[DIGEST] I never asked for a whole new year...

Your weekly stackable roundup

Hi friends,

Well, it finally happened. 2024 has been threatening for months. I didn’t believe it at first, but now, in the heart of it, I have to accept this is a new year. Does anyone else remember having to write checks and messing them up for months before you got the year right? Or am I alone in my willful refusal to accept a new year?

I want to state for the record that I never asked for a new year. I did not sign on to the terms and conditions of existence wherein time passes and years turn over. If somebody could point me to a manager, I’d like to lodge a formal complaint.

Earlier this week, I turned to my wife and said “All of those things I foisted on future Russell are coming back to bite him right now that that person is me.”

Did I use the word foisted or is that just the type of word I wish I used in conversation? I probably used some bawdy language that I try not to use in public, but for this one beautiful minute, can we just imagine I’m the type of person who would use that kind of language in conversation?

I put together our income report for this year and posted it for paid members. There are reports dating back to 2018 if you care to look. I additionally ran my financial end-of-year reports for all my companies, which I like to get done early so I don’t have to keep looking back at the previous year forever. Now, I just have to gather all the 1099 info for my CPA.

This week also saw the end of our Direct Sales Mastery for Authors Kickstarter that launched in November, which was the final bit of 2023 business tethering me to last year. Now, I am free to witness the horror that is 2024 and free to start our first campaign of the year on Tuesday.

Will we have a democracy in 2025? Will AI put us all out of a job? Will the fever dream that is capitalism buckle under the sheer inanity of itself? Stay tuned to answer that question and more on the next episode of Soap.

If you want to share how you are doing this week, then there are two ways to interact with this post.

1 - If you don’t want to say anything, or bristle at identifying yourself, then you can reply with this nifty poll.

2 - If you’re feeling very brave, then reply below and tell us how you are doing right now on a scale from 1-5.

This week was fine. It was very middle thermometer. Some might say it was meh. Honestly, after the last few years, I am happy for some meh weeks. 3.

COMING SOON: My first Kickstarter of the year launches on Tuesday for The Obsidian Spindle Saga.

This is my favorite series I've ever written. It contains several of my favorite books that I've ever written. If you have not read this series, and you love my work, then you will absolutely ADORE this series. If you have known of my work and been waiting to try something, then this is my best work.  

Portal fantasy is my absolutely FAVORITE genre of fiction, whether it's The Wizard of Oz, Alice In Wonderland, The Magicians, His Dark Materials, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe The Hazel Wood, Caraval, Ten Thousand Doors of January, Peter Pan, Neverwhere, or literally any other book about characters traveling to different places, worlds, realities, they are my jam. I poured all that love into this series. 

Each book of The Obsidian Spindle Saga is told from multiple different perspectives from all across the world of Urgu, weaving together a narrative between them. This was the most complex project I've ever worked on, getting each character right, and telling different but cohesive stories between them.

One of the things I appreciate about Game of Thrones is that each character is not only rich and unique, but they also are having their own type of fantasy story. Sansa is having a story about political intrigue while John Snow is having a classic fantasy adventure story, all while Arya is having a coming-of-age fantasy story.

It's like 30-40 stories in one book.

WHAT WE WROTE ON SUBSTACK: This week, I wrote a two-part article about creating a content calendar. I’m testing out two-part posts to break up my Uber-long epic posts. I’m not sure I love it, but I hope you’ll let me know what you think. Long posts or broken up into shorter pieces, which one works for you?

wrote an article about how one cannot be a great writer if one does not read.

WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME THIS WEEK: Just one interview this week…while I’m supposed to be on break…but I’m busier than when I’m busy.

SPARKLE ON SUBSTACK: I was interviewed by for their amazing podcast about how selling isn't pushy when your content is pure gold. LISTEN

SARAH’S SMORGASBORD: interviewed me about funnels, flywheels, and marketing for kid’s books. READ

It took a half-hour to raise the boat and for the bunny to recover the information I needed, but it was well worth the wait. Transcriptions of phone calls between the Elkman and the bunny, wire transfers between accounts, signatures on checks, and more. Aside from a signed confession or a picture of him ordering the hit on Benny, it was everything I needed to bring him down.

There was just one problem—he was also the one who promised me five million dollars to catch the killer, a feat he must have thought I would never be able to pull off. Even if I did, I would have to make a decision whether to blackmail him or call him out, and if I chose the former, then five million would be a small price to pay to control an empire.

I had to talk with him, alone. I slipped the incriminating papers inside a satchel and headed to Pine Street Market. The Elkman was under lock and key at all times, except, of course, when he was using the bathroom. Bodily functions killed more monsters than any other. You couldn’t avoid them, no matter how powerful you were.

All chapters of The Godsverse Chronicles are now free for all subscribers. You can read the whole series from the beginning right here.

You still only get access to a bunch of free books and stories from my back catalog by becoming a paid member. You can start your membership with a 7-day free trial.

UPCOMING ARTICLE: Next week, I’m breaking down 2023 for every one of my companies, along with brand new income reports only available to paid members.

If you’ve only started following my work since 2023, then you probably don’t know that I’ve been releasing income reports since 2018, with data going all the way back to 2016. I’ve always believed in transparency. As a teacher who helps authors grow, it’s important that you know exactly how successful I have been in order to decide whether to trust me or not.

That said, while I do believe in transparency, I have been burned several times for my beliefs, so I’ve decided that while I’m going to keep these reports, and have decided that I’m going to offer the full breakdowns only to paid members.

Most everything in this publication is free to read, but this aligns with my belief that the most valuable pieces of The Author Stack should be available exclusively for paid members.

If you are a paid member, here is where you can find all my reports.

ROUNDUP: Here are some of my favorite articles of the week.

Business-y:

Publishing-like:

Culture-ish:

Find anything you loved enough to swoon over or hated enough to make your blood boil? Let me know.

If you like what I’m doing around here and want to check out the archives, you can do that with a 7-day free trial, or simply go straight to being a paid subscriber. You also get access to my ya mystery novel, My Father Didn’t Kill Himself.

They say my father killed himself. I don't think so. He was my best friend. He was my rock. He would never take his own life.No. Somebody killed him. I'm sure of it. I just have to prove it. If I don't, we can't collect on his life insurance. We're already in too much debt. Without that money, we'll lose everything.He would never do that to us. I just know it, and I'll prove it, too, even if I lose everything in the process.

Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written.

If you are not a paid member, you can read everything with a 7-day free trial, or give us a one-time tip.