An author’s life

Last week, I released the third book in my historic fiction series. It was exciting, especially the part where I got to hold the proof copy in my hand for the first time. Even so, the life of an author is not as full of adventure, intrigue and vast wealth as many people think. Top bestselling authors may have lives like that, but my experience (and I suspect theirs) is very different. If you’re thinking of writing a book, read on to understand the reality.

Writing a book is a long, tedious journey, fraught with doubts and frustration. You need an idea, followed by lengthy research, before you even start writing. Putting ideas into words can feel like pulling teeth. You may have a beginning, middle and end, but the words in between take a lot of perseverance. Many fall at this hurdle. It doesn’t help if your characters have their own ideas about how the story should go, and refuse to shut up. Then there’s editing, going over your work, ripping it to shreds, and rebuilding it again and again. Many fall at this second hurdle. Your beautifully crafted prose looks like a mass of plot holes, grammatical errors, and waffle. It’s hard to be subjective, and even harder to kill your darlings — those long rambling descriptions, side characters who add nothing to the story, and clever little twists that no longer make sense. Next, you have to let someone else look at it, a professional editor, a beta reader, or if you’re going down the traditional route, an agent and a publisher. By the time you’ve finished this long process, you will probably have read your book dozens of times. If you still like it at this point, you’re doing well.

Those who choose the traditional route can hand over to agents, publishers, and marketing people at this stage. Of course, this means giving up control of your darlings, spending years writing query letters to agents (and getting rejections) waiting for said agent to find a willing publisher, waiting for said publisher to publish (often a period of years not months), and handing over a huge chunk of your royalties to both. Those who choose independent publishing face unique challenges. They get to keep control of their work and their copywrite. The choice of when to publish is largely in their own hands, as are most of their royalties. However, the responsibility for everything is also down to them. Great for control freaks, but hard work.

Luckily, I have the wonderful technical team at Hangar47 behind me to do all the laborious stuff. Aleks and Hayley tackle the chores my non techy brain can’t cope with. They miraculously turn my artwork into a cover and my word document into a book. They’re even building me a proper professional author website as we speak. Despite this help, marketing is down to me. Although my professional background is in marketing, blowing my own trumpet is not my forte, so this side of things is very low key. When Aleks appeared on my doorstep with the proof copy of Seventh Daughter, he told me he needed author photographs for the website. Hayley had already sent me an email asking for the same thing. I hate having my photo taken, so I’d been avoiding it. Now I could avoid it no longer. Aleks wanted lots of photographs, pictures of me holding each book. I had to put on proper clothes, different ones for each book, and wear makeup! The upshot of all this was that I spent a whole precious day of writing time painting my face, fiddling with my hair, changing clothes and taking hundreds of pictures of myself. There was some Googling to find out how to take a good selfie.

I ended up with a phone full of pictures, most of which made me look like someone who has lost all their marbles. There was a point when I thought about employing a body double, preferably one who looked normal. Still, there were a handful of pictures I could almost bear to look at, and I got to spend an enjoyable hour messing about with special effects to make them more interesting.

The next day was publication day, at least for the paperback. The kindle version came a few days later. This is both exciting and frightening. Along with a sense of relief that the long journey is over, there are nerves about people reading the book and not liking it, or worse still, no one reading it at all. I spent most of the day on marketing, posting on social media, interacting with people who’d read previous books and liked them, changing the information on various websites like Goodreads and Amazon. Oh, and dealing with scammers who appear to think that authors are all rich and rather stupid.

It was a relief when Saturday morning came and I could wander off to parkrun, leaving behind the book marketing and worrying. It didn’t turn out quite the way I planned. First, there were roadworks on Hill Lane to contend with. We left early to give ourselves plenty of time, but when we reached the Bellemoor, we discovered it had closed for refurbishment, so we had to find another parking place. Then there was a huge branch down on a tree near Bellemoor corner. Commando had noticed it during the week, but seeing it with my own eyes was a shock. How and why it fell is a mystery, but I hope it survives.

There was a fair on the Common where the parkrun is normally set up. Luckily, the setup team and RD were on top of this, but it put paid to my normal walk through the Old Cemetery. After some dithering, I went in the opposite direction to have a look at the Beyond Graffiti Tunnel. There’s always something new to see there, and early on a Saturday morning, I hoped it would be quiet. I had some plotting to do for my work in progress, so a peaceful walk was top of my agenda.

As the runners set off, I walked across the grass and climbed the slope towards the old boating lake, turning over ideas in my head. When I reached the top of the slope, and the boating lake came into view, I got quite a shock. The water was an eerie shade of green.

A closer look showed it to be algae. It brought back memories of the blue-green algae infestation in 2019, although this time it looked very green and there were no dead fish floating. There were no barriers around the lake either, so I assumed this was a less dangerous variety of algal bloom, probably caused by the warm, calm weather. Either way, I wasn’t planning on swimming. A fallen tree dangling its branches into the water made for interesting photographs, and the green water gave the scene a strange, otherworldly feel. If I was a horror or sci-fi writer, it might even have given me some inspiration.

On closer inspection, the water was bubbling, but my camera didn’t capture this very well. Hopefully, the bubbling isn’t bad news for the fish and other wildlife in the lake. During the blue-green algae infestation, a swan and cygnet died along with a lot of fish.

The ever changing artwork of the Beyond Graffiti Tunnel means there’s always something new to see. Almost everything had changed since May. My favourites for this visit were the dolphins. How long they will be there remains to be seen. The transience of the work is part of the joy, even when it means favourite pieces disappear.

Soon enough, I was walking back towards the boating lake. All the distractions meant I hadn’t done much thinking about my WIP, but at least I’d got some fresh air and exercise. Walking back past the fallen tree, I also got to see a coot’s nest nestled in the branches, so I really can’t complain. Who knows when a green lake and a nest of coots will come in handy in one of my stories?

My walk hadn’t helped with my WIP, but I spent the afternoon working on it, anyway. The book in question, number nine in the series, is proving trickier than earlier books. Part of the story involves a prisoner of war in the Far East, and the setting has taken more research than usual. The chapter I was trying to write was a difficult one. It was tempting to return to editing book four, but I stuck at it and even got a chapter written. Whether any of it will make it past the editing process remains to be seen. An author’s work is never done.

If you like what I write, and you’re interested in my novels are available now on Amazon in paperback, on Kindle and via Kindle Unlimited. Check out my Amazon page here and my Goodreads page here. If you would like to help me keep writing, you can now buy me a virtual coffee by clicking on the little orange coffee cup at the bottom right.