Happy end-of-year!
Per annual tradition here on the blog, it’s time once again for me to post my annual editing wrap-up. You can check out past years below if you’re curious:
Same as always, you can scroll all the way to the bottom of this post to find my winter break announcement.
Now let’s roll out the numbers!
Stats
37 editing projects, which comes to about…
7,301 pages, or
1,039,323 words (using ~50 average per page for manga)
And all of this took 285 hours and 19 minutes, which works out to about…
12 full days of editing.
Number of Edits Made
11,016 changes tracked.
1264 comments written.
5 reports typed.
15 questions answered.
Projects by Genre, Type, and Service
Type
Light novels: 9
Manga: 22
Novels: 2
Novellas: 4
Genre
Fantasy: 20
Sci-fi: 3
Science Fantasy: 1
Isekai: 13
LitRPG: 1
Service
Copyedits: 9
Proofreads: 22
Editorial Evaluations: 5
Story Bibles: 1
The Year Wrapped Up
2023 was a year of business flux for me. I launched a new service (Custom Story Bibles), including conducting beta testing for that. I also reduced my overall number of publisher projects to make room for more indie author projects. And on top of that, I tested out a month-long sabbatical to focus on my personal writing projects, something I plan to continue (and even expand) in the future.
It was also a year of time off. I had a visit here in Japan from a dear friend, and then a couple months later, I visited my family back in the US for the first time in three years. Add that to my writing sabbatical and my husband’s time off work (I now always try to take the same time off as him so we can get some quality time together when neither of us are working), and I’ve spent 10 weeks this year off work entirely. (And that’s not counting the upcoming week at the end of December!) This is the most time off I’ve ever taken in a single year in my entire working adulthood, and it feels great! I’d love to get to the point of taking 12 or 16 weeks away on a regular basis in future years.
That being said, all this time off, visiting, traveling, and business changes have led to my numbers being lower this year than previous years, as you may have noticed. And that extends to my income, as well—it’s been a bit of a spending year, what with travel and all, on top of not making as much as previous years.
So in some ways, it’s been a little hard to feel happy about all this year’s business successes. Having lower numbers at first felt a bit like failure. But after busting my ass to the point of burnout the previous years, and after having zero in-person contact with family and friends since the beginning of the pandemic, I also believe I fully needed the time off. Not just needed—deserved! Taking all this time off is a win! And I’m happy about the way my work-life balance is going, even if I haven’t balanced the money-time equation fully yet.
Speaking of the way things are going…I now reserve my next-year plans for my email list, who get all the behind-the-scenes stuff. So if you’re nosy and want to know what’s in the works for 2024, sign up for the Story Sanctum to get editing biz news, novel revision tips and pep talks, exclusive access to sales, and more. The final Story Sanctum email of the year is scheduled to go out 12/29, so you still have time to join if you want to read it!
Winter Break
This year’s winter break will be from December 23 through January 8.
I’m not traveling for the holidays this year, so I’ll be occasionally checking emails during the break. But I won’t be in my inbox every day, so expect to wait a little longer than usual for a reply. If you don’t hear back right away, you’ll definitely hear back on January 9.
I hope you have a lovely end of year, happy holidays if you celebrate, and a Happy New Year! Thanks so much for being here in this year of flux and off time, and let’s meet again in 2024!
