Books By Janeè 2025 – Detailed Goals and Brand Changes

Hey y’all! Happy New Year! It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, but with the new year here and big goals ahead for the next 5 years for Books By Janeè, I felt it fitting to share more details about goals for the next five years in my business plan. The image of this blog post shows an overview, and I will also share a condensed version inside of here, but the post itself gives a detailed explanation as to why for each point. Get cozy, get a small drink, and let’s get into it!

 

2025 Goal Overview:

1. Genre Expansion
2. Seasonal Newsletters
3. Brand Aesthetic & Brand Statement
4. Business, Website, and Networking Expansion

 

Genre Expansion

When I established Books By Janeè in 2o19, I had every intention of solely writing Young Adult and New Adult fiction, but mostly living in the YA realm. Because most of my life has been centered around working with youth and teens, and my teen years have certainly shaped a lot of my views of the world and of life at this current stage of my existence, I couldn’t really fathom writing anything different. However, over the last year, I’ve been getting a ton of inspiration and ideas that live in other genres. More on this a little later. At this time, I have no desire to write another YA novel or series. I’ve covered so much ground in The Ordinary Series as far as authentic topics relating to today’s teens that I feel like I have a creative block with YA right now. Beyond the writer’s block though, there is a much larger reason for my decision to shift and expand, and it has everything to do with tapping into my God given gifts, purpose, reach, and audience.

For a while, I’ve been ignoring this leap of genre expansion because I felt so tied to the brand I’ve already established. However, I’ve realized that I’m holding myself back from so much more I know I can do. There are so many more people and readers I can reach. From a fiction writing standpoint, while YA has a unique audience, it is a limited one. I’ve found trouble reaching my target audience with teens because books constantly compete with social media and other extracurricular activities teens partake in to prepare for postsecondary education or their careers. Why would a teen read my indie novels in the little spare time they get before they select a book from a more established author that they may already know? Based on my sales, more adults read my YA novels than teens do, and often, other adults read it before they end up recommending them to teen readers. Which is not a bad thing at all! I actually encourage that because if I were a parent, I’d do the same! It’s just difficult reaching a target audience in such a 2nd hand way, and I don’t feel a sense of connection to who I’m writing to and for right now. In addition, I’m finding so many communities, particularly online, that center Black romance and other adult Black fiction that would I’d love to break, tap into, and be a part of. I’ve got a ton of adult themes swirling in my head that can be crafted into stories. So, for the next 5 years, I will be leaning into adult Black romance, with one on the way in 2026 titled “The Decade Between Us” with some familiar characters!

Now, beyond fiction, I have reflected and prayed on how I need to use my gift of writing and storytelling to reach an audience beyond leisure and entertainment purposes. While I do write secular fiction with important themes that has and will still reach and access people in authentic ways that preserves a unique, Black voice and experience, God is still every much front and center in my life, and He is calling me to do something bigger. He is calling me to share my testimony. He is calling me to address isolation, loss, and loneliness. He is calling me to address low self-esteem and body image issues. And He’s calling me to do it in a way that is outside of my cushiony, fiction comfort zone. So I have a couple of nonfiction projects in the work related to fertility and affirmations for Black women and girls specifically. Stay tuned for these projects!

 

Seasonal Newsletters

Books By Janeè will be shifting from attempting (LOL) monthly newsletters to seasonal newsletters. As a person who absolutely hates clutter email and random subscriptions, I know and understand the irritation that comes from too frequent of emails, and to me, monthly is too frequent. Four times a year is reasonable, and these newsletters will provide folks with enough content to engage with for the next 3 months, such as book recommendations from local indie authors, book release updates/information, and more. I plan to start these seasonal newsletters in April 2025 with another in August, and a final one in December.

 

Brand Aesthetic and Brand Statement

With my genres shifting to a more broad audience, it is important for me to also shift my brand image, colors, and aesthetic to meet a broader audience. The playful hot pink, young girl looking over a book logo, and bold gold days will slowly come to an end, and you will begin to see a shift to a more mature looking brand and platform. The brand statement will also shift. The statement will still focus on centering Black women audiences, but the statement will be geared towards a wider net.

 

Business, Website, and Networking

This is probably the most important change out of all of the changes that will take place with Books By Janeè. As I have been observing the sociopolitical landscape for the last 5 years (or the predicted “whitelash” as I’d like to bluntly call it, but that’s a different blog post), I realize that brand ownership and cutting ties with anything related to oligarchy is more important than ever to not only preserve our dignity as regular citizens, but to also preserve the freedom of our voices. We live in a society where monopolization, misinformation, disinformation, truth suppression, blatant systemic racism, and propaganda is more prevalent and pervasive than ever. Soon, social media platforms of all kinds will be unreliable places for small Black businesses such as myself and other creatives that utilize the platforms to share work. With that being said, I will be shifting over to making my website my business hub where you can find information about the self-publishing process, blogging, books, release updates, and more with a strong email list that keep me connected with my readers/supporters. Brand ownership during this time is so critical, and I refuse to lay all my eggs in one basket with social media. For me, it has been a tool to make connections and to spread awareness about my books. I will continue to use it that way until I can’t.

Other ways I plan to strengthen my business awareness and connection is through joining my local Black Chamber of Commerce so that my business is in their registry and they can utilize their platform to not only support my business goals, but to also help with networking, spreading awareness, marketing, and more. Our local commerce has been a huge help even with providing opportunities for vending so I can’t imagine the perks of joining and paying dues.

Finally, I have a plan to utilize my website as my sole form of monetization. I am removing my novels from Amazon (cannot continue to support billionaires) and Kindle Unlimited starting in the summer. I will utilize Amazon for printing author copies, but will not use them beyond that. I plan to jack up the prices of my paperback on Amazon in order to direct readers to my website. Buying directly from me will not only support my business, but it will divert money away from the billionaire class.

 

If you’ve made it this far? Thank you for sticking with me! Lots of great things will happen with Books By Janeè this year and the next 5 before another brand assessment takes place, so I hope you continue with me for the ride! Take care, and once again, Happy New Year!

 

~ Janee Thompson