Pauline Malkoun

Aspiring Writer/Author Entrepreneur

About Me

I am a former secondary school teacher with a passion for writing engaging stories and non-fiction for children to capture their attention in order to instil a love of reading. By doing this at a young age, they gain the benefit of literacy, one of the most important factors in social mobility and success as an adult.

This website is mainly a place for me to document and track my progress as I amble along on my journey to author entrepreneur.

BLOG

This is my way of holding myself accountable on my journey to becoming a fulltime author. I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and make your journey quicker - if that is where you want to go.

Week 169 - 21 July 2024​

Another week, another podcast. Not sure how I will squeeze it it this week, but I am going to try. It has been same old, ​same old, just more academic work. On the bright side, someone found one of my books in KDP and read 12 pages over 3 ​days - it’s a start - i wonder how much this will earn for me - what I do know is that it wont be enough to quit my day job.

I have a lead for a new potential business partner who works with pre-schools and apparently advertise books on their ​socials - I will need to do some research - they may infact only advertise their own books - but if not - this may be a way ​to get into many more preschools. Fingers crossed! You never know who could be the next interested buy. This lead came ​from the same person who suggested a book on Neurodiversity prompting me to write and release “Different is OK” which ​is​ ​what got me in the door at the Darebin Coucil​.​ I will check out the​ ​new lead this week (when I can find​ 5 minutes).

I hope you ha​ve a happy and productive week.

Goal​s Updated below.

Goals for this month (and beyond):

1. Wri​ting for the podcast

2. Recording and editing the Podcast

3. Finishing some academic writing each week - still pl​ugging away

4. Christmas Traditions from ​around the world - waiting quietly for attention,​ maybe for Christmas 2024 or 2025?

5. Considering advertising ​f​o​r Christmas

6. Collating numbers and receipts for tax return

7. Sneaky Puss Goes Exploring 2nd Edition – waiting patiently

Week 168 - 14 July 2024

Well, the podcast dropped on time this week but only because I recorded a story I had written previously. As expected, the ​week was very busy, and I only managed to get the first half of the new monicow story written. So the plan is to finish the ​new monicow story early in the week, after I finish the bonus academic work - marking essays - there are now less than ​30 to go and a cohort report - this should be done today. Back to the podcast - Sofie Rose Marin had her debut, I have a ​few more SRM stories already written, but in my opinion they are not as good as the stuff I have been writing more ​recently. However, done is better than waiting for perfection.

There is more academic writing to do, I will just keep plugging away at it. I really need to be organised and use my time ​well if I am to get all the work I have committed to by the deadlines. I will not be taking on any more students until I finish ​all the writing work I have and even after that - I think I may use that time for my writing and business.

I did enroll all my books onto KU early this week and today I took a moment to see how the reading was going - not a ​single page, I suppose they want you to advertise for that too. I probably won’t.

New copies of the book came this week and they are much better. That is it for this past week. I know this coming week is ​going to be busier still with school returning and evening and Saturday clasess recommencing. I am bracing myself for it.

I hope you have a happy and productive week.

Goals Updated below.

Goals for this month (and beyond):

1. Writing for the podcast

2. Recording and editing the Podcast

3. Finishing some academic writing each week - doing well!

4. Christmas Traditions from around the world - waiting quietly for attention, maybe for Christmas 2024 or 2025?

5. Considering advertising for Christmas

6. Collating numbers and receipts for tax return

7. Sneaky Puss Goes Exploring 2nd Edition – waiting patiently

Week 167 - 7 July 2024

I am pleased to say that the podcast dropped on time despite being a little worse for wear his week. I am not thrilled I ​sound croaky and nasal, but to be honest, I don’t like listening to myself when I am feeling well and there is nothing wrong​ with my voice. I have started the next story - well I have the core ideas sorted for the story any way - I hope to start writing​ it tomorrow night. Today I hope to continue with some more academic writing, I submitted another three jobs this week,​ and hope to knock out a test each day or two until I have them all done - 21 tasks to go. ​

I made the choice to enrol all the Sofie Rose Marin, Monicow and Random Facts ebooks - it all 6 languages into Kindle​ Unlimited - They are not earning anything anyway - I tried a little advertising, and that didn’t work - I figure it can’t hurt. So​ we’ll see, you never know, this could be the start of something!! ​

