A'n'SR's 2013 Year in Review

2013 Year in Review

Every year, we set goals for ourselves as a company (small as we are), and then see if we can make those goals happen. 2013 was no different. in fact, 2013 had our biggest goal ever: Publish 26 books in one year. That was more books that we have done since we started this little company back in 2009 altogether. So how did we do? Let's see.

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The Goals and Accomplishments

Below are the goals we set for 2013, and how we did on them.

1. Make $15.00 to keep the site running (always the top goal)
   UPDATE: Completed. In fact, we did this near the first of the year which was really nice.
   
   
2. Become a Limited Liability Corporation 
   UPDATE: Completed. Took less time than we thought it would.
   
   
3. Release 1 new game line on Amazon and Barnes & Noble e-reader devices.
   UPDATE: Completed... but barely. Our new game line was Authorials, an e-book battling game. We didn't get the games on the Nook Press store until late November, so, we'll call it a win, but, not enough of one to see the benefits.
   
   
4. Release 1 new game on TheGameCrafter.com
   UPDATE: Completed +. Thanks to the Micro Game contest, this year, we made 3 new games for the TheGameCrafter.com. 1 got released already: ZipWarZ. Two more are slated for 2014 releases (Faith Hope Love, and Pyramids of Mars).
   
   
5. Release 5 books to support games Powered by -U- the Game of Stories
   UPDATE: Completed. We released a new line of -U- books this year: our Settings books. We got E.M.P., Dragon'skin, Morris High, Monstera Ball, and Epitomes. We have one more done, and ready to go for 2014.
   
   
6. Release 1 new Angels - the Game of Divine Stories book.
   UPDATE: Not So Much. This was a case of us biting off more than we could chew this year, and this book completely fell off the schedule. More on biting part  the year, later, though.
   
   
7. Improve the number of likes we have on Facebook by giving away a free game book.
   UPDATE: Uh... nothing. We absolutely abandoned this idea shortly after the new year. Why? Another casualty of the high volume of stuff we had going on.
   
   
8. Have all 2014 releases ready for launch by the end of October 2013. This worked really well for us this year.
   UPDATE: Almost completed. We have 1 -U- Book, and 2 card games ready to roll. Most of our efforts, though, are going towards getting our big Kickstarter release ready for May. That is our primary focus for the year, and it is almost ready.
   
   
9. Stretch Goal - have the best sales year ever.
   UPDATE: Completed. We were up 59% in sales from last year, and had our best month ever in April. This was in part due to the -U- + Options bundle we released that did much better than we anticipated. We are thinking about another bundle in 2014.
   
   
10. Stretch Goal - work on a new version of DiColumns for 2014 release.
    UPDATE: Yeah... didn't happen. This is always a goal that we put on the calendar, and again, it did not happen. One day. Really. Promis. No... honest!
    
    
11. Stretch Goal - release Print-on-Demand copies of Angels, WyshMaykers, and -U- the Game of Stories.
    UPDATE: Missed it by a third. The -U- book and the WyshMaykers book are all ready for print release. Sadly, the Angels book is not. There are multiple reasons for this. We are making it a pnt to have it available next year, though, because we have con plans!

Overall Rating: B+

Having 5.5 of 7 goals completed and 1 important stretch goal (biggest year of sales ever) met is a pretty good year. 2013 had a lot of expectations, and we met a good portion of them. Look for our more philosophical recap of the year, and our 2014 plans coming soon.