The Accidental Author

Chapter 5 - Pressing the publish button on my self publishing career

Extract from my blog post November 15th 2013

'I've only gone and done it!' As Del Boy would say in 'Only fools and horses!!'

I have just published my debut novel on Amazon Kindle, and I would be very pleased if you could take a look. Glass Half Full is available now. Thank you to everyone who has helped me to get this far.

Weeks of preparation had led to this historic moment. The effect of my first and only rejection was pretty dramatic in that it was only six weeks later that I found myself ready to self-publish. Ready is not quite the right word as in hindsight I was far from ready. Knowing that my book was not considered good enough for a publisher meant I needed to ask myself these questions: Could I make the book good enough? Did I want to risk rejection again? However, most importantly if I wanted to put my story out there, what were my options? In this period of turmoil I noticed that some of my newly acquired friends on Authonomy had started self publishing on Amazon. I spoke to them about my dilemma and immediately they offered advice and support to help me. Inspired by the fact that they wrote in the memoir genre and their books were selling and receiving reviews I let myself believe that I could get Glass Half Full into shape for publishing. The process would involve more editing, some restructuring, formatting and the introduction of beta readers from outside Authonomy. The more I worked on it the more confident I felt.

On publication day I had spent most of it debating should I do this, is it ready, would anyone read it, etc. Despite my last minute wobbles just before bedtime I clicked the publish button on the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) website. I wasn't sure what to feel or expect, although being a first time publisher and having read about many authors' experiences I did expect that I would have adjustments or changes to make and so I prepared myself for addressing those tasks the following day. However, as I eagerly checked my emails the following morning to find out what changes, etc., I needed to make I saw the email with the subject header, "Your book is available in the Kindle store!" I was stunned.

Nigel ever the pragmatic part of our partnership simply said, "Why wouldn't it be." And that was that.

Now what?

Extract from my blog post November 15th 2013

'I have just published my debut novel about our triumph over adversity during our Australian adventure. If you want to read about moving from the UK to Outback Australia, family relationships, the aftermath for our family of the Brisbane floods in 2011, then this book has something for you. Find out what it takes to continue applying some positive spin to your life when it is tested by bereavement, post traumatic stress disorder, illness and losing our home to the Brisbane floods in 2011. I hope Glass Half Full will inspire and motivate people who are facing challenging life events. To give just one person a sense of hope, that there is always a way out, an answer, will be amazing.

If you can view your glass as half full even in the toughest times you have the best chance of moving forward. I hope you enjoy our story.

How do you promote your first self published book, alone with no financial resources? The key advice on the writing forums was launching from your author platform which you started to build before you finished your first draft. Oh no, there is mistake number one, I don't have a platform from which to launch. Ok so the author platform starts now. Why was I so late to the business of author platform building? Mainly because I surprised myself when I actually published the book. I was on Facebook and I had a Twitter account that I had hardly used since joining. I certainly hadn't discovered or used any of the author related features. My blog, in which I had been recording my writing journey, had minimal traffic and reader interaction so much so that I felt embarrassed to mention it to anyone.