Don’t you think that nothing is better than having Bleach Happy New Year artwork to celebrate the coming of 2016?

Putting that aside, I’d like to take this opportunity to share my own New Year goals that I like to accomplish in 2016. Instead of keeping it a secret, I’ve decided to share a few of my goals that I like to accomplish this year, in my professional life and my personal life as well.

So, here are the new goals that I plan to achieve in 2016.

My 2016 New Year Goals #1: Start A New Series

Even though the story in The Diary of Modern Cinderella and Twisted Destiny is related, I certainly won’t call it a series. With my experience writing a prequel to Twisted Destiny called Twisted Destiny: The Past, I think it won’t be a problem for me to start writing a series.

I’ve already had a rough idea for two series, but for now, I’m going to focus on just one series this year. If my schedule permits, then I’m going to start my second series in the same year.

So, what’s the first series is all about?

The first series will be called Trigger Locked, a psychological thriller series. I’ve already had the outline for the prequel ready, so I’ll start writing the prequel first before I start writing the main series.

Okay, why psychological thriller? Well, maybe it has something to do with me loving to write psychology related issue despite my education background has nothing to do with it. On top of that, I love to talk about death in my previous novels. So, it’s not a problem for me to write thriller series.

Well, that’s all I can say for now about Trigger Locked. I’ll update you with my progress on this blog. Just keep your eyes open for Trigger Locked update from me.

My 2016 New Year Goals #2: Publish Audiobooks

I’ve been wanting to publish audiobooks for so long thanks to the rise of podcasts. As a result, people like to consume books in the form of an audio format while they do something else.

Audiobooks are also perfect for busy people. So, if you don’t have time to sit and read a book, then audiobook is the best for you.

The problem is, I can only upload the audiobooks on ACX and it’s only applicable for those who live in the US and the UK. If you live elsewhere, you can kiss the audiobooks a goodbye.

Fortunately, I’ve already found a place for me to upload the audiobooks and this place will distribute the audiobooks not only on Audible but also on iTunes as well.

Thanks to that place, I will release The Diary of Modern Cinderella and Twisted Destiny as an audiobook anytime soon. That’s also the same for my Trigger Locked series as well. The audiobooks will also be available for sale on my own website as if you prefer to purchase directly from me besides on Audible and on iTunes.

As for who’s going to narrate the book, I’ll be the one who’s going to narrate the book. I’m not sure how it will turn out, but I’m going to apologize in advance for not having a cutesy voice like your favorite female seiyuu.

Again, I’ll let you know when the audiobooks will be released on my blog.

My 2016 New Year Goals #3: Start My Patreon Campaign

I’ve been playing with the idea of starting a Patreon campaign to fund my book publishing cost since a couple of months ago. It’s just that I was reluctant to do it because I was a brand new author. So, launching a Patreon campaign can be difficult when you have no audience or they don’t even know I exist.

After reading about starting a Patreon campaign on The Write Life, I’ve decided to give Patreon a try.

I already have a few ideas on what to reward for my Patron and how to get people to support me on Patreon, so I guess it doesn’t hurt to start a Patreon campaign.

Just like before, I’m going to announce about my Patreon campaign on the blog anytime soon.

My 2016 New Year Goals #4: Be Active on Goodreads

I don’t know why I sign up to join Goodreads other than to claim my author profile on Goodreads before anyone else claims to be me.

Even though that was my only intention to join Goodreads, I realize that Goodreads can also be a place to record the books that I’ve read in the past and to keep track of the books that I’m currently reading.

As an indie author, reading more is as equally important as writing more because it will help with my writing.

Even back then when I was in the elementary school and in the secondary school, it was important for me to read and recorded what I’ve read in a specialized book. In fact, we did have a dedicated time to visit the school library and picked whatever books that we wanted to read. So, I guess the Goodreads concept isn’t really that bizarre to me.

Besides, I need a place to keep track of the books since I don’t even know how many books I’ve read in a year.

As far as the fiction books are concerned, the only fiction books I’ve ever read are only manga and the light novels (LN). Yes, I should be reading fiction novels because for heaven’s sake, I am an indie author. And fiction novels are the books that I should be reading.

