I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions, but over the nine years (and counting) that I’ve been running Track of Words I’ve found it useful to set myself some rough goals for each year, and spend some time thinking about what I want to achieve with the site. It’s useful to have things to be working towards as I’m planning and writing new content, as long as I give myself enough flexibility to be able to change things or decide to focus elsewhere if need be (I also don’t like hard and fast goals like “I’m only going to read X”, as I don’t want my reading to feel prescriptive). You can read about the goals I set for 2022 here, and how I got on with them here, but in this article I’m going to look ahead to what I’m hoping to achieve in 2023. I’ll start off by talking in general terms about how I see the year going, and then look at some specific goals I’ve set myself for the site, and for my own reading.
Plans
It’s weird to think that this is my tenth year of running Track of Words. Back in 2014 when I started the site I really didn’t have any idea of what I was doing or what I wanted to get out of it, and over the years what I write, the time I put into the site and the way I approach running it have all changed quite considerably. In the last couple of years I think I’ve found a decent balance that lets me keep up a reasonably steady stream of (hopefully interesting, engaging) content without burning out or losing interest in what I’m doing…but then I’ve thought that before, and realised how wrong I was. So this year the plan is to pretty much keep doing what I’ve been doing recently, and focus on enjoying myself – because hopefully if I’m having fun, that will translate to good content on the site – while being prepared to change things around if something isn’t working.
So with that in mind I’ve put together a few rough goals, which I’m not going to worry too much about sticking to religiously, but which I hope will help inform the work I put into the site. What I haven’t done this year is set myself a goal to do with the type of content I create – I did that in 2022 and pretty much failed miserably, so this year I want to remain conscious that my priorities might well change over the coming months. I would definitely like to put together more interviews and guest content, so I’ll do that if I can, but I’m thinking of this as a sort of general plan-slash-hope for the year rather than putting it down as a specific goal. I’m definitely going to carry on with my SFF Community Spotlight series, so there will be a few more of those interviews this year at least!
As for what I’m going to cover, again I think it’s a case of continuing in the direction I’ve been heading recently. A few years ago Track of Words focused heavily on Warhammer content, but for a while now I’ve been pulling back on that and trying to cover as wide a range of SFF publishing as I can. I know a lot of ToW readers really love the Warhammer stuff, and I’m sure I’ll still do a few bits and pieces on that front, but for various reasons that I won’t go into here it’s unlikely that I’ll spend much time this year focusing on Black Library content. Again, that might change over the course of the year, but right now I’m expecting to carry on with my current approach of covering lots of different publishers and types of SFF (more on this later).
Aside from focusing on enjoying what I’m doing and trying to work on more non-review content, there is one other thing I’m planning on doing in 2023. As I’ve said, this is my tenth year of running the site, so over the course of the year I’m going to be spending some time considering what I want to do after this year. For example, do I want to keep Track of Words going as a site that I regularly add to, or or does the 10-year mark feel like the right time to wind things down? I don’t have an answer to that right now, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite a long time. I mean, I don’t really see myself running this site indefinitely, but then if I did decide to stop creating new content I’m not actually sure what I would do with all the free time I’d suddenly have! We’ll see, and I’ll keep you posted as and when I make any decisions.
Track of Words goals
Last year I set myself two goals specifically regarding what I did on the site, but while I did my best I only really achieved one of them. This year I’m trimming things down and just going with two site-specific goals.
Average two posts per week
With the exception of December, during which I’ll hopefully put together another Advent Calendar series, the plan in 2023 is to post twice weekly (or thereabouts). That’s pretty much what I ended up doing in 2022 anyway, and should see me end up with somewhere in the region of 120 posts by the end of the year, assuming I post every day for most or all of December. That feels manageable I think, and even if I have a few weeks where I struggle to get much written I’ll probably balance it out with some other weeks where I’m unusually productive.
The key thing really is to write or otherwise work on enough posts to make me feel like I’m being productive (and to give you plenty to read) without putting too much pressure on myself, or risking burnout. We’ll see what happens, but I’m fairly confident I’ll manage this one.