Good news on the printing error - Ingram Spark is ending me new copies of the books - hopefully these will be better. I​ think it may be time to star uploading the Sneaky Puss Books onto Amazon - so I can at least enrol them into KU - I mean it​ costs me nothing but a little time - I can’s see how it could hurt. I chose not to particpate with the furious fiction this month,​ the prompts weren’t particularly inspiring and they don’t seem to like anything I produce anyway _ i can use that time to​ write another test instead - I know I am good at that kind of writing - it has occurred to me that I could lean into this, but​ breing creative gives me so much joy - at least for now. I am considering shifting the business model a little to focus on​ middle-grade fiction with Monicow and Sofie Rose Marin and the axolotls on the podcast and non-fiction like the random​ facts books. I am still happy to write picture books if someone wants something specific and commisions the work - but I​ cannot justify the cost of the illustrations and I am thinking of moving into the book compliation and design space for​ organisations - I just need to see if there is a market for it. Some people I used to work for who were very good in business​ said that products for other businesses and organisations were a much better bet than direct to consumer. It makes sense.​

​

That is probably it for the week. ​

I hope you have a happy and productive week.​

Goals Updated below.​

Goals for this month (and beyond):​

1. Writing for the podcast​

2. Recording and editing the Podcast​

3. Chasing up printing errors with IS for cookbook - done, reprints on the way​

4. Finishing some academic writing each week - doing well!​

5. Christmas Traditions from around the world - waiting quietly for attention, maybe for Christmas 2024​

6. Considering advertising for Christmas​

7. Collating numbers and receipts for tax return​

8. Sneaky Puss Goes Exploring 2nd Edition – waiting patiently​

Week 166 - 30 June 2024​

I had a little slip up with the podcast - somehow I forgot to actually release it after uploading it, but it is all fixed now. I ​started writing the next story, but have not yet finished it - so that is the priority, in addition to recording and editing. The ​cookbook was well received and I have my own copy, though there were some printing and handling errors I will need to ​follow up with IS - not file issues - actual printing issues. I also finished another unexpected academic job and have a ​couple more that need to be finished. So, actually, lots of priorities this week! I am going to have to use my time wisely if I ​want to accomplish all this work in addition to some contract lectures I am giving - it is school holidays so no regular work - ​but this will be my final week of school holidays as I have accepted a full time job starting on Monday week. In reality, I only ​really have 3 days where I am not required to be anywhere this week - but the other 4 are not full days and most students ​are on holidays - so I hope to accomplish all the priority items and a few more because after that, it is going to get a little ​crazy until I leave my casual evening job - most likely at the end of the year.

That is probably it for the week - I am serously considering whether I continue this blog since I am no longer really focusing ​on my author journey - but I don’t think I am ready to let it go just yet.

I hope you have a happy and productive week.

Goals Updated below.

Goals for this month (and beyond):

1. Writing for the podcast

2. Recording and editing the Podcast

3. Chasing up printing errors with IS for cookbook

4. Finishing some academic writing each week

5. Christmas Traditions from around the world - waiting quietly for attention, maybe for Christmas 2024

6. Considering advertising for Christmas

7​. Collating numbers and receipts for tax return

8. Sneaky Puss​ ​G​oes Exploring 2nd Edition – waiting patiently

Week 165 - 23 June 2024​

Another week, another podcast and another story written - this week story was a Monicow story - it is ready for recording, ​editing and uploading. I finished putting together the thank you cookbook, and have now ordered copies. I also did some ​academic writing this week, I finished 3 separate jobs (2 were unexpected) - so I am counting this week as a sucess. Plenty ​more academic writing to do - so I am going to try to do a little each week. I should have a little more time this week as we ​approach the end of term - so more time for both academic writing and creative writing. This week I will write next’s weeks ​podcast episode - it will be an axolotl story.

I have made a couple more sales via ingram spark - Portuguese editions of Did You Hear That? I haven’t checked Amazon - ​but I doubt there are many, if any. I wonder where the portuguese books were actually purchased from? I am considering ​advertisements for them - I may take a little time this week to really look at my sales data on Ingram Spark and perhaps ​consider ads for the best seller/s and maybe for Christmas. There really isn’t much else to report at the moment.

I hope you have a happy and productive week.

Goals Updated below.

Goals for this month (and beyond):

1. Building a subscriber list for a customer focused newsletter - Well see how the podcast goes, in progress, a few more ​followers gained

2. Christmas Traditions from around the world - waiting quietly for attention, maybe for Christmas 2024

3. Sneaky Puss Goes Exploring 2nd Edition – waiting patiently

4. Writing!!

5. Recording and editing the Podcast