2024: my work year in review
Ahhh! It’s nearly the end of 2024 and this is my most favourite of all my blog posts to write so I may be a little bit overexcited.
What a year. The first thing I want to say is that, despite some big disappointments, this year has been a million times better for me than last year.
Which is a relief.
Last year, I rounded off my ‘year in review’ post with the following:
2023 has been a really tough year, both personally and work-wise, and I’ve not enjoyed it, which makes me sad as usually I’m quite a happy person.
I’m pleased to say I have been MUCH happier this year.
My health
OK so, I’m going to start with something that may seem a bit random as it’s not strictly work related, but I actually feel quite emotional when I realise just what an impact this has had on every aspect of my life.
Earlier this year, I started to feel breathless when I laid down in bed at night. Almost as though I was having a panic attack - I couldn’t seem to breathe deeply enough.
I was also absolutely exhausted, all the time, even when I’d slept well. I had to drag myself out of bed in the morning, and I’d regularly fall asleep in front of the television at 9pm every night.
Now, I’m a mum, so I’ve been exhausted for nine years now, but this was on another level.
I went on a 13 mile hike with some friends - something I had done twice before with no issues - and I was having to drag myself round for the last two hours. I had so little energy I could barely even speak.
I also had horrendous brain fog. I was trying to rewrite my book (more on that later) and I just couldn’t seem to hold the whole story in my head.
It’s a complicated novel with lots of twists and turns and I was constantly getting confused with what character knew what.
I would try really hard to focus and get my head around what was going on and it felt as though the story was out of reach somehow. Even to me, the bloody author 😂
Now, I turned 43 in January 2024, so I assumed it was the peri-menopause or something like that. Maybe even Long Covid.
Some symptoms of low iron stores
But in the end it got so bad (the breathlessness especially) that I went to the GP. She sent me for blood tests, which revealed that I basically had non-existent iron stores.
Now, technically I wasn’t anaemic. Anaemia is different from having low ferritin levels - anaemia is where you don’t have enough red blood cells in your blood.
But having low ferritin levels can cause so many issues, and it’s not something that’s talked about enough, in my opinion!
I’m not going to go into great detail here, but suffice to say I have been really vigilant about taking iron supplements ever since (I take two or three Spatone sachets every morning, with apple juice and a high-strength vitamin C tablet), and in my most recent blood test, my ferritin levels had come up quite a bit.
40 points higher but a whole world of difference!
I want to get them to over 100, so am keeping going with the supplementing, but MY GOD I feel like a completely different person.
My breathlessness has gone away, I no longer feel chronically exhausted (just normal Mum-tired 😆) and I’m able to concentrate again.
It honestly makes me quite emotional realising what a difference it’s made to me. I’m so grateful to have got to the bottom of it all.
So with that long-winded tangent out of the way, let’s get on to the 2024 lowdown…
My writing in 2024
Right after I wrote my last year in review post, I was sitting watching my daughter in a Christmas production when I got a text message from my agent asking if I was free to talk.
Rarely a good sign (unless you are on submission, in which case it’s usually the best sign. I was not on submission).
I arranged to speak to her later and she told me she’d been talking to my editor, who’d decided that the book I’d just sent back - that we’d been working on for the whole year (including three major structural edits) still wasn’t working.
She was right. But my god did it send me into a tailspin.
I had never felt so trapped or miserable.
I asked my agent if I could give the money back and get out of the contract. I couldn’t think of a way of fixing the book - I’d been working on it for so long and I just didn’t see a way forward.
Luckily, my agent is wise and told me to have a break over Christmas and that we would reconvene in the New Year to decide what to do.
So that’s what we did. A few weeks later, we all met on a Zoom, and we had a good chat about the book and what we thought would be the best plan of action.
In those few weeks over Christmas, I’d let my mind wander a bit and it had settled on an idea that I thought might just work: using the same story and characters but framing the entire thing completely differently, and moving it to the third person.
We talked about it and my editor seemed hopeful that this might be a good solution.
I wrote a mini synopsis / blurb and then I started work.
I rewrote the entire book from scratch. All 92,000 words.
It is a completely new book with a completely different perspective and structure, just with the same characters and same broad plot.
I spent almost ALL of this year rewriting that book, doing another couple of structural edits on it.
And last week I heard that the book is finally ready to go to the copy-editor in February.
It will be published!!!
But not until 2026 (it was meant to come out next year).
The relief to finally get this book to a point where it is publishable and hopefully enjoyable is immense. This time last year I honestly thought it was the end of my writing career.
