After a tad more than two years, Shadows of Atlantic City comes out today on Amazon for eBook and this weekend for printed copies. It’s easily one of my better books, according to myself and feedback from beta and regular readers. I’m quite excited for this one and look forward to continuing the story.

The differences between Kingmaker and Shadows are night and day. Although every book you write should be better than the one before, especially if you learn and grow with constructive feedback, the Reedsy masterclass for How to Write a Novel made the most improvement in my writing.

Taking that course was easily one of the best three months I’ve spent honing my craft.

Lots of Things To Do Still…

Now that the book is published, the fun doesn’t end. As a self-published author with very little in the bank, it all falls onto my shoulders to get this out. And when you don’t have a lot of time to invest in marketing, it gets a bit hectic.

So, I’m not expecting to become a best-selling author overnight. If people don’t know the book exists, no one will buy it. For a lot of us, it takes a great deal of time to build that kind of momentum.

Setting Up Landing Pages

First, I need to set up some landing pages. Initially, I was using the book plugin to show off titles on this website. But that isn’t going to be enough. When I run a Google search for certain keywords, I at least want AI Overviews to show the novel. That’s a bit of a daunting task, especially since millions of new websites go up every month.

Nonetheless, landing pages can be used in everything from email correspondence to social media. The problem is that social apps don’t prioritize posts that take people away from the platform. That’s why a cat meme will get far more attention than someone’s link to a book on Amazon.

I’ve gone viral for so many random-ass posts and responses, it’s insane.

Anyway, I’ll be working on landing pages for all of my books soon, as well as figuring out something that will drive more views to this particular blog. My work is cut out for me in 2026, that is for sure.

Adverts for the Blogs

Speaking of blogs, I made a few sales over the last couple of years with pop-ups on WriterSanctuary. Lately, they haven’t been working as well, but the banner and link ads have been getting a bit of attention.

I would like to spend a bit more time developing ads on my blogs for the books. It’s a bit more difficult with the fitness and gaming sites, as you want to keep sales relevant to the website. But I can somewhat tie the books to the gaming blog, especially since I plan on making a game of the Witcham Chronicles.

Since I own all of these sites, it won’t cost me anything but time. That is, unless I upgrade Advanced Ads for better tracking elements and whatnot. I just don’t have the money to fork over to upgrade a plugin at the moment. I mean, it’s the Christmas season after all, and I have quite a few people to get gifts for, including five children and their better halves.

In any case, I’m going to do as much as I can for free, but I know that won’t be enough. Free advertising and such can only do so much, which means I need to summon some money from somewhere to try my hand at paid advertising.

Diving into Viable Marketing Methods

One of the things I wanted to highlight on WriterSanctuary in 2026 is marketing, what platforms work the best, my experiences using those platforms, and whether I’ll use them again.

Exploring various marketing methods will not only help me sell a few more books, but it might also help a new author break into their own stride. I see too many great authors struggle on social media, and I would love to provide some answers without charging an arm and a leg for my services.

In fact, everything I share on WriterSanctuary is free, hence the “sanctuary” part of the name.

Now, I won’t do shady shit to sell my books. Some videos I’ve seen on YouTube about making money as a self-published author have been extremely questionable. In other words, I don’t take advantage of people to make a buck.

I guess I’m just not much of an extreme capitalist. If anything, I am a philanthropist and often make sacrifices to help those who work under me. Because I know that without those little people, I wouldn’t be able to stand.

Well, at the moment, I don’t have many folks under me. But that might change in 2026 if all goes according to plan.

Order Author Copies Galore

I’m going to order at least 20 copies of Shadows of Atlantic City. Between friends and family, my usual order of 10 isn’t going to be enough. Then, I might have to place a secondary order so I can sell signed copies on the merch store for WriterSanctuary.

Yet, I’m still thinking I should order a small batch of 10 at first to make sure the cover comes out nice. Kingmaker’s was ultra dark in the beginning, and I want Shadows to have a nice printed surface.

It would probably behoove me to order a single proof book from Amazon. I might just do that instead. That way, I’m not spending $50 on something I have no interest in selling.

What’s nice is that I can use Affirm to pay for author copies and then make payments. It’s a bit extra because of the interest fees, but at least I wouldn’t have to come up with the money right now.

I’ll think about it some before actually ordering author copies.

Setting Up Barnes & Noble

Now that my Barnes & Noble account is fixed (bank account information was all screwed up), I can start adding my titles to the Nook. I would also like to see what it would take to get my book in a Barnes & Noble physical location.

Again, the steps would provide all kinds of content I can use for WriterSanctuary. It’s all about killing two birds with a single stone. Besides, I would love to do something more to get rid of dependence on Amazon.

At any rate, the moment I see my book in a physical location, I am posting that all over the socials and YouTube. That’s the next major milestone for me as an author, and it is something I’ve thought about since I was a kid.

Update Online Resumes and About Pages

The problem with working on an expansive social presence is updating all of the online resumes, about pages, profiles, and links every time I publish a book. There’s probably an easier way, but I kind of enjoy the process. It also gives me a chance to update old information and give the page a fresh coat of paint.

I’ve made quite a presence on Google for my name, but I am still lacking the Author card. I’m working on rectifying that, but it might take some time.

At least I kicked the lawyer and doctor off the first page. My name is quite prolific online, which was done on purpose to help market myself as a freelancer, blogger, and self-published author.

Let’s not forget that Google also likes fresh content. Updating pages and such keeps the algorithm gods happy while also providing fans with new and updated information.

What Am I Working On Next?

Well, aside from marketing Shadows of Atlantic City, I’m working on finishing the first draft of Fury, Kingmaker’s sequel. Fury is the second book in the Witcham series, and it is going to be a much longer book.

I am currently at 91,145 words, and I suspect that it will take another 20,000 or so to wrap up the book. If all goes well, I’m looking at another two weeks of writing. Then, I plan on finishing VII, the horror story on Wattpad that I’ve been toying with since 2016.

Since both of these books are almost done, I should be able to meet one of my writing goals for the year. However, I didn’t perform all that well for “The Year of Time.” Too many things derailed my efforts, including myself.

Then, I’m going to work on finishing up the goals for 2026 and whether I can actually stick to them. A lot of the goals I have planned for next year center around time management, such as recording 30,000 minutes working on my books.

Spoiler alert: 30,000 minutes averages just shy of two hours per day, Monday through Friday.

I’m really looking forward to what I can accomplish next year, especially if I can keep the momentum of working on my books solid. And if I can figure out how to make a bit of extra money, I can retire from freelancing and focus on schooling. I’d love to add a bachelor’s degree to my About page before 2036.

Here’s to a Great Year of Writing Books!

It took two years to get Shadows of Atlantic City published. That included writing and editing. If I can manage to stick with my time goals for 2026, I should have a few books published, including some of the one-offs on Wattpad and Inkitt.

And yes, I’m also including a sequel to Shadows. I’ll give you a bit of a spoiler…it’s based here in Denver, several months after the events of Shadows.

That’s the trick to self-publishing, really. I don’t use AI to write a single line of my books. It all comes out of my head. It’s the time management part that some people don’t seem to grasp. That’s including myself at times.

I’m going to challenge myself to do more than an average of 36 minutes per day (my best year was 2023). If all goes well, we’ll see how many books I can publish in a single year.