It’s That Time Again: My Year in Review (April 2024–April 2025)
Last year’s update (until 30 April 2024) is HERE, and the running page of past and present updates is HERE.
It’s old news by now, but I still can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I wrote one of these posts. A whole year since I made it official! Honestly, I thought it would feel different. I thought I’d get more done, too.
Overthinking is a beast of a habit, but I’ve wrangled it pretty well—if I may say so myself. Sure, it still drags me down some days, but I’m a lot quicker to notice it now. And then I do the opposite: I just get on with it.
The inspiration for posts like this comes from The Creative Penn with Joanna Penn, Sacha Black, and the SPA Girls. More on that over on my TIMELINE page.
📆 What Happened in 2025
Published Kobo Frances & Gilbert 1 August 2024
Joined Patreon 26 August 2024
Joined Ream 26 August 2024
Published Eternal Vows (Bonus for F&G) 26 August 2024
Published Enduring Vows (Bonus for J&J) 20 September 2024
Published Apple Books Frances & Gilbert 1 November 2024
Published Author Shop Frances & Gilbert 1 November 2024
Republished Amazon Jack & Jool 1 November 2024
Republished Amazon Zara & William 1 October 2024
Published WIDE Frances & Gilbert 1 November 2024
Published Kindle Unlimited Leap of Her Own 12 November 2024
Serialised Silver Murder 3 December 2024
Published Eventual Vows (Bonus for Z&W) 3 December 2024
Serialised Lowveld Shadows 4 December 2024
Serialised Undercurrents of Deception 5 December 2024
Publish Kobo Jack & Jool 1 February 2025
Published Apple Books Jack & Jool 1 February 2025
Published WIDE Jack & Jool 1 February 2025
Published Author Shop Jack & Jool 1 February 2025
Published Everlasting Vows (Bonus for M&A) 22 February 2025
Published Kindle Unlimited When Hearts Leap 8 March 2025
Started blogging daily 22 March 2025
💸 Earnings (May 2024 – April 2025)
Amazon earnings from May 2024 to April 2025 R238.31
Kobo earnings R0
Draft2Digital earning R0
Direct sales earnings $1.98
That’s it for this year’s numbers.
đź“š Reflecting on the Year
All the old stuff finally got cleaned up, published, and more importantly, left alone! Progress.
I also wrote loads of new content. If you’ve read The Unknown Series, you’ve probably seen the bonus material that came out of that.
Tried new things, too. Serialising on platforms like Ream, Substack, and Patreon was a real highlight—until I realised South Africa isn’t supported. No Stripe. Only PayPal, and readers really don’t love using it. We’ve got Paystack (Stripe owns it, but they keep it boxed in for Africa). Bureaucracy galore!
Luckily, WordPress to the rescue! I’ll be offering stories directly on my website soon, just as soon as I’ve sorted out the Paystack integration. It’s more paperwork than expected, but hey, nothing I can’t handle.
đź’Ş The Real Wins
Beyond the writing and publishing, I’ve had some huge personal wins. Midlife hasn’t been the easiest, but I’m getting there—and that makes the writing side lighter too. So, so grateful for that.
đź’ The Disappointments
Honestly? I’m disappointed in the earnings. I’d hoped to be making a steady $100/month by now. Clearly, I’ve not hit the right audience or strategy yet. But I’m still trying, and I’ll keep experimenting for the next year.
That’s it for this year’s review.
Cheers
Anne
PS. Past and future timeline posts will go to the timelines page
**Please send me an email with your feedback at anne@annecwest.co.za. Comments vanish and get missed, hence emails.**