I’m not sure what the lesson is here (other than get your iron levels fixed because that certainly helped me with the complicated plot!!) but I hope that it shows that no matter how experienced you are at writing (this was the 11th novel I’d ever written) each book is its own new challenge, and it really doesn’t get any easier.
Anyway, right now, I’m just relieved that I managed to turn things around.
I’m also super proud of the book and excited to be able to tell you more about it, and the (slightly despicable) character who I have had to live with for more than two years now!
Hopefully I’ll be able to announce more about it in the New Year 🙂
My published books in 2024
I should probably also talk about the fact that, technically speaking, I had two books released in 2024, although you might be forgiven for not noticing.
My first Charlotte Rixon book, The One That Got Away, came out in paperback in January.
It did actually get into several shops, but I have no idea how it’s sold because…
… let’s just say when your editor leaves a publisher and you get shoehorned onto someone else’s list, no one really cares about you or your book.
I want to stay professional here, so I’m not going to go into too many details, but I had very low expectations for both this book and my second bookclub novel, After The Fire, and…. well, it’s a good thing I did, because I was definitely right to.
One thing I think it’s so important to reiterate is that when you have a book traditionally published, you are literally handing over the responsibility for selling that book to the publisher.
And they can choose to do absolutely nothing to promote the book, and there’s really not much you can do about it.
Any meagre attempts you might make to do your own marketing are unlikely to move the needle at all if your publisher is not invested.
This is so common in two-book deals, when the first book has ‘underperformed’. They kill the second book. No point in throwing good money after bad, after all.
So, they killed After The Fire.
I had literally NO marketing or publicity for that novel - NOT ONE SINGLE BIT, and it didn’t get into any shops.
Cute biscuits from my agent!
I am not as upset about it as I probably should be, and I don’t blame any individual working at the publisher because they are all doing their best in a really messed-up ecosystem.
I’m just grateful that this wasn’t my first experience of being traditionally published because if it had been, then I would have been absolutely devastated.
The ONE thing I wish I had known before I got my book deal →
Sadly, my story is so common. I don’t have the answers, but I am certainly very interested in the conversation.
Anyway, I am still really proud of that book, and the (few) reviews it got.
If you liked One Day, then you might want to give it a try. I hope you enjoy it!
My new book
But let’s move on.
It’s the only way to survive this writing lark! Keep writing.
I set myself a goal to write a really shitty, but also really short, first draft of something new before the end of the year.
I wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea. I was still feeling pretty exhausted by life (lots of other stuff has been happening too) and still doing big edits on the aforementioned book, but I love a deadline and I thought I would push myself to see if I could do it.
I’ve talked a bit about my rationale behind writing a short draft on Instagram.
I had an idea for a book and I did get a bit nervous after reading Big Magic again that if I didn’t act on my inspiration, the idea would piss off and latch onto someone else who would write it instead.
(Yes I know that sounds ridiculous, and I’m so not a woo person, but WHY DOES IT FEEL 100% TRUE?)
So I decided to go for it. It was my idea, dammit, and I didn’t want it disappearing on me.
And so I did it. I wrote 60,000 words in about four weeks.
(Sidenote: I wish I could be as disciplined about anything else in my life as I am about writing!)
It needs lots of work (and lots more words - ha!) but the main thing I want to say here is that I genuinely absolutely bloody loved writing this draft.
And it was so nice to be writing something for myself, that wasn’t under contract, that is just me and my story and no outside pressures at all.
I hope this book finds a publisher in 2025. It means a lot to me - the subject matter is very close to my heart - but I also think it has huge commercial potential too.
So fingers and toes firmly crossed on that front.
Author web design
Phew! I honestly wasn’t anticipating writing quite so much about my own writing. Sorry about that.
Let’s get onto web design.
I built 15 brand new author websites this year!
I just had to go and count to double-check the numbers because I’m quite amazed at that, but it’s true.
I’ve honestly been loving it. It’s been so nice to get back to web design and all the clients I’ve had have been really wonderful.
You can see a selection of the designs I built this year here →
I also did lots of VIP Design Days, making over websites for Rhiannon Barnsley, Andy Howden, Aliya Ali-Afzal and Sophie Ranald among others, as well as updating many of my previous clients’ websites too.
I love working with past clients and catching up with all their news!
I also did a complete makeover for one of my very first clients, Eleanor Anstruther.
She booked me in for two design days and I basically rebuilt her website, moving it over to Squarespace 7.1 and giving it a completely new look.
