Hi, everyone. We're glad you're here. This is the Three Lesbians and a Pen podcast. Get ready to have your world rocked. As we dive into the wild and sometimes wacky world of self publishing. We are three fabulous bestselling authors. I'm your host, Kimberly Todd with my best friends.

K. C. Luck

and Jamey Moody. 

Join us as we discuss the joys of writing, challenges of self publishing, and anything else that tickles our fancy. 

Hey there. Welcome to episode 17 of the Three Lesbians and a Pen podcast. I'm Kimberly Todd, and I'm here with my fabulous friends, KC Luck and Jamey Moody. Today, we're talking about our goals for 2025, but before we start this is actually going to be our last podcast of 2024.

And we'll see you again in the new year. We are going to take some time away for the holidays. But with that said, how was everyone's week?

 I had a really good week, just doing some writing on the billionaire's book that I'm going to put out early next year. But the big thing for me was on Friday, I was the book on Jae's advent calendar and I gave away Darkness Falls for free and I gave away a lot of books. Does anybody want to guess how many books I gave away?

 1850.

Wow,

that's a lot of books.

I know.

Yeah.

Isn't that awesome? I was so excited. I was like, holy shit. So it put it in the top 100 of free books and the tailing off of it, where you see the profits out of that big giveaway have been excellent. People have been buying

the other 

books. 

Oh good.

So yeah. 

That's the whole idea, huh?

Thank you readers.

I'm thinking if even half of those actually read it and half of those buy, any of the other books, it's a huge win. So, I mean, that's a great, great thing to do. I had a really good time watching the numbers. It was fun. And the other bit of news is I've been packing. I'm getting ready to go to Hawaii next week.

Dun, da, da, da. So.

Yay! 

getting all my shorts and tropical shirts ironed and ready to go. So that's what I've been working on this last week.

Fun. Let's see. I've been watching a bunch of college volleyball. That is what I've been doing right now. The NCAA tournament is going on. I am a big Texas A&M fan and the Aggie girls have done really well this year and ended up in the sweet 16.

And, almost, beat Wisconsin to, go to the regional final there. But anyway, there's been a lot of really good volleyball and, I've just been enjoying watching it. So that's my 

big thing. How about you, Kimberly? 

 I have actually been sitting in my chair and writing every morning. And I was telling Jamey earlier that I do my best writing at 4:30 to 6:30 in the morning. And it just comes out. I was like, yes, every day. And then you're done. It's like, that's so great.

So I'm very pleased. And also my wife and I love the women's volleyball, but we like Nebraska. So that's who we're watching.

 I am out of the loop.

Why are you rooting for Nebraska? 

It's my wife's favorite.

I don't know who scheduled the podcast at this time, but

 Okay. So KC, did get any texts from our readers?

We did from the usual suspects, we received one from Los Angeles and they said, I love what you said about beginning, middle and end. Words to live by. In my day job, I produce video content at various lengths, super short, which would be seconds for social media to 60 and 90 minute TV specials.

That's very cool. that's kind of fun. We have also a saying when folks ask my team, how long a piece should be? Most of the time we don't have a specific length. So the answer is as long as it is good. Hope you have a great week.

So that's actually really good advice. I like that one a lot. I also like this one from Memphis. Hey, it's Cheryl. This podcast gave me a lot of good info about novellas. I didn't realize they could be so hard to write. I won't talk smack about them. The wife laughs every time I talk smack to Kindle Unlimited.

Made the mistake of eating my fish sticks when the moist brownie story Every time I took a bite. I thought these are so moist oh We're never gonna get past moist on this podcast. 

Talking smack to her Kindle. I wonder if she's talking smack to the story or to the actual device. So maybe it's an author.

 What happened on 

Instagram? 

Okay. Well, this is funny. This is a response from Evie. And again, it's going back to the, clarifying the sexy communication. She thought that was funny that we were like, so tell us, what words would you be using? And, she said that she likes dirty talk, when the characters are saying what they like to each other, she finds that super hot and, comments in general about smells, tastes, sounds.

She said, you get the picture. So. Thank you, Evie, for writing into us. And that's it for Instagram.