Broad coverage
I’ve already spoken about my gradual move away from focusing mostly on Warhammer-related content and towards covering a broader range of SFF. That’s been happening for a few years now, and in 2022 I made a specific effort to cover as much of general SFF publishing as possible – this was the only goal I really hit! The plan for 2023 is to continue in this vein, but also to look for gaps in my coverage and try to address those. That could mean trying to talk to editors, publicists and other publishing professionals for my SFF Community Spotlight interviews, reading and reviewing more horror fiction, looking for other IPs that I don’t currently read much about, or anything along those lines really.
Specifically though, I’d like to cover more self publishing this year. It’s an increasingly important part of SFF publishing and something that I really haven’t explored anything like as much as I’d like, but where I have briefly looked into it – reading books by S.A. Tholin (who I recently chatted to in an Author Spotlight interview) and Rob Hayes, for example – I’ve been really impressed. To be honest I’m a bit daunted by SP as there’s such a lot available and I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but I’m keen to read more and hopefully welcome more self-published authors onto the site for interviews and/or guest posts. I suspect it’s going to be a case of small steps, trying out bits and pieces and seeing what works for me, but it’s going to be an interesting journey!
Reading goals
I find it a little easier to set myself goals for my overall reading than goals for the site specifically, so I’ve got three this year – one that I always set, one that I’ve been focusing on for a few years, and one that I haven’t attempted before but which I’m keen to focus on. This year I haven’t set a specific goal around choosing some books to read for review and others for fun, as I feel like I’ve got into a good enough habit on that front that it’ll happen naturally.
52 books
I’m a fast reader, and over the last few years I’ve seen my reading numbers go through the roof – from 60 books in 2014 to 150 in 2023. If I’m honest I think 150 might be about the limit for me, if not even a little bit too much. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my reading last year, but I feel like maybe I overdid it a little, and that I can’t really remember everything I read. I don’t want to slow down too much, but I might make a point of giving myself a bit of breathing room now and then. We’ll see what happens (I’ve read 3 books in 2023 so far, at the time of writing this), but I’m definitely keen to ensure I enjoy each book as much as possible, and take the time to read each one at a comfortable pace.
Given how much I read it might seem daft to set a target of 52, but it’s become a bit of a tradition really. I quite enjoy changing the target to 104 once I’ve passed the original 52, and by starting off low (for me) I never feel daunted by a large number. At the same time though, by tracking my numbers I get a nice sense of satisfaction throughout the year.
Diversity
This is something I’ve been working on for a while, and which I feel really strongly about. As far as I’m concerned, SFF publishing still feels overly (white) male-dominated – at least in terms of what tends to get the most publicity, the most prominence in shops, and the most recommendation from other readers, bloggers etc. That’s not to say that SFF written by non-male and/or non-white authors isn’t available – it absolutely is, and increasingly so – just that it can still feel like the minority. Just go and look at an SFF table in your local Waterstones (or I guess B&N in the US, although it’s been a long time since I was in one of those), and chances are you’ll find plenty of Abercrombies, Sandersons, Martins and so on, but not as many Suris, Thompsons or de Bodards. They’re available, just not always as prominent as perhaps they should be.
Last year I did a good job of reading books by a good split of male and non-male authors, although I can still do more to apply that balance to reviews, interviews etc. on the site. This year I want to carry on doing the same thing, but also make a point of reading more from non-white authors too. I’m still planning on reading plenty from male and/or white authors, but I read SFF for escapism and to broaden my horizons, so I absolutely want to explore as many different perspectives as I possibly can. And likewise, I want to support as wide a range of authors on Track of Words as possible.
Catch up on series
I wrote an article about this recently, which you can read here, but the gist is that I’ve picked out 10 SFF trilogies or series that I’ve been meaning to read for ages, and which I’d like to finally start reading. I don’t imagine I’ll read every book in all of these series this year (I mean, I might…but it seems unlikely), but the plan is to at least start all of them. I have this ridiculous tendency to buy books that I really want to read but then to wait until ‘the right moment’ to start them…and the right moment inevitably never happens. So with this goal I’m trying to push myself to just make a start, and finally enjoy some of these books that I’ve been looking forward to reading for months, or in some cases years. Have a read of the article for full details.
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There you go then – if you’ve got this far, thanks for sticking with me. You now know all about what I’m aiming to achieve this year, both in terms of Track of Words and my own personal reading. If you have any suggestions, requests or ideas – for books to read, reviews to write, authors to invite for an interview, or anything else – please do let me know. You can leave a comment below or find me over on Twitter.
All that remains is to say that I hope you have a great 2023, and happy reading!
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