What do we plan for 2019?

I’m a bit behind schedule with this post, but January happened to be a shit show on a personal level, so I just only got around to write this one up. Jen, of course was way ahead of me and had her part ready, I was the one lacking.

Anyway, January might be almost over, but the year had just started and we have a lot to look forward to. You might have seen countless blog posts about the upcoming releases everyone looks forward to, so I’m not going to bother with that. If you are interested in indie releases though, I can recommend to follow Rob J. Hayes, who has you covered every month!

I’d rather focus on our personal reading/blogging goals, so we know what are we going to fail at miserably 😀 So, here we go:

Jen

2019 is here and with that comes time to set a few reading goals for the year.

For me – I just have a few.

R/fantasy bingo on reddit

I am about five squares away from completing my card, which is due the first of April. I like Bingo because it forces me to read a few things I maybe wouldn’t normally read, some of those with good results and sometimes with me suffering through it.

Series

Last year I made a point of trying to finish up a couple of series and I would like to do the same again this year. I am considering using September as a dedicated month for series reading (depending on how badly I fail at my goal up until then). What do you all think of Series Slashing September?  Hmmm…. that acronym. I might have to work on a better tag line.

Reviewing

Will probably be about the same as it is now; unless something changes.

I generally take on ten or so requests, at a time. Usually this gives authors who have done requests around 3-4 months wait for their reviews. It also gives me a bit of leeway to pick up stuff in the interim, shuffle things around when I need to, and the illusion that I am top of things. It also keeps me from requesting every book I think sounds cool off Netgalley, but unfortunately it has done nothing to keep me away from those damned promo sales.

Timy

As for me, well… I try to be as organised as I can be, but usually life happens, and ugh, my schedule is being shuffled a lot. I also decided to be a bit harsher on ratings. In some cases I feel I was too kind, even though I only gave 5 stars in a handful of cases. Anyway, here are a few other things I want to do (differently) this year.

Requests

When I started blogging last year I was confident that I can keep myself to my schedule. I failed miserably. I accepted quite a few requests, but then I laid eyes on shiny new books and now I’m so behind on a few reviews. So, if you’ve requested a review from me, rest assured, I didn’t forget about you, and I will get everything done in the first half of the year. I own a review to the following, please let me know if I missed someone:

• Melokai by Rosalyn Kelly
• Lords of Asylum by Kevin Wright
• The Woven Ring by MD Presley
• Keys of the Origin by Melissa A. Joy
• Hidden Face by S. C. Flynn
• The Druid by Steven A. McKay
• Fate Lashed by Josh Erikson

I also have two books pending from Netgalley, both will be out this spring, so I also want to get to them. I’m not accepting requests for a while now, and I probably won’t for the time being, except if I already know someone or I’ve read the previous books of a series. Probably.

SPFBO

As I’m one of the judges in Fantasy Book Review’s judging team, I also need to read the finalists until May. Thankfully I already read a few of them beforehand and since there are 4 of us, I have a little freedom to choose what I’d like to read and what not. To follow our progress and get all the relevant info about FBR, check out my SPFBO4 page! This also will keep me busy until the end of May.

After May

Once I get done with the pending requests and SPFBO, I want to take things a little easier. I almost managed to burn myself out last year because I’ve overtasked myself. So I’ll try not to get as much requests and also request less. Read whatever I fancy at the moment and catch up with a few series I started in the last 2 years or so. I planned to read some classics last year which I never did, so maybe in 2019. Generally I’d like to keep my schedule as clean as possible and match books to my mood rather than pressure myself to get to them and thus kill the joy of reading. And also because of the next point of this post:

Beta reading / proofreading

Some of you might already know that I’m thinking about leveling up my game and take some steps towards becoming a freelancer in the future. I already worked with a few authors and I also currently have three beta reads in progress. I’d like to make some side money out of this starting in the second half of the year. I don’t have any specifics yet, but once I’ll figure everything out I’ll let you know. Suffice to say, I’m very interested in moving towards this path of career. We’ll see how it goes.

Blogging

Hard to believe but RockStarlit BookAsylum will be 1-year-old in 2 months time. A lot happened during this time and hopefully things will go well in the future. I already got a co-blogger to help me out and I’d like to get at least one more in the first half of the year. I don’t have a candidate yet, though I’d like to work with a male reviewer. I’m glad to say that Jen and me had become friends during this few months we’ve known each other and I’d like to keep this friendly atmosphere up. My goal is to have at least 2 reviews up a week, and possibly at least 4 posts a week, probably coming up with some original content or theme or something. Jen’s Series Slashing September idea sounds promising. The bookish part of my blog does pretty well, but apart from the Music Monday posts that aspect had been a bit discarded. I’d like to pay a bit more attention to that, and have some more music related content. Maybe some interviews or other articles.

I think that’s it. I hope you will continue to follow this blog and this little community will build up even more in 2019! Have a Happy New Year everyone and hope you all will be able to reach the goals you’ve set for yourselves.