Authors you didn’t realise were self-published!

When looking for inspiration from other authors, I thought I’d take a look to see how many successful authors self-published. I was stunned! Recognise any of them?

Frank Baum, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Roddy Doyle, James Joyce, D H Lawrence, James Patterson, J K Rowling, Mark Twain, Beatrix Potter…. I could go on!

Even E L James of 50 Shades of Gray… I don’t know how she did that, I still blush when I think of the love scenes in Stones Corner: Turmoil… Anyway, moving on swiftly!

Are you as surprised as I am?  I couldn’t believe these authors all received the same number of rejections I did. Self-publishing is far from easy but this tells us it’s not impossible.

So what’s been happening this week?

It’s been an exciting one!  My website is live and taking pre-orders for Stones Corner: Turmoil.  It’s been amazing seeing the orders coming in from all over the world including as far away as New Zealand and not just from family and friends - a truly wonderful beginning!

I found a terrific printer through my self-publishing guru Orla Kelly. We decided to go with Anglo Printers in Drogheda.  Disappointingly, I sent out thirteen requests locally and only four responded!  Three couldn’t do it but one could, Paddy the owner of bizzprint.ie in Letterkenny, he was amazing and couldn’t do enough but sadly time was not our friend.

The final manuscript is now being typeset ready for printing and I’ve been assured delivery from early February, all in time to post to those readers who’ve been busy ordering their first signed copies.

Stones Corner: Darkness is going through its second edit and should be with me ready for final amendments then off to the copy editor.  We’ve decided to launch it in late September 2021 but you can pre-order your copy now from my shop.

 

What’s next?

Kindle!  A kindle edition of Turmoil is available and priced at £8.99 on Amazon. This is wonderful for all those international readers who don’t want a hard copy nor have to pay the extortionate postal charges.  For the record, I’ve done everything I can to keep shipping and production costs down :)

Once the books are dispatched and read, I’d love it if readers could give some feedback and place their comments under the “review” page on my facebook page. Good or bad!  I can take it – remember I’ve been rejected so many times I’m a walking Teflon! 

So everyone, let’s get Derry back on the map!  The Stones Corner series may not be as funny as Derry Girls, but it does show how strong and proud we are of our beautiful city. 

Spread the word and please share any blogs or posts that I put out there.

What a week that was! Phew!

J.