Happy New Year!!
Well, it’s the end of 2025 and the start of 2026, and today, as I write this, the end of the year is looming. I plan to post this on January 1st, and hopefully, I am organised enough to get it done in time. 2025 has been a very eventful year, so this is going to be a long one. Hang tight, grab a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice, and kick back. There’s a lot to cover.
First of all, let's look at 2025. It’s been a year of successes (let’s lead with that, shall we?), setbacks, and plenty of in-between. On a world scale, it often feels like the whole world has gone down the tubes, led by a certain person who shall not be named, which culminated in a very sad incident on one of our most famous beaches. And yes, I do blame that person ultimately because he’s the one who has encouraged hate, prejudice, and all sorts of nastiness. It’s all I can do to hold onto my values and beliefs, and then try to inject goodness into my life and into the lives of those around me. Like I said, it’s been a tough year, and I don’t think I’m the only one who felt it.
Looking Back at 2025 Through a Lens of Gratitude
On a personal front, the health situation was horrendous and led me to a point where at times I wanted to curl into a ball and give up. I didn’t. Because I had authors who depended on me, and I am proud to say that even while going through a battery of tests—sometimes as many as four a week—I did not miss a single deadline. There were some all-nighters in there, though. The good news is: we’ve got great healthcare in Australia, and between many doctors and specialists, we’ve finally figured out what’s wrong. I’ve been on a treatment plan for three months now and things are going well. I’m getting better and, hopefully, by the end of the one-year treatment plan, I’m about as healthy as any woman dealing with menopause in her mid-50s can be. I don’t feel old, though. My brain still thinks I’m 25.
On the work front, it has been an incredible year. Excluding foreign language translations and audiobooks, I helped publish 18 new releases in 2025. Including foreign language translations and audiobooks, it’s probably about 30+, but I don’t know for sure since I didn’t keep count. I’ll do better tracking that next year—I’ve got a spreadsheet now!
On top of that, I worked with one author client and we did a rapid re-release of a bio-terrorism romantic suspense series where she got her rights back from her publisher. I don’t know what possessed us to decide that releasing three 80,000+ word books a month apart was a good idea. It almost killed us, but we got it done and the re-release was a success. The books are stronger, better, and much more cohesive. There are plans for a spin-off series if life permits. Somewhere in the middle of all that, we did a major rebrand with a new logo and refresh of her other books too. Those books got a facelift and now look fresh and modern. The author is dealing with some family stuff at the moment, so there are changes going on which impact her writing. The last book in her gritty vampire series is planned for 2026. You can grab a copy of her freebie here.
I also got a new client who decided she wanted my help to relaunch her main series, and after five months of hard work, we’re at the point where we’ve unveiled the first two books of the series with new covers, new blurbs, and new branding. The rebrand also involved a new logo, a slight tweak to her website, and a new platform for her newsletters. Go sign up for her newsletter and get some great freebie reads. Additionally, you can grab the first two books of her series as ARCs if you’d like to read those too. 2026 will see the next two books available as ARCs with new covers, and the release of Book 5 in the series along with more books and short stories from her other sci-fi adventure space opera series as well.
I had a client who decided in 2024 that she only wanted to write short stories and write for fun. And then in 2025, she turned around and published four books. FOUR books. When I work, I’m very forward-looking, so when one book for one client is done, I’m moving onto the next. It wasn’t until I started doing a recap and looking at what I’d done in the year that I realised she released four books, with the last book out in early December. I’m so proud of her and how far she’s come, moving from a collection of short stories to a fully developed fictional world with every new book growing from strength to strength. She’s planning six books in 2026, and I didn't even blink. We’ll see how that pans out since she also has a full-time day job that is very demanding. But hey, she managed four books this year. There will be more from her current series and a spin-off mafia romance series. She writes sweet romance and romantic suspense that’s "fade-to-black," so I’m excited to see how she handles mafia romance, which tends to be dark and spicy.
My one long-running client published seven new books this year, which is light for her, but she’s also moving towards fewer, longer books. She’s juggling being a mum, two highly active ultra-achieving boys, and writing full time. It’s a lot. If there’s one person I can claim to have been my greatest support and also my greatest comfort, it’s her. 2025 was brutal to both of us, and without her reminding me to breathe and sending me funny GIFs, I think I might have given up a few times—many times, actually. She’s pulled me back from the brink multiple times this year, and I like to think I did the same for her. We’ve been two peas in a pod with our struggles and challenges this year, but we made it through. 2026 is going to be awesome for us because we both deserve it. She’s got lots of books planned for 2026, and it’s going to be an exciting year.
My beloved hubby—who is also my most neglected author client since he seems to get the dregs of my attention after my paying author clients—published two books in 2025 and he’s just wrapped up Book 4 of his thriller series. Go him! He would have finished the series this year if it weren’t for the fact that he spent most of the year looking after me, carting me back and forth for medical appointments and tests. I’m truly excited for him and what he’s got planned for 2026, which will wrap up his current thriller series and see him launch a spin-off.
Stepping Into 2026 With Anticipation and Excitement
Looking into 2026, I feel like my author services/publishing partner business is finally taking off. I joked with one of my authors when I said to her one day that I miss the days when she was my only client. I was in the process of tapering off some existing clients who were moving in different directions for their author careers and ramping up my now longest-running client. She was between assistants. I was between clients. Little did we know how much this relationship would grow to mean to us. A total win-win.