Okay. We got a couple of emails. This first one is from Cheryl and, I kind of think Cheryl is a very humorous person because she said her goal for 2025 is, a date with her favorite ortho doctor, because she's going to get knees, arms, hips, things like that replaced. So I guess, yeah, that's the way it would be.

Her, wife is currently, rehabbing from a hospital stint. And so her big goal is to get home by Christmas. So we are sending out all the positive vibes. So Cheryl's wife can be home by Christmas. Yeah. On your, first text you were talking about from LA that's Jules and she emailed me because, I was, in a book giveaway by, the Sapphic Book Review, Laura Green, our podcast buddy, uh, was doing, a giveaway every day for several days.

 and my book was in there and Jules won it, which I thought was pretty funny because when she sent me the winner and the address, I was like, I know her. But anyway, so she, emailed me cause, I wanted to tell her she'd won the book and it would be coming. And, she said her goal is to get her debut novel published.

So 

 that excited me because that's, why we're doing this is to help new authors. And so I told her, I said, yep, we'll get that done this year. We will be happy to help you. So that's why we do it. So it's just a little, positive reinforcement for us.

Yeah. 

I was really happy about that.

 I guess we will jump into our goals for 2025. And KC, do you want to start us off?

Sure. I won't give you the definition of goals. I think we all understand what those are, but, Ideally, we're going to talk about today, not just professional goals, but maybe a few personal goals to make it more fun for everybody listening. For example, here's my big goal for 2025. Are you ready? I am going to retire from my day job on April 4th.

I've actually given notice. It's that serious. So I know. Yes. And I will be writing full time after that. So that is a big goal for me. And a lot of stuff spins off of that. Of course, after I take a couple of weeks of just relaxing after that date, I'm going to get into a number of things like writing for an hour of a day, marketing for an hour of a day, going to the gym to work out.

I mean, things that I can't do when I have a day job that I will do in retirement. 

As someone who is semi retired, I, encourage you to make yourself a schedule so you'll stick to those things. Because, my first goal for 2025 is to, sell more books or make more money or whatever that looks like from my books, so that I can completely retire because I'm semi retired right now.

I work three days a week and that's okay. But I think I would rather not work at all and just be able to work on my books all the time. And I have found on those two days a week that I don't work right now. I've gotten a little lazy and I kind of get everything done, but there are times during the day, if I would just get up and get after it, I would probably be a lot happier, mental health wise, because I don't get to it, you know, until later in the day I get everything done, but it just gives me anxiety during the day.

So that's why I'm saying that's another goal to make a schedule and stick to it for my off days. So that's a little advice for you. KC.

 For sure. I totally agree with that. And I do plan on making a schedule and trying to stick to it because I recognize even trying to do things while I work, writing is kind of like for, I don't know, to compare it to something that people who don't write might be able to recognize. It's like going to the gym and working out.

It's something that takes some real, motivation to get yourself there. But once you do it, you feel fantastic. So you're like, yeah, I accomplished this. I meant to do it. I did it. And now I feel great. So it's kind of how it is for writing as well. So having a schedule is definitely on my list of things I have to do to be successful.

Right. And see, for me, I have done this, just because I love it. Just something else. it fills time during my day. Yeah. But it's because I love it. And once I semi retired and had more time to do it, it didn't feel quite as much like the fun part.

And so I kind of had to work on that to make it fun again. 

 It's something that I love and I enjoy, and I don't want to think of it as a job, I've been semi retired about five, six months. And so for a little bit, at times it felt more like a job and see, I'm trying to get away from that.

But I do need to have a schedule I think, because then I would be happier all the way around.

 It took me a while to get back into the groove and figure out what time works for me to write. And I do produce a lot more words when I have a schedule. And one of the things I miss that I used to do, and how come I started writing again in the morning is I used to do writing sprints with other authors from 7:30 to 9:30 in the morning.

But. I noticed that my writing slowed down once I left that group because I just did the same thing. I'm like, Oh, I need to do laundry or I'm hungry. Let me get up. But I couldn't keep my butt in the seat. So by getting up really early, I don't want to do any laundry at 4:30 in the morning. I do like to write then.

So that's been working really good. But my goal, is I want to write three books this year. I would love to write more, but if I could get three, that would be huge So my major goal is to write more books.

Yeah, and I'm pretty sure your wife appreciates you not doing the laundry at 4:30 in the

morning, so 

But I think you just gave me a really good idea, Kimberly. I sit here and think, you know, I'm supposed to get up in the morning and start working on these books. Well, let me tell you something. I don't really write in the morning. I never have really written in the morning. I've always been an afternoon or evening writer and on the weekends, sometimes late at night.

So I just need to rearrange that schedule and have my writing in the evening because that's when I do it. 

Well, I'll be, you just, you just 

help me out there Kimberly. Thank you., 

Oh, good, good. I'm glad I could help 

you. 

Aw.

Yeah, I try to write in the morning it seems to be the best time. Not 

quite so early. 

Not the crack hour. 

Yeah, really.

 Yeah, I might be up but I definitely am not writing at 4:30 in the morning. Another goal is, well, you mentioned writing books, how many books you want to write this year.

 I'd like to release four books as well as write four books. And it's a little screwed up for me this coming year because I have The Super Secret book coming out in May, which is already written. And then I have a novella that is going to be a prequel to that because it's based on a short story that I'm going to expand on that's going to come out before that.

So I got a mess. So

it's going to 

be busy. I 

I know, that's why I have a schedule. Okay, so,

Okay. Got it.

So anyway, four books released, four books written, including, finishing the billionaires and I'm going to work on a Darkness Falls book. So I got some stuff for people. 

Okay. that sounds good. I usually publish four books a year. So that's what I'd probably, try to stick to again. I do know, the first book in a series is going to be my first release of 2025. And for now it's a three book series.

So that's what you'll be getting for the first three books of the year. I don't know what the fourth will be. It won't be super secret, but,

It might be.

Maybe it'll be a surprise. So anyway, yeah, I'm shooting for four books. 

Oh, wait, can I say one other thing? None of them will be a novella. 

 Nice.

 So my next thing that I've been wanting to do for a while is my email newsletter autoresponder. I have one in there, but I want to expand it to three or four emails. And I also want to update and create a new reader magnet, which is part of that funnel.

 I've been wanting to do that for over a year. So I made it a goal so that I could actually do it this time. So there you go.

Yeah. I'm totally on board with that. I really want to focus on my newsletter. Making better automation, creating a reader magnet, and even a lofty goal of doubling the number of subscribers. So that's going to be tricky, but that is definitely my

stretch goal.

for the newsletter.

Well, I think we always are trying to improve our newsletters, you know, because that's how we can, speak directly to our readers. 

And that's how you sell more books, which is what we all want to do. 

Maybe my goal needs to be more interesting. So I'll have something to put in my newsletters because I do them more than once a month. I try to do it, you know, a couple of months, but you know, I'm just not that wild and crazy kind of gal. So.

 I have some goals on mind that have to do with things I can put in the newsletter. Like I intend, yeah, I intend to go on at least six different trips with my girlfriend over the year of 2025. And the first one will be in January where we're going to go on a two

week road trip to

Arizona. So yeah, that's gonna be fun. 

Yeah,

Okay. I'll keep that in mind. Do fun things to put in the newsletter.

You'll have to tell your sister we're going here because I need something for my newsletter. 

There you go. Come on, Leo. Here we go.

Maybe I should do, trips as a single. I know. What are you thinking,

Kimberly? 

was just thinking

 the only other thing I thought we could do is maybe me and KC could make you an online dating profile.

Yeah. 

Yeah, I don't know about that.

 We could get some pictures of you off of Facebook. And yeah.

She likes to write 

sexy, romantic 

That's scary 

thoughts right 

there

Love stories that end in orgies.

Yeah, exactly. We have established that over the last year, yes.

Oh because of those massive epilogues at the end of series.

exactly.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to think through if any of those are an actual orgy, but okay.

Just teasing.

Oh man, I love that. 

 It's my turn and let me just say this and I should have said this up front that I am not big on goals. And so KC's written like 25, Kimberly's probably got 10 or so, and I've got like three. So here's my big goal for 2025 is I want to meet up with my pod pals. We didn't get to see each other this year in person.

 So we need to do that this year. Hey, we could take the

podcast on the road. 

we could. Yeah,

Meet up different places and record from there. Oh, that's a great idea. Way to go, Jamey

Way to go, Jamey. Also a tax write off, so let's go somewhere fun.

