After dying my hair and straightening it ( frivolous details for any men who may be reading this I know..) a change of identity is something I indulge in regularly make of that what you will-I went along to the Spanish coastal town of Calpe to an expo where I enjoyed an art exhibition-a talk by the BBC Ground force presenter Charlie Dimmock-and purchased an Easter egg ( not for me) and indulged in a glass of 'Cava'-steady on I here you say...I took the opportunity to arrange a radio interview for my book and an article in a local ladies magazine not to mention charming Charlie Dimmock with the fact that a) my father fancies her and b) He wanted to invite her to lunch but couldn't actually be bothered to come along (he doesn't like humans in general very much) and erm...would she be so kind to pose with my book and do some subliminal marketing? So I have kindly uploaded the picture which you can enjoy below...I shall then engage you or bore you with what has got me to my current stage in the process of making me and my first (but definitely not last) novel known to the general public and the fact that it's possible I have dyed my hair more times than Madonna..sorry I digress..
So
you wrote a book-now get it published!
Some of you may remember that first I self-published the novel on Amazon Kindle last summer..well six months later the second edition has been
published-this time with the help and guidance of a British independent
publisher located here in Spain; what a difference this has made! The novel is
now available in print version as well as a various formats for E-books. For
those of you who write or are in the process of writing a book you can surely
empathisze with the amount of work that goes into producing a novel-not just the
physical work but the emotional and mental process too. For me personally this
was an especially long on/off process which lasted pretty much for five years
before it was finally finished and that was just the story…then comes the
formatting, editing, the cover ETC and if like me you are a complete novice this
is a hugely daunting task.
Thanks to friends and the odd technical wizard
I got there in the end but still, the reality of now having the professional
backing of a publisher who not only guides and advises but who is also a writer
themselves; well all I can say is that it has made the experience far easier not
to mention more pleasurable and exciting. Writing can be a very solitary task at
times and when you are floundering either with ideas or even self- belief it
certainly helps to have someone you can turn to, to ‘bounce off’.
So, what next? Once the initial excitement
has worn off you realize that despite the backing you too have to do everything
in your power to move the book-people are not going to buy something they don’t
even know exists. My publisher-the author ‘Victoria Twead’ (ANTPRESS
Publishing) has a large following due to her own popular books which means that
my novel gets a mention to the over 2000 subscribers of her newsletter, an
interview on her site and then fortunately some great reviews from the
professional ‘Beta Readers’ who review the book on all levels: But all this
aside, as the author I too have to use all the media tools at my disposal hence
I have-3 Facebooks, a Twitter, this blog, Goodreads…ah the list goes on and on and
yes you still have to find the time to work and bring up a family!
If you are a fortunate enough like me to
have people around you who are excited and supportive then of course you will
have your initial few sales guaranteed but you also have to reach the general
English speaking public…living in a small town in Spain you realize that is not
always easy particularly now that the local English bookshops have closed down.
Fortunately I speak Spanish so I decided to approach the local library and ‘Públics’
bookshop in Dénia where I live and explain to them that I’d like my book to be available to
the general public not just via the internet. I’ve been pleasantly surprised so
far at the positive response I’ve had: The bookshop has five of my copies on
sale and the customer can order a copy through them at any time plus the
library now has my book in the foreign language section in the library. This is hugely gratifying given this is the town where I reside and
should be my starting point.
So, what next? This is a long process which
has only really just began and it’s important to enjoy every step as I tell
myself on a daily basis…3 radio interviews await me-a spot in a local magazine and another in a local paper. Then of course all the internet marketing on an international level and family in Dubai trying to make me a local celeb over there...curious but who knows? A Spanish publishing house has now approached me to
translate the novel so we shall see where that takes us but in the meantime, well I’m
enjoying the ‘trip’.
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