Happy Monday beautiful people!
I can't believe it has been so long since I last wrote on my blog. Life has been hectic and slightly haphazard at best. The extension is now complete thanks to a succession of delightful, if slightly needy builders. I have run out of sugar several times and had to invest shares in caffeinated drinks for 'the lads'. Seven weeks later and the last bit of work is just being finished because, as is always the case, you finish doing one job only to find something else needs doing.
So work on my book took a back seat for a while there but I'm ready now. At least I think I'm ready. I can't tell you how many times I have read the same pages over and over again, checking spelling, grammar, punctuation etc. and I'm sure there will still be the odd minor thing. In fact, much as I have loved writing Holly's story (which is called Right Up My Street), if I'm honest, I'm now a tiny bit sick of it although encouragingly some bits still make me laugh and I've read them about a hundred times.
Those of you who know me well, know that the objective in writing this book was for me to just tell the story. To write a book. To be able to say that I had achieved it. It was never to sell it. I'm not a famous author, I'm just me. However, throughout this process it has grown on me and I have loved writing. Along the way I wrote a short story that won a competition and was published (Waiting For George) and it was mostly this that helped me to decide that I wanted Right Up My Street to reach a wider audience.
At the beginning of this year I made a decision to try and find an agent. Now, in the book writing game you find an agent first and then the agent represents you in your quest for a publisher. Along the way you collect an editor and all sorts of other fabulous people who get involved to make your book shiny, exciting and perfect.
I wrote to a dozen or so agents, who represent women's commercial fiction. Each one that replied was encouraging in their own way telling me to 'keep trying' and that my work was 'promising'. One said they 'really hoped I would be successful'. Apparently this is good. Agents rarely tell you things they don't mean, especially if they have no plan to represent you. However, I was lucky enough to get positive feedback from all but three. The missing three chose not to reply or give any feedback. Everyone else was kind but not kind enough to represent me. So I remain agent-less and therefore publisher-less.
So I then had a dilemma. Take this on alone and try to make it good enough by myself, forget it or keep trying. I decided to take some time out, read the book afresh and found myself editing large parts of it. Each time I went through the checking and editing process there was less to do until just lately I have been changing the odd word here and there.
I'm largely happy with how the book now looks and I have taken the decision to self publish. Self publishing is a huge industry now with a massive percentage of books and e-books being sold through the likes of Amazon. Of course I would have loved to have gone the traditional route but I am impatient to get my writing out there. I have loved this process and have learned so much from it. Writing a book is far from just putting a story down on paper. There is so much to consider. I am not put off though and would do it again in a heart beat and would love to attract an agent through this, my first tip toe through women's fiction.
So watch this space my lovelies. I now tread with extreme caution and slight nervousness into the world of self publishing. The next step is to create a front cover, which I have ideas for already and then to format the book for publishing through Amazon.
Right Up My Street should be available to buy mid November both in paperback and Kindle versions. I decided to publish in both formats as so many of my friends and facebook / twitter followers have said they would like both options. I'm pretty sure this makes it more expensive to buy than I would have liked. Given the choice I'd sell this, my first novel for 99p on Kindle and £2 in paperback, after all it's only little old me telling a story. However as paperback will be printed on demand this drives up the price. I'll keep you informed but I promise it won't break the bank.
Wish me luck everyone. I'm so excited about publishing.
Blog you later, Julesy xxx
