other avenues for marketing, as I know I could reach so many more authors than I currently do.
So I’m going to look into affiliate marketing, guest-posting on other people’s sites and podcasts, and generally spreading my content marketing beyond the pages of this blog!
Potential new courses?!
I’m not 100% sure yet, but I do have two ideas for new online courses that I’m considering launching.
One is a blogging course for authors, and the other would be a mini course on how to sell books directly from your Squarespace author website.
If I do launch these, it will probably be in the second half of the year. But these are ‘nice-to-dos’ rather than firm plans.
My books
The One That Got Away’s beautiful new UK paperback cover
Last but not least: it would be remiss of me not to mention my books!!
The paperback of The One That Got Away is being published in the UK on January 18th!
You can see its beautiful new jacket here.
And even more excitingly, my second Charlotte Rixon book, After The Fire, is being released in 2024.
I can’t say too much more about that book yet, but even though I found writing it really tough, I think it features some of my best writing yet, and I’m so proud of it. I genuinely can’t wait to hear what readers think!
I’ll also have edits to finish on my next suspense book, which is publishing in 2025.
Phew! Reading this back, it all feels rather narcissistic and megalomaniacal, but that’s probably because I’m a self-effacing Brit.
Even so, I hope it was interesting for you to read.
I certainly love reading these kind of posts. As I keep repeating, my obsessional interest is how authors juggle writing with paying the bills, so if you’re a writer too, I hope this gives you some food for thought, or you just enjoy the general ‘behind the scenes’ nosiness of it.
My blog is having a well-deserved break now until the new year!
So all that’s left for me to say is a huge thank you to everyone I’ve worked with this year, everyone who’s read my blog, everyone’s bought or read my books. I hope you all have a joyous Christmas and New Year!
