A to Z Challenge 2016: My Thoughts and Feelings

Well, my friends, another A-to-Z Challenge has come and gone. I spent the month of April revealing little tidbits of information about my current work-in-progress, a four-part series called The Other World. So how did the challenge go? Stand by for my thoughts and feelings on the process.

First of all, as far as the challenge part of the challenge, it was definitely a success. I managed to not miss a single day, which is something I wasn’t able to pull off in the previous years, and I didn’t have much trouble at all thinking up topics to match each of the 26 letters. So that all went very well.

Secondly, I did have fun with the theme that I chose. It was interesting coming up with stuff to talk about without sharing too much. The people who dropped by to read my posts seemed genuinely amused by the topics, and I even actually found myself coming up with some new ideas for the series based on stuff I came up with on the spot just for the challenge posts. So that worked out rather nicely as well!

Third, as far as the success of the challenge as pertaining to the blog itself…meh. It wasn’t all that great. I did pick up a few new followers, which is awesome, but overall the individual posts didn’t get many views at all, especially compared to previous challenges. I attribute this mostly to the fact that I personally didn’t visit as many other blogs as I should have. This challenge is a social thing – people visit the blogs of participants who visit theirs – and on that aspect I failed miserably. I just couldn’t seem to find the time this year, and it really bit me in the ass as far as the success of the challenge in bringing new people to my blog.

Lastly, though I had fun with my theme, I realized about halfway through the challenge that I was pretty dumb for choosing it. Why did I share tidbits from a story that might be available by Christmas, when I could have been sharing info on my currently available book, Nowhere to Hide? I’m foolish, that’s why. I should have spent the month hyping up the book that I’m actually actively trying to get out there, rather than a book that is not even close to being released yet. Here I am always complaining that I don’t know how to go about marketing myself, and I completely screw up an awesome opportunity to do it. What the heck, Tracey? What the heck?

So, basically, I feel like the challenge was pretty much equal parts success and failure. It was fun and amusing, and people seemed to like it, but I didn’t really achieve what I hoped to, and gave up an opportunity to do something that might have been better. Do I regret doing the challenge with The Other World as a theme? No, definitely not. I just wish I had thought to market Nowhere to Hide instead.

And that’s that! Another A-to-Z Challenge is over and done. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to read my posts throughout the month of April, and I really hope you enjoyed participating in the challenge as well! Cheers!