Like so many of us, I started 2020 with such high hopes. Raccoon Retreat was headed for publication after a too-lengthy delay; lesson plans and engagement with wildlife rehabber and educator communities were intentions, as was a draft of Book 3, Raccoon Rebound.
Almost none of that went according to plan. I did publish Raccoon Retreat — at the height of lockdown. Lots of parents were looking for ways to educate and entertain their homebound children. It should have been a golden opportunity.
Except I had my own lockdown-with-kids challenges, which didn’t leave a lot of room for me to think through a promotional strategy. I needed to focus on client work, and with the busy “baby season” starting, most of the wildlife rescues I would otherwise have relied on would barely be keeping their heads above water (in contrast to my autumn launch of Raccoon Rescue).
There were a few glimmers of a sense that my original instincts were correct. For example, I connected with a picture book author, Gina Gallois, author of the adorable (and educational!) Opossum Opposites and Mama Opossum’s Misadventures. She, too, had volunteered with wildlife rehabbers and leveraged her knowledge into her books.
But things like Goodreads giveaways or BookBub promotions or Amazon ads (those ever-lovin’ algorithms!) involved too many details and too much time for my brain to handle. As I went into a summer in which I needed to cover multiple virtual events, I needed to take a step back from fiction promotion.
Going into 2021, I’m not sure what to expect. I have a couple of picture books I want to review for this blog, and one more book-related blog post, but nothing else “planned” per se. At this point Raccoon Rebound seems like the kind of project I would write in between other projects, as a break from heavier articles — an early-morning creative project, for instance, something that functions as a creative rest.
For promotion, I’m not sure. As I reflected over on my main business blog, tracking promotions for multiple fiction and nonfiction projects would be too much for virtually anyone. But as I’m working on things about the life and work of a neurodivergent freelancer, it’s entirely possible I’ll think up new ideas — if not blog posts, then perhaps videos.
What would you like to see from me and from this site in 2021?