Book reviews (and other things)

Over the months I’ve been sending my book off to various (mostly) family history publications for review, and having heard nothing from any of them since I decided to do some gentle nudging.

One replied saying they’d posted a ‘mini review’ a few months back, which turned out to be not so much a review as basic details about the book – slightly better than nothing I suppose. One said a review was about to appear in March, and another promised one in May. There was no response from the rest.

On the other hand there have been some lovely reviews on the Amazon sites from readers – most but not all of whom are personal friends of mine – which more than make up for it. If anyone reading this is one of those reviewers then please accept my heartfelt thanks. Those reviews mean an awful lot to me.

So, nine months since The Worst Country made its entrance into the world I’ve been doing some totting up, and some thinking.

At a rough estimate I have sold 109 copies of the book, in both ebook and print form – 99% or maybe 100% of them bought by friends and extended family.

To any regular publisher, and especially to an Amazon best seller, that figure is frankly laughable. At around £2 profit per copy I am now short of around £500 of my initial outlay, and that’s not taking into account the best part of the six years it took me to write and publish the book, plus the annual long-haul flights from the UK to Australia and other costs legitimately (are you reading this, HMRC?) incurred in the course of my researches.

From a practical point of view it gets more and more ridiculous. HOWEVER:

I do not feel despondent. I may be lacking in the marketing-skills department but what I do have is a book I am genuinely proud of; a book I had so many doubts about I thought I’d never have the nerve to actually publish. The response – admittedly from friends (though they can be your harshest critics) – has been so much more positive than I ever dreamed of. Those who witnessed my long journey will know how I struggled with the form and the intertwining of different styles, so to hear that this has worked, that readers have got what I was trying to say and, most importantly, describe it as ‘a good read’ is actually quite overwhelming.

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Words to the self-published writer

Any writer will admit that to spend the bulk of one’s time making up stories (or in my case embellishing existing ones) in the expectation that people will pay to read them is pretty self-indulgent, and it takes guts to give yourself permission to do it in the first place. The journey into self publishing may be empowering but it is also intensely lonely. The writing business is a solitary one to begin with, but then not to able to include others in the process of bringing the book out is lonelier still. There is no one to affirm, encourage, advise or cajole you into not giving up. And the journey doesn’t stop with the writing and publishing, it continues on and on and on, for as long as you have the energy to drive the thing forward. This is why those Amazon reviews mean so much.

The long and lonely road …

‘Do it because you love it’ may sound like banal advice, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t half mind making a living out of writing, but actually folks, it’s the best advice. If you can end up with something you are even half proud of, if you can surprise yourself with what you find yourself capable of producing, you are on the road to happiness, even if there are long, lonely, dark stretches on the way.

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All that said it may seem ludicrous and irresponsible – lacking either a livable income or a sugar daddy – to be contemplating writing the sequel to Worst Country, focusing this time on my great great grandfather GM Pitt, Mary’s grandson, who married the daughter of convicts and went off to the remote parts of NSW to become a farmer before founding the stock and station agent Pitt, Son & Badgery.