But the problem is, I can’t find any books that give me this anime feeling other than the English translated LN. And the fiction novels I’ve come across are too westernized for me. Or maybe it’s only just me.

Even though I don’t enjoy reading fiction novels, I do enjoy reading non-fiction books especially related to entrepreneurship, business and investing. Non-fiction books are the only books that I can read and I read pretty much anything under the blue sky, as long as it sounds interesting to me.

So, what you can expect from my Goodreads page? All I can say is there will be variety of books ranging from manga and LN to non-fiction books.

If you have Goodreads account and like to know about my book list, you can follow my Goodreads account here:

My Goodreads profile

So what about for those who don’t have Goodreads account? Well, my next new year goals will answer that for you.

My 2016 New Year Goals #5: Post on Tumblr More

Ever since I’ve created a Tumblr account, the only thing I’ve ever posted on my Tumblr is nothing more than a link to my blog post.

There is nothing wrong with just posting links to my blog, but I don’t want to use Tumblr for that purpose only.

Since I don’t want to use Tumblr just to post links to my blog post, I’ve decided to use Tumblr to write a short blog post. Tumblr is a perfect place for me to create a quick update about things that are not only related to my writing progress, but also related to my fandom.

Rather than writing a few tweets related to my fandom (which I usually do), I think it’s a lot better for me to write a short blog post instead.

If you have Tumblr account, feel free to follow me on Tumblr. Here’s my Tumblr page:

Sekina Mayu on Tumblr

Don’t have an account on Tumblr? Fret not because I also post the link to my Tumblr post on Twitter as well, just like what I usually do for my blog. If you haven’t follow me on Twitter already, here’s my Twitter profile:

Sekina Mayu on Twitter

My personal goals for 2016

Besides professional goals, I also have a few personal goals that I’d like to achieve this year. So here are some of the personal goals that I like to share with you guys.

Complete my Unity3D course on Udemy

The reason for me to start learning how to code is because I’d like to venture into the video games industry. So, the first thing I need to know is how to create a game engine. Luckily, we have Unity3D and it’s free.

Sure, there are many things I need to know, particularly related to the business side of the video game industry. But I think the business side of the video games industry isn’t that different from what I’m currently doing.

My initial plan is to start an indie game studio from scratch, but since it may take most of my time away from my author business, I’ve decided to just partner with any established indie game studio. By established indie game studio, I mean they’ve already released a few games on platform like PS4 or anything equivalent and they already have an established team to produce the game.

I don’t know any indie game studio founder. So, that will be great if I can be his or her co-founder and share my expertise with the team. Even if I don’t get to be a part of their team, I think it’s cool to have people like them in my social circle.

Learning Japanese

Learning Japanese has already become my long term goal ever since I was in the secondary school. But this goal seems to fall flat on my face mostly because I’m too frazzled to learn anything at the end of the day.

To be honest, I don’t need to learn Japanese because the anime these days already have proper English subs and we have scanlation groups that can do the translation for our favorite manga and LN. But still, I prefer to be fluent with the language without relying on the subtitle and the scanlation groups.

At the same time, I can support the creators and the industry itself by buying the books. Well, I can do the same with buying the English version of the manga and the LN. It’s just that I’m wary of the translation quality. I’ve read a lot of nasty things about the official translation for the manga and the LN, so I don’t want to risk myself for something like that.

Sure, not all official translations are bad. But not all of them are worth your money.

At the end of the day, understanding Japanese can give you the upper hand because you don’t have to guess if the licensors are willing to bring the manga and the light novel into the international market. And yes, it’ll be useful epsecially when the English translation is tanked like some manga and LN.

Besides that, I can watch the livestream like the one they did during TGS and Jump Festa since these livestreams usually don’t have any translation at all.

There are more goals

I actually have more goals that I’d like to achieve in 2016, but for the time being, these are some of the things that has crossed my mind and I don’t mind sharing my goals with you.

With so many goals, I hope that I can achieve all of them. Even if I’m unable to achieve all of them, achieving most of them are good enough for me. At least it’s better than not accomplishing any goals at all.

With 2016 just getting started, I hope that you’ll be able to achieve your goals as well.

Even though Ichigo had already wished you a Happy New Year, I’d like to take this opportunity as well to wish you Happy New Year. May 2016 be the best year for us.