Everything That's Not Writing

If someone had said to me when I started out on this whole ‘writing a series of novels thing’ that writing and publishing a novel (or a series thereof) is about so much more than putting words down on a page in the right order, would I have thought twice before starting?

...Okay, no, probably not. I’m stubborn like that. But, for those who are just starting out, especially those people who are considering