If you follow me on Threads (@nikkiauberkett), you may have noticed a super quick blip of me saying, “I’m moving my newsletter to Substack.”

TRANSLATION: “I’m experiencing Shiny Object Syndrome and have no idea what I’m actually talking about so please ignore this announcement until I have receipts!”

Did I go to Substack, set up my account, and play around with the features? Yes.

Did I quickly discover it doesn’t do what I want/need it to do? Also, yes.

“So…is anything changing?”

Not really. And I say that because no, I’m not changing my tech stack because I simply do not possess the mental capacity/energy to reprogram everything I just set up based on S.O.S. F.O.M.O. (Shiny Object Syndrome Fear Of Missing Out). Nor do I have the budget to switch from the currently-free Hive project management program to go use StoryOrigin.

Although, if the budget changes, that *does* look pretty appealing. Publishing schedule, word count tracker, and ARC delivery all in one system? I do love me some streamlining!

{UPDATE: S.O.S. struck after a frustrating email from BookFunnel and I discovered 1) I can, in fact, afford StoryOrigin and 2) it offers WAY more features even for free! So guess what I’m doing today…👀}

I am making a few adjustments based on the first two weeks of this year’s pre-planned schedule and subsequent performance. As I said to myself, out loud, after falling flat on my ass trying to do a spin trick during a workout, “My ambitions are greater than my abilities.”

  • Sinners & Starlight will have at least 2-3 chapters uploaded every Friday on Inkitt, with the ultimate goal always being 7 chapters
  • I’m debating on preplanning social media posts or just going with my gut every morning. I might do both. Open to suggestions 😅
  • My 2 Books Per Week reading goal for BumbleBooks’ review blog is proving to be super dependent on how quickly I can read through the book, which depends on how connected I feel while reading, and that answer is a fair “not always”.
  • There’s this thing I keep hearing about, has great recommendations, and apparently would be good for my health. Sleep, I think? ðŸĪŠ Not sure if there’s enough time in my schedule to add that in. We’ll see 😉

A Quick Note About Content Warnings:

I have added Content Warnings to more spaces than I had them before, thanks to great feedback from amazing readers who aren’t afraid to speak up with love to help authors like me make reading a safe space.

It was also brought to my attention how appealing the book covers are to the YA audience and these are definitely not appropriate for that age group! ðŸŦĒ

I want to emphasize how non-detailed I am when it comes to heavier, darker subjects like death, violence, assault, etc. Personally, I can’t stomach writing the details even if I’m seeing it unfold in my mind’s eye.

But as I was linking up Sinners & Starlight to the above graphic (because it is, technically, the ARC copy of the book and I know so many of you are dedicated ARC readers), I noticed how 😎ðŸŦĢ the wording of Inkitt’s Content Warning makes the book seem.

I promise you, I’m not going to gross anyone out. Not intentionally.

I just selected those options because I’m aware that some things can trigger physical responses even on a surface-level mention, and I want to give that the consideration it deserves.

So if you’ve been staying away from Sinners & Starlight because of concerns regarding the content, don’t worry! Or do (because it will get spicy ðŸŒķïļ), but with the knowledge that I can’t and won’t get gross about it ðŸ˜