2026 kicks off with me looking at a full author client portfolio. I can’t say much since most of it is confidential, but there are 23 new releases planned for the year between all my clients, excluding foreign translations, audiobooks, and rights-reversion releases. Yes, yes, I’m keeping count in 2026. I’ve already started the spreadsheet.
I also have a new author client starting in the second quarter whom I’m very excited about. It’s in a brand new genre for me and will bring its own set of challenges and rewards.
Honoring the Deanna’s World Team and Community
On the community and team front, I’m kicking off the Deanna’s World Author Client Community. This is a private group where we will hold virtual writing sprints and become the writing community support for each other when it’s hard to find a local in-person writing group. The main cord that joins all the authors in this small community together is that we are all serious about writing and our author careers. This will be a safe space for growth and connection. The first Author Client Community sprint session is scheduled for mid-January 2026.
The Deanna’s World Advance Readers (ARC) Team continues to grow from strength to strength and is becoming more robust. What started as a way for me to give back to the author and reader community—since my ability to review books has shrunk to zero (and not to mention a certain degree of conflict of interest)—is now a vibrant and robust team of readers who can find new authors and new books to love. Readers are the backbone of an author’s career, and this is my nod to them and my recognition of their importance as well as their contributions. And as always, any author who has a book they would like offered to the team for review is always welcome to submit their book.
A special shout out to my Deanna’s World Typo Hunter Team. This team has been the lifesaver of my business. They are the final gate each book I work on passes through before they are released into the world. After multiple editing passes, words start to blur in the stories I’ve polished, so it needs a fresh set of eyes, and that’s the Typo Hunter Team. By the time they get the book, I’ve read it at least ten or twelve times, maybe more. Likely the same with whichever author whose book it is. We miss stuff, and little plot holes and typos are sneaky, sneaky creatures. This team catches those oopsies and makes each book polished and publication ready. I value each and every single one of them.
The Pivot on Social Media
I recognise that social media is an important part of an author’s marketing life. I also recognise that as a publishing partner, it’s my job to learn each (new) platform so I can best advise my clients. That said, life is rarely a straight line. It is a series of zigs and zags, a constant process of discovery where nothing is certain and nothing stays the same forever.
I remember when TikTok first became the center of the publishing universe and everyone insisted you had to be there. I jumped in with both feet, putting a massive amount of energy into learning the platform. But after a year of it nearly taking over my life and breaking my brain, I finally recognized the social media hamster wheel for what it was. I realized what it meant to be a slave to an algorithm, and I made the conscious choice to hop off. It was my first real taste of digital freedom. Whenever my workload intensified—which happens often when you’re helping publish over twenty books a year—social media was always the first thing to go. For my business model and my mental health, that was exactly the right call.
In early 2025, I found my way to Substack. I arrived a little late, though fortunately not too late, primarily because I needed a new home for my newsletters. Substack felt like a straightforward path at first because it is such a wonderful hybrid—a haven for writers who want to showcase their voice while building a genuine audience. But I eventually encountered the noise. I saw the growth hustlers and the peak of hustle culture. While I don’t say this as a criticism—many people are there specifically for that growth—I realized my needs were fundamentally different. When the conversation turned toward feeding yet another algorithm and changing my behavior to suit a platform’s updates, I took a hard look at where I was spending my spirit and I hopped off again.
I still enjoy the people and the content on Substack, but my relationship with it has changed. I invested nine months into learning the platform so that I could give my clients the best possible advice. Many of my authors are in a position where they need to build an audience from scratch, and for them, Substack is an incredible tool. This is a moment where I have to be honest and say: do as I say, not as I do. Their needs for visibility are different from mine at this stage of my career. My pivot for 2026 is about recognizing that work and life are never linear. My presence on the platform will be shifting toward fewer notes and more sporadic newsletters that come out only when my workload permits.
I won’t disappear because I truly value the connections I’ve made, but I am done feeding the algorithm. If that means I miss a few posts because I’m not interacting "correctly" according to a computer program, I can live with that. I know who you are, and I will come looking for your stories when the time is right. I simply cannot make Substack a full-time job because I already have a job that I love. I would much rather spend my energy in the trenches with my clients, helping them bring their books to life. Here is to a fabulous 2026, focused on whatever you choose to accomplish. I’m not gone, but I’ll be around just a little less, and I look forward to seeing you whenever our paths cross naturally.
A Final Word
Aside from everything I’ve said above, I want to thank each and every one of you, all my readers, silent and otherwise, who have been a part of Deanna’s World whether from the beginning or recently. I am grateful for every one of you. And a special shout out to Gill, who without fail, shares her monthly book reads with me in my What Deanna Read posts. My stats tell me that’s still one of my most popular posts, and while many posts and series have come and gone from my website, that one has remained. I’ve also got an idea from what Gill shares about traveling the world through books. Stay tuned for that sometime in 2026.
So that’s it. 2025 is a wrap, and let’s welcome 2026 with gusto.
Much love into 2026,
Deanna.
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I'd love to hear about your 2025 and plans for 2026. How did 2025 treat you? And what do you have planned for 2026?
For more of these in-depth discussions on the craft and business of writing, I invite you to subscribe to my professional journal and newsletter on Substack. If you'd like to connect further, you can always reach out via email or on Facebook.
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