BTS049, A Year in Review and Self Publishing Products I Loved in 2022
BTS049, A Year in Review and Self Publishing Products I Loved in 2022
Hello, Writers!
This year, I’ve decided to start my podcast by looking back at everything I achieved in 2022. After that, I will discuss the products I loved in 2022 and will continue to use in 2023.
I will also not dive too deeply into metrics like hours or word count because that’s not helpful. In fact, as a coach, I hate metrics because it doesn’t contribute anything of value, especially in the writing space. Everyone writes differently. Some people need to write slowly, think and research as they write. And if that’s you, it’s okay to write that way and slowly build your backlist.
But I’ll hop off my soap box now.
So, without further ado, let’s get into the show.

About the Episode
Just to let you know, this episode was recorded on Thursday, the 2nd of February, so this show is primarily me looking back at 2022. And, if you’re new to this podcast, I want to say a huge thank you for stopping by and trying out my show. To those of you who have been faithfully listening, thank you for regularly listening in and supporting me; your support means more to me than you know.
Third Edition of Missing
Yes, I know this will sound ridiculous, but in 2022 before the release of book two, I created a third edition of Missing under a new title. This new title is Suspicion. The third edition was released at the end of July. I guess you’re wondering why—why create a third edition of the first book in a series?
The answer is two-fold. To improve read-through from books one to two in the future, that’s the most important reason. But another important reason is I wanted to use Maximilian Nicholls in another series, and I couldn’t with the previous ending of this short novel. Over time, I realised that I didn’t like another character I created but enjoyed writing from Maximilian’s point of view. And I guess there’s a third reason as well; I wanted to improve the average rating to above 3.65 stars, and I felt that attempting that with the second edition would be an uphill battle.
So, I enlisted the help of beta readers and a copy editor which was a wrong fit for me which led me to turn back to the company that I used for the candidate for a line edit and a final proofread. Next, I gave the book a new cover, but with the same colour palette; I did this on purpose so readers would recognise the book but also get that it was a third edition. Then, I used ARC readers found on Book Sprout and another programme I will not name, to source early reviews. The reviews I received on Book Sprout were honest and fair and came from actual readers who enjoyed reading in the genre.
Duplicity
So, I finished revising, Duplicity. Yay! Next, I employed beta readers, a line editor, and a proofreader.
Because I was certain that my book two was the crappiest novel that I had ever written, I put the novel up for preorder. And I was also curious to see if anyone that had downloaded book one would buy book two. The preorder was listed after I had finished the three rounds of line edits and sent my novel off to be put in the proofreading queue. When I send a story off for proofreading, I get told how long the queue is and the length of time it will take for the book to be proofread. So, I did some quick calculations and then added a four-week buffer to the preorder date.
Even though I was super apprehensive, I still submitted Duplicity to my ARC readers both on my email list and on BookSprout. At the same time, I changed the cover; this was a few weeks before publishing. One morning I woke up and realised that the cover I had wasn’t right. To be honest, I think either cover would’ve worked well, but my current one is better.
Writing The Locked Room into the Dark
During the rewriting and revision stage of Duplicity, I had a lightbulb moment. I finally admitted that I hate revisions and was ready to try writing into the dark. So, I purchased a Writing into the Dark course and another on Writing Locked Room Mysteries, both by Dean Wesley Smith.
This prompted me to start writing a short story into the dark, which will now be a novella. I know this story is a novella because the story needs a lot of setting up before the body is discovered. In addition, the story I’m writing ties into an event briefly mentioned in Duplicity, and it’s titled, The Locked Room. And once I figured out the title, I purchased this premade psychological thriller book cover from my store. I wanted it to be a legitimate transaction because it was originally an asset that I wanted to make money from, so I paid for it at its usual price, £60.00 from my book royalties. Also, I changed the colour palate because it was too close to another short story that I published.
As of a couple of days ago, I’ve reached 18,699 words, and my protagonist, James Lalonde, has just discovered some information that has changed everything for him. So, I’ve reached the third act of the story. But I could be wrong about that—it might be a novel; I just don’t know. Once I’ve finished writing and publishing this story, I will discuss my experience with writing into the dark at length.

The Lawn
After making changes to the cover for The Locked Room, I decided that it made sense for the covers of The Lawn and The Locked Room to have a series feel to them. So, I made the series changes.
And I’m happy to announce that I’m finally pleased with the cover for The Lawn.
Just so that you’re aware, I plan on giving both of these stories away for free to my mailing list subscribers. Eventually, I want to give away a James Lalonde starter library.
Products that I’ve used and Loved in 2022
Here are a list of products that I used, loved and will use again in 2023. The list has been broken up into the various parts of my authorpreneur business, and all affiliate links have been marked with an asterisk.
Le Villain Book Covers:
- Photoshop, Illustrator + InDesign
- Canva *
- Deposit Stock Photos *
- iStock *
- Vector Stock
- My Etsy Store
- Stripe
- WooCommerce
- WordPress
- The Divi Theme *
- Gravity Forms
- Siteground *
The Authorpreneur Podcast:
Self-Publishing:
- BookFunnel *
- PayHip
- Vellum
- Draft2Digital
- NaturalReaders (Premium)
- Scrivener *
- Grammarly Premium
- ProWriting Aid *
- AutoCrit
- Authors ai (Marlow) *
- BookSprout
- MailerLite *
- Evernote
- Todoist
Concluding Thoughts
If you have any questions or tips on book marketing that you would love to share with me, please come over to the blog post and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Thank you for listening, and happy reading and writing, everybody.
Your coach,
Amelia xx
* DISCLAIMER: This blog post contains affiliate links (marked with an *), which means if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. The commission helps support the blog and allows us to continue to make content like this. Thank you for your support. 🙂
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I’m Amelia. When I’m not hosting the Authorpreneur Podcast™️ and the Book Nerd Podcasts, I write Mystery Novels under the pen name A. D. Hay. And, I’m the author of Suspicion, the Lawn, and the Candidate.
On this blog, I help new writers to finish their first draft, prepare their manuscripts for professional editing, and when they get stuck in the first draft phase or are confused about the revision process.
Right now, I’m editing and preparing my soon to be published mystery novels, Suspicion, Duplicity, 24 Hours, and Immunity for publication.