Winter Solstice and a new attitude

Tonight we celebrate the return of the sun with a fire in our firepit and a libation to honor the gods and goddesses and the earth from which we come and to which we will return. The days will be growing longer for now on--it seems almost too quick! 

Yesterday my book signing went well--I met and spoke with interesting people and sold some books! I'm going to try and do more of these in 2015 along with having a more positive attitude. I will visualize my books with wings and I won't check constantly to see how many I've sold. What I realized yesterday was that selling is not why I write. I've said this before but it's coming around again. I want people to READ my books--the money is not important when it really comes down to it. And to give a bit of advice here, I think it's important for all of us as writers to know why we are doing what we're doing. Once we figure that out we can let go of what doesn't fit for us. In other words don't let yourself get caught up in a marketing frenzy when what you really want to be doing is writing! I know, I know, marketing is important and part of our job as indies, but we need to decide when to write and when to market. And we can attempt to think outside the box. If everyone is doing one thing, think of something else to do--something off the wall like plastering your car with an image of one of your book covers. ( I saw this done and it was pretty cool). 

I've spent a lot of money this year on all sorts of PR, telling myself that you have to spend money to make money. Well, I'm not so sure anymore. I've had ads in the local newspaper for several months and have not noticed a pick-up in sales. And no one came to my signing who had either read my newsletter or noticed the ad.  I'll continue for a few more months and see how it goes. 

But here I go talking about selling again...

I'lll be joining a writing group in mid-January--instead of being a critique group it is more of a support group for writers, which sounds good to me. I'm not generally a joiner but this one sounds different. We'll see. (always leave a way out is my motto)

I guess this is as close to New Year's resolutions as I'll get--I've never been one to do those since to me it's just a set-up for failure...Instead I like to form vague notions about how I want things to change--nebulous and ethereal--the way I write and the way I live. You won't find me with a list of do's and don'ts on my wall! 

How do you deal with these sorts of issues? Do you write out lists or do you leave it to chance? Do you make New Year's resolutions?

Thank you for reading and have a very Happy New Year!!!