Another year turns! 2018 has been a big one for me as I reached 10 years of The Creative Penn. round-up.png">Considering many new companies don't make it past 5 years, and many writers don't make it to full-time, I am pretty happy with overall progress – but as ever, there is always room for improvement. In this article, I'll look at some of the bigger shifts for the indie publishing environment, and then review my 2018 goals (which I always post on 1 Jan), look at what I achieved, what I didn't quite hit, and lessons learned. You're welcome to leave your comments or thoughts on your own progress in the comments. Let's keep each other accountable! In the introduction, I mention Amazon's Alexa crashing on Christmas Day [The Guardian], and how purchases through Alexa continue to grow [Venture Beat], even as the functionality available through Alexa continues to expand [Digital Trends]. Plus, for the first time in 20 years, copyrighted works will enter the public domain in the USA [The Smithsonian] and publishers are getting ready for re-releases, including The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran with an intro by Insta-poet sensation, Rupi Kaur. [extension-literature-public-domain.html">New York Times] Joanna Penn (yes, it's me on my own today!) is an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers under J.F.Penn and also writes non-fiction for authors. She’s also a podcaster and an award-winning creative entrepreneur. Her site, TheCreativePenn.com has been voted in the Top 100 sites for writers by Writer's Digest. Joanna was named Publishing Commentator of the Year at Digital Book World 2018. [For more pics from my Christmas down under, check out www.instagram.com/jfpennauthor] You can listen above or on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below. Show Notes * Changes in the indie publishing environment 2018 – including disruption to the status quo, technology and pay-to-play marketing * My books of the year – broaden your mind as you consider what's coming in the next 5 years * My 2018 creative goals – what I achieved and what I missed – and why Changes in the indie publishing environment 2018 Before I get into how I did with my goals, here are my thoughts on some of the changes that impacted indie authors in the last year. Disruption to the status quo At the end of 2017, I felt that the indie business model had stabilized and that we had all the tools we need to do our writing, publishing,