Well, anywhere the three of us would end up would be fun. 

 And you'll hear about it on the podcast and then see it in all of our newsletters.

Just with a different spin. A different voice.

Yeah,

Yes, exactly. Exactly. 

Oh, speaking of visiting places, I do intend to go to the, I think it's queer and quills. If I don't have it backwards, quills and queers. I can't remember. I

You do because you're going with me.

I know we're going in May, so we're going to be going to that for sure. Me and Jamey will be there with our smiling faces, apparently sharing a table with books and sharing a table where she's making the table runner, if I recall.

So

Yeah, I need to get on that, don't I?

Well done, KC

well, I was thinking of just doing one with Jamey Moody, so I guess I ought to do it half and half. So,

or just put a little KC Luck in the corner, just little square that doesn't have to be fancy.

Yeah, because I'm gonna mail you all the books so that you can 

bring them.

That's right. That's right. It's a trade off. 

Yeah. We're doing that in May, so we have time.

Right. We'll be there in May. I also plan to go to some other indie author event, yet unknown, but I'd like to go to at least one more. And it would also be really fun to take my girlfriend to P Town. So, those are places I would love to visit in 2025.

 We'll see how that pans out with KC retired. 

I know, and

 the books have to sell if you want to see me in P Town, okay? That's how it works. So

With everything you're planning, you've got to have time to write too. 

 I have another thing that I wrote down, I guess it was about almost a year and a half ago, a course that you have unlimited, you know, you can use it forever from Chris Fox where it teaches you to write faster and it's like you do it for 30 days and I always look at it and I do like day one and day two.

And then I don't do anymore. So I decided one of my goals this year since I want to write more books, that I should try this class. Isn't he the 10k a day or some guy. 

Or a million words a year, I think, or something like that. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. Can't imagine that. That's crazy,

but it'd be great. Right? Wouldn't it be great to be able to write a million.

Even if it gives me some kind of tips or something that helps me a little more, that would be great. So I'm going to try that.

Yeah, I've got a a book that I bought on the beats, uh, Romancing the Beats, the different beats in romance that I haven't finished reading. So that's one of my goals too. It's like I have it sitting there and I'm like, Oh, I'll be reading that. And then I'll be thinking, Oh, I ought to be writing or doing other things.

And then I just don't do it. So, yeah, it's a short book and it's supposed to be very good. so that, that's the goal. Finish that book this year.

Yeah. I plan to do a lot of reading as well as everything else on my list, which I'm known by now. It looks very lofty, but I would like to read a couple books on marketing, which I think would be very useful. Maybe some self help books. And of course, some more books by our fellow sapphic authors.

So if I can get through 10 books of sapphic authors, and then maybe 10 books that are not by them, but something more mainstream, just to mix it up for my reading pleasure. I think that's my goal when it comes to reading stuff.

I don't really make goals on, how many books to read and that kind of thing. But I enjoy reading. I usually read only sapphic books, but I have, stepped away from that just a little bit because I'll get books from other people and they'll say, try this just to look at what, other people are writing, 

Yeah. 

sapphic.

So

It's something to put in your newsletter. If you read one you really like. 

 Thank you. KC. I'll keep that in mind

So one of the things I actually had quite a few people, write to me and say, hey, I really want to buy, your books directly from you and some of them signed and things like that. And usually I just write them, sign them and mail them to the people.

One of my goals is to get up one of those, stores on my website where you can buy directly from me. I'm not sure it'll happen this year, but I'm going to try.

Autographed copies, or Yeah. Signed copies or regular copies if they want to buy it. But I think, you know, if they're going to buy direct from me, they can get either. 

Oh, okay. That's 

cool. 

It has to be print books.

Yeah. Yep, I've seen someright? 

do that.

 I've thought about that too.

That would be a great topic for next year for us on the podcast. We need to look into how to, sell your own books.

 Definitely would be a good thing. I want to improve my website, but I just thought of something that I really want to do in 2025. that is continue the podcast.

Yep. 

Fun.

Yay.

Yeah, me too. It's 

goal. 

And of course, make another list of goals for 2026. That'll be my 2025 goals. 

I really love Amazon ads, and I find a lot of success with them for my books. So I'm curious. I've heard that it's hard to learn Facebook ads, but I've seen a few. I didn't even realize at first when I was scrolling through Facebook that I was looking at an ad until I know a couple of times I saw them.

So I want to try, I think, to do a Facebook ad this year and then compare the results between that and how my Amazon ads do. 

 I'm curious how hard it is to compare them. I just think the analytics are hard to, uh, flush out.

Well, it's my understanding that you can't really target as much the Facebook ads. So if it really flops, I probably won't do them, but I just want to see if I get any hits on them at all. Like it'd be interesting to see. 

Well, curiously, since one of our, members on the podcast does not do Amazon ads and 

Kimberly does and so do I. 

Wonder, I wonder who 

so do I, Yeah, I turned off all of my ads in December, except for the one on my Christmas book and I'm going to, try to compare and see if you know, not having them what it's done to buy their books.

So stay tuned and we'll look into that because I haven't decided what I'm going to do as far as advertising for January.

So you're talking about your backlist. You're trying to compare

your backlist to yes, you have them and no, you don't. Yeah. Okay, cool. Okay. Yeah. And Kimberly, if you're going to do that, be sure to include Bookbub ads. That is where I get my most successful return.

How can you tell? That's what I want to know too, because we've talked about that. That might be a conversation for off the air 

 Here's how it will happen. What of the two is more difficult to create, a Bookbub ad or the Facebook ad? That's what will determine which one I'll do first.

Facebook's

Facebook for sure. Yeah.

Then I'm going to do a Bookbub ad this year.

Not Facebook.

It's like one page, three clicks. 

Okay. 

You have 

Yeah. It's not difficult at all. 

Facebook is six pages, 12 clicks, maybe, yeah, targeting, it's just, so 

Thank you. 

And I'll probably move my 2026 goal will be to make a Facebook ad. 

For sure. 

I know you want to talk about this offline, but really the metrics are take the oldest book you have basically, and put it up there because that way it's not influenced by how recently you put it out. Ideally it's not part of a series, it has to be a 

standalone.

And then you just see 

what 

happens. 

Oh that's a great idea.

in January, happens in 

February, happens in 

March... 

my goal in January is to create a Bookbub ad for, one of my first standalones and see 

 I really am making a note of this. I'm going to do that.

That would be.

 let me say one other thing. I don't have any fitness goals in here because fitness is kind of part of my mental health routine. And so I don't make a goal that I'm going to work out every day or I'm going to do this, this, and this. I mean, so I wanted to mention that fitness is just part of my day.

I'll just put it that 

way.

I just want to mention fitness is not part of my day. I just sit in my chair 

 I don't move. So guess what I'm doing? The 16 hours of fasting and eight hours of eating thing. I just started it four days ago and it is 

hideous.

 They say sitting is the new smoking, so 

pay attention to how much you're sitting in that chair. 

Yeah. But, It's come out that that's kind of a myth. However, I bought myself a Christmas present yesterday. I've got a standup desk at work and I find one of the reasons I get tired of sitting at my desk at home is I'm like, God, I can't make this thing go up. So I bought myself a desktop standup desk.

So it. It'll be here in a couple of days. 

Okay, do either one of y'all have any more goals? Because I am certainly goaled out.

Yup. Done.

Okay, so we will be back, like we said, in the first week of 2025 with our next episode, and it's a surprise to us, so it'll be a surprise to you. 

KC, do you have a question?

I don't have so much a question, but I have an ask. So what we would like is at some point in 2025, we would like to have an ask us anything episode, which means we need input from all of you listening. So send us your questions, which would be ask us anything questions. Try to keep them PG 13. So, and we'll have an episode where we all tell you what is our deepest darkest secret. 

Whoa Okay.

And I think that's it for 2024. We want to wish you happy holidays and a good new year. And thank you so much for listening, and we look forward to seeing you in the next year.

Yay. Yes. Happy holidays and happy new year.

Yep. Thanks again for listening and I hope your New Year is wonderful and your holiday is happy and Bye! 

Thanks for listening. If you'd like to reach out to us, you can contact us by email at contact@threelesbiansandapen.com with the number three spelled out or on Instagram, Facebook and X at Three Lesbians and a Pen using the number three. And finally on our website, at threelesbiansandapen.com, we look forward to hearing from you, see you next week.