As well as authors, I also (secretly - ha!) built websites for a psychotherapist, a breathwork practitioner, a charity and my own literary agent!
So if you’re not an author and would like to work with me, then please get in touch!
I’ve also redesigned my packages (YET AGAIN).
My three author website offerings
I realised that I love building author websites in one day. I wasn’t loving the long, drawn-out two-week process that I’d had ever since I first launched.
It felt like it dragged on unnecessarily.
So I’ve completely scrapped that offering, and bumped up my Author Website in a Day offering - giving three distinct packages, PLUS the opportunity to customise them by adding extra elements depending on your needs.
Some sad news
I feel that I can’t round off this section however, without mentioning something very sad that happened earlier this year.
Elaine’s author website
Elaine Everest was another of my very first web design clients (I think she was actually my second), and she was so lovely to work with - and so good at her author newsletter.
She actually paid me a monthly fee to look after her website and manage her newsletter for her, so we worked really closely together and I would like to think that even though we never actually met, we became good friends over the four years.
However, very sadly, I heard from her husband in August that she had passed away suddenly after being sick for a long time with complications arising from covid.
I was genuinely devastated, and I still can’t quite believe she’s gone.
She was a true inspiration to me - a writer who genuinely loved her readers, and seeing their reaction to her death has been very moving.
RIP Elaine. I so miss your emails and your sage advice.
My DIY Author Website Course
I don’t have too much to say on the DIY Author Website Course other than that it has been selling steadily throughout the year, with a few little peak periods when I’ve had a flurry of orders in the same month.
What I do want to say however is that I’ve had the most amazing feedback from students and I’ve honestly been SO impressed by the sites they’ve created after doing the course.
One of my student’s DIY websites!
I think the course is my proudest achievement in my business so far.
It was responsible for just under a third of my revenue this year, which has been fantastic, but most of all, I’ve just loved seeing how many authors it’s helped.
Next year I’m toying with adding a module on how to set up a Shop in Squarespace, so that you can sell books directly to your readers, as I’ve realised a lot of my students are self-published.
If this sounds like it might be of interest to you, do drop me a comment below!
My merch store
Genuinely, I’m still not 100% sure why I started my merch store 😂
The most nerve-wracking thing I’ve ever done →
I think it was just because I was a little bit bored and I love new technology and I saw the Printful integration with Squarespace and thought it would be fun to create something and have it printed and wear it.
And I really enjoyed doing something a little bit different!
Loved seeing my customers’ pics!
And I genuinely loved the finished products - especially the iconic ‘unreliable narrator’ t-shirt which has been my bestseller by far.
Thank you so much to everyone who bought something and shared it on social media!
So I’m pleased that I did it.
However, the truth is that the profit margins on these products is very small, to the point where really, it’s only really making me pocket money.
I did start to explore listing all my offerings on Etsy but I’ll be honest - it’s a lot of work and it didn’t feel like the best use of my time when I have novels to write and websites to build 😆
Also, dealing with returns is a bit of a nightmare, as once the products are made, I can’t send them back to the manufacturer, meaning I have to write them off as a loss.
So for now, the shop will remain up, but there’s a possibility I might take it down if it all becomes too much admin - so please do place orders while you can.
Blogging
OMG this post is so long. Already 2500 words.
But I guess I should also mention blogging!
Blogging is still my main marketing strategy and brings in most of my leads (closely followed by referrals).
I’ve stuck to blogging once per week for the entire year, and I intend to continue with this next year.
I’ll do a separate post in the new year about my post popular blog posts from 2024, but I have noticed that the more personal posts tend to do the best, which is interesting.
I have loved sharing a little bit ‘behind the scenes’ about my life as a traditionally published author, but I’m aware that this isn’t always the best marketing for my web design services 😆
I also have not fully recovered from the insane blog post about Harrogate going viral, meaning I got 8000 hits in one day…
Just a mere 959% increase in traffic on the previous week…
Some honest thoughts about the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival →
I’m trying to share one ‘behind the scenes’ honest post per month, but I’d also love to hear what you guys would like to hear about.
If you’ve made it this far, then please do leave a comment and let me know what kind of content you find helpful / useful / interesting.
Eeek, I’m at nearly 3000 words so I’m going to stop here.
The blog will be putting its feet up (and having a Bailey’s and a mince pie too) until the new year, but I’ll be back in January to share some of my new year’s resolutions with you!
I hope you’ve had a wonderful 2024, and I wish you a very relaxing Christmas and New Year with your loved ones ❤️
