So what have I learnt so far

The main things I have learnt are:

It can be hard to hear that not everyone likes your book. It turns out that not everyone is into contemporary adult romances, particularly the adult bit, and particularly if they are still regular church goers.  One of the dangers of telling all your friends you have written a book is that they all then want to support you by reading it, which is great on the one hand but challenging when they were never your intended audience.  Still I can't really afford to be fussy.

Fitting in writing with a full time job and family is hard.  There is just not enough time to do everything, and sadly writing is the luxury pleasure that goes first.  The frustrating thing is that I now have 4 stories buzzing round my head (seriously) that I want to write, and invariably they buzz loudest just when I'm meant to be going to bed.  

The consistent feedback I've had is that the book eases into itself after the first couple of chapters.  Trouble is any potential publishers ask for the first couple of chapters and judge you on that - you see the problem.  I'm working on it for future books.

It's hard to get going outside of the UK - I really have no idea how I'm going to manage that.  

I really struggle with twitter.  I want to like it, but am failing so far.  It feels like a lot of people shouting about themselves, but I'm yet to be persuaded anyone is actually listening.  There are a couple of funny people.  Camel Toe, you've made me laugh more than once, but otherwise I'm at a loss.

Otherwise it's all going well.....

It's hard to write when the sun is shining

That's a bit of a problem, because I really feel Lily needs book 2 to happen, but I have to find the time to do it.  What with the amount of work I have to do in the week, and then the sun seductively shining, forcing me out of the house at the weekend, it's getting hard to find the time unless I give up sleep.  Oh to find a way that meant the writing became self supporting, but I'm nothing if not a realist, so I think I'll just have to enjoy it as a great hobby.

On another note I have finished the kids book I was writing, and I have a few people casting their eye over it as we speak.  Always an anxious moment.  I will let you know what they think when they finally finish.

Hi

So last month I self published my first book - What goes around comes around.  How clever I thought I was, convinced it would be mere minutes before the uk and then the world were appreciating my previously unknown talent.  Several days later and no sales showing I realised there might be a bit more to it.

Firstly you have to tell people about it.  There are SO many people writing and self publishing books at the moment that standing out from the white noise is a significant challenge.  To begin with I just wanted to quietly get some feedback from people who might read in my genre - contemporary romance in this case.  I sent a couple of messages to reliable and honest friends who were excited to hear and full of congratulation.  

"Wait til you read it" I warned them - "you may want to poke your eyes out with blunt pencils."

The wait to hear what people think is agonising I have learned.  I wanted to contact them every five minutes to see what they thought - God I was annoying.  I also learned that not everyone reads as fast as me, or they take their books on holiday to read and "oh we're not on holiday til the end of August."

I promise if I ever agree to read a book for you I will read it fast and I will give you honest feedback and not just tell you what you think I want to hear.

So the feedback when it came was really good.  My insecurities meant I didn't believe it, but what I heard continually was 'it's a good story - a page turner.'  That news, particularly when it came from someone I had been put in touch with who was a friend of a friend, so had no real loyalty to me, made all the difference.  She was a fellow self published author and an English teacher so she did point out I have forgotten my basic grammar skills (O'levels are a long time ago).

My newfound confidence encouraged me to put it out there - I let my friends know.  Scary stuff, especially when your book is a bit steamy in parts and you have to tell your mum.  And still, barring the grammar, people seemed to like the story.  "This is it" I thought, sitting back to watch the sales come in, but no, it's hard to get noticed on Amazon in amongst all the others.

So where am I now?  My reviews are great from those who've read it and chosen to post a review.  My book ranking is still in the high thousands.  I've joined twitter and now have over a hundred followers (@shawhopeful), but find it hard to self promote - I may be too middle class and English, (my mum told me it's rude to brag).  I also find the people who tweet endlessly about their book a complete turn off myself, so figure others might feel the same.

I am in the process of editing and will be uploading a better version with less mistakes hopefully this week ( significant lesson learnt there - get it edited before uploading.). In the meantime I'm still hoping people will discover me.  Any suggestions about what else I should do always welcome.

Be happy

O.C Shaw x