Hello!

I'm back from my small social media break with a few items of business and some introductions.

To start, welcome to those who signed up for the newsletter during the event End of Summer Bash that was on August 26th. It was a great day connecting with new potential readers and giving back to the community.

Now onto some business changes. I will be as transparent as I feel comfortable with.

Starting JANUARY 31st, notebooks/journals will no longer be available. I will be taking down all the listings and putting those projects to the side indefinitely. Creating notebooks/journals under M Friel was started as a way to earn passive income to support my writing. However, while it may work for others, it has not worked for me. Some designs may come back in a different form, but for now that project is getting axed.

Starting now, if you follow me on social media, you will begin to notice a small dip in my posting. After much thought, I've decided to take a step back for now. The algorithm can be brutal, and it has shown me no mercy for the past several months. It has not been great for my mental health and so the frequency of status updates will be few and far between.

With these few changes, I will be focusing more on my writing and rekindling my joy for it. Sometimes as authors, we get caught up in the numbers, whether that's sales or followers. We forget why we started and need a small redirect. My focus will be to the stories I have waiting to be written and reminding myself why I wanted to start sharing my work with the world in the first place.

I won't be dropping off the map forever, and in time I hope to find the motivation to retackle the algorithm and marketing my books. This is where you might come in. The best way to help me is by sharing my work through word of mouth. The more people I can reach the better. In person events have been a great source for me and I've enjoyed doing them. (I have another coming up that I will be sharing details about later). But if you're up to the task, I challenge you to tell one person who you think would take an interest in my work. Just one, can I count on you?

As always, I appreciate your support. I wouldn't have made it this far without your help. The successes I've had and the people I've met in this industry have challenged me to do my best. It's a slow climb to the top, but I believe we can make it there together.

Happy reading!

Mackenzie Friel