Charlie Bray's Blog - Posts Tagged "humour"

It’s Still Tough at the bottom J.K.

I am, of course, delighted for dear old J.K. After years of scribing in greasy spoon cafes to save the heating bills at home, followed by a rejection slip pile higher than the Empire State Building, her Harry came good and set out to do the business for her. Decent job he made of it too by all accounts.

Thousands of others have followed the same yellow brick road and never been accepted. Some carry on, like a hamster on its treadmill, until they die, some give up. But I bet they are all delighted for J.K. because, basically, most people are nice.

However, even though we’re basically nice, and I can only speak for Brits here because I’m a Brit, we have this ingrained support for underdogs, as long as they remain underdogs. As soon as an underdog beats the system and becomes an enormous success, and just a tad cocky, in the manner of the one and only Subo from Britain’s Got Talent, a fairly strong dose of envy blows our support out of the water. We’d never admit that though, because, basically, we’re nice people.

Now retired from gainful employment and entering my seventieth year, I quite fancied ‘doing a J.K.Rowling’. The trouble is I’m running out of years and probably do not have a decade or two left in which to wile away my time in Starbucks, write potential blockbusters and painstakingly build a rejection pile the height of the Empire State Building.

So I decided to fast track myself. Save time. Send my Harry into action quicker than hers. Mine wasn’t really a Harry obviously. Even though it would give me a good start, people, even nice people, wouldn’t like it if I named my hero Harry Potter. No, mine’s a castle. Cove Castle. A series of books about, yes, you’ve guessed it, a castle. The fact you’ve guessed it won’t spoil it, it’s not a mystery.

So, learning from J.K.’s mistakes, all I had to do was stay out of greasy spoon cafes and avoid a high pile of rejection slips. Easy.

First thing I did was write the opening book in the series, Open House. You have to do that first, obviously. I gained a distinct advantage over the Harry Potter series, because I wrote it at home.

The second thing was to publish it myself, and thereby avoid rejection slips. So I did that, published it myself on Kindle Direct Publishing, and waited for the gold rush.

Well, I’ll be honest. I didn’t just wait. I joined Twitter, I joined Facebook, I joined Goodreads and set about the dark art of networking. A year or two ago, I never dreamed I’d be doing that. More likely I’d have been dreaming of joining a Bowls Club or booking Saga coach trips.

Anyway, J.K.Rowling, eat your heart out, young lady. Charlie Bray is now in the game.

In week one I’ve sold six books in England (including one to myself and one to my daughter) three in the States, and one in France. That’s double figures already, so I’m clearly on J.K.’s tail. I guess I feel much the same as she felt when those huge queues developed for midnight launches around the world.

And, guess what? Not one rejection slip!

So good luck all you underdogs. J.K. and I are flying high.