This week has been one of the best that I’ve had in all of 2025. WriterSanctuary’s blog has been consistent (again), the YouTube channel is gaining momentum (again), and I think I wrapped up the book cover of Shadows of Atlantic City. This is aside from the myriad of side quests I’ve completed thus far.

Of course, this is just Friday morning. A lot can happen today, especially considering it’s Friday the 13th. Yet, I also have Saturday and Sunday to do as much “catch-up” as I can before my week is officially over.

It’s amazing what you can get done with a checklist and the drive to see it complete, eh? This is actually a good sign that I might have found my “give-a-shit.”

It’s been a while.

Continued Work on the Blog

This week, I’ve been able to keep the publishing schedule consistent for WriterSanctuary. I also had a chance to work on some edits and update a few things here and there.

However, I’m still struggling to regain the traffic I lost the day AI Overview went live. It’s all good, though. Most of the content I create on WriterSanctuary is for those who have followed the site or subscribed for push notifications.

I’ve also been working on replacing “Textbroker” as my expertise on the site. It was nice being the go-to source for the content mill, but my interests and career have turned to being more creative with books and screenplays.

Currently, I’m showing up on Google and YouTube quite often for Reedsy content. I would like to expand that a bit further into more self-publishing topics. But as it stands, that’s going to take a lot of effort. I created a lot of content for Textbroker, and it’ll be a few months before I surpass that number of posts.

Stabilizing the YouTube Channel

This month, I’ve been working on getting the YouTube channel on a consistent schedule as well. This past week, I managed to get the three videos up but missed Wednesday’s writing sprint.

I tried the Gling AI video editor tool to make the jump cuts in today’s video. I also enabled the zoom function, but it just didn’t flow right to me. The jump cuts saved me an hour of editing, though. So, it might not be a bad tool to use for certain types of videos.

I doubt I would use AI to edit something like a review or a tutorial. But for one-offs of me talking about a topic, it might be a good investment. It normally takes me anywhere from two to three hours to record, edit, and upload a video. Gling saved me 70 minutes’ worth of editing.

I’ll try it a few more times before deciding whether it’s worth the monthly payment. I can’t afford to keep throwing money at things that aren’t helping me generate income. It’s getting to be a bit of an expensive hobby.

Waiting On Feedback and Polishing Up the Book

So far, it appears people like the cover art of Shadows of Atlantic City. It came out nicer than I thought, and I hope others agree once it goes live.

Currently, I’m waiting on feedback from beta readers. I’ve fixed a few things, reworded a sentence here and there, and added about 370 words total so far. I’m re-reading it one last time myself to make sure everything is golden.

Even if all of the beta readers finished it this week, I doubt I would get the books in time for the BrewDog author event. It takes too long for Amazon to print and ship books en mass. However, I plan on printing at least one copy for myself and then using a QR code at the event so patrons can order it online.

I have quite a few copies left of Kingmaker, so, at least I’ll have those at the event. But I’m wondering if I should order a few copies of A Freelancer’s Tale. Every time I take that book along, I wind up selling a few copies.

Scheduled Time for Merch Designs

I’ve scheduled some time this week to work on new merch for the online store. I think my next goal is to create at least one product every week. Though, I should be able to do more than that if I get a good image saved.

For instance, the Shadows of Atlantic City tumbler came out amazing (I bought one to see it). However, the original image I created was meant for small products. If I try to put that on a towel, it would get pixelated.

Unfortunately, that might mean that I’ll have to recreate the image on a much larger scale. It’s not a big issue for me, as I am pretty good with Photoshop. However, I’ll have to schedule about three hours just for the graphic design work.

In any case, I’m working on getting more stuff up in the store and really liked all of the products I’ve ordered from Fourthwall so far. The quality has been spot-on and the shipping has been amazing.

Hoping Next Week Is Just as Good

So far, things are progressing well. If I keep up the trend, June is easily going to be a record-breaking month in terms of productivity. The best part is that the vast majority of what I do nowadays are things I find incredibly fun to work on.

I just wish I made a tad more money – which is why I’ve been trying to work on my time management skills. You can’t make money on things you don’t create.

You can’t complain if you’re not taking action to rectify the situation. Things aren’t going to happen unless you take the steps to make them happen.