What's Carly Doing? March 2025
Making up the self-publishing rules as I go!
A funny thing happened in December. I published Closer to Fine and then promptly stopped promoting it a few weeks later. I had Canva images created and ready to go, I’d made a playlist on Spotify, I had Marketing Plans. And then 2025 started and I began questioning my place on the internet. I also didn’t want to overexpose myself to all the news all the time. So I just stopped posting all together.
It turns out, if you don’t tell people that you wrote a book, no one knows you wrote a book. And then no one buys your book!
Earlier this week, I was belting out Brandi Carlisle’s The Story while driving home from an eye doctor appointment: These stories don't mean anything When you've got no one to tell them to. Sing it, Brandi. I won’t say that this magical moment driving across the Fremont Bridge and scream-singing convinced me to snap back into the game. But it was a nice moment.
So I’m taking my space back. I’m getting back on social media, I’m crooning about my books, and I’ll probably also post some cat and knitting stuff. I’m calling it a book relaunch, because this is my publishing business and people are suckers for a relaunch. That’s right, I just called you all suckers.
To celebrate the RELAUNCH of Closer to Fine, I’m sharing with my newsletter subscribers a playlist that I made. One of the fun parts of writing this book was coming up with chapter titles that we 90s songs that reflected each chapter. And thus, this playlist is all of those chapter titles. Enjoy!
Closer to Fine Playlist on Spotify
And if anyone knows how to share a playlist on a more generic platform than Spotify, I’d love to make it accessible to everyone.
Writing and Publishing
Aside from relaunching Closer to Fine, I’ve been making specific writing goals. It turns out, the specific part is important. Not just write X times a day, but specify what exactly I want to write about. What books I specifically need to read for research, what chapters I need to revise. While I’m revising my novella, I’m not doing a lot of actual writing. I want to change that, so I’m trying to figure out how to fit more creative writing into my life. Do I want to do morning pages? Writing prompts? I’m not sure, but this month one of my goals is to add more playtime into my writing. I do have one absolutely silly short story idea I might play around with.
Reading
I finished Orbital a few weeks ago. One way that I judge a book is by it’s staying power in my mind. And this book continues to confuse me. I gave it 5 stars when I initially finished it because I couldn’t imagine giving it anything lower. But I think I dock it .5 stars for staying power. But Samantha Harvey in a short 224 pages gave me the experience of living life for 24 hours in the international space station. And it was a beautiful, amazing experience that I wouldn’t have been able to have without the wonder and joy of literature. Kinda cool that I got to go to space! I do wonder how long she spent looking at paint chips and writing down names of colors, because her descriptions started reading like Home Depot pornography by the end. But writing is hard…and I got to go to space!
Knitting
Woolfolk had a warehouse sale last month and I purchased the softest wool I have ever knit with. I immediately cast on an Albion sweater for my husband and I am hoping that it’s too small so that I can keep it. Woolfolk, you have a new fan.
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I’m playing the same video game and watching the same shows as I have the last few months, so no updates there!
Thanks for sticking around these parts! If you’re interested, my books are below. If you’re not interested, maybe someone you know is?
My books:
Closer to Fine paperback
Closer to Fine ebook
Garden of Earthly Delights paperback
Garden of Earthly Delights ebook
Thanks for reading! For more updates check out www.carlysashacohen.com or follow me on Instagram and Bluesky! (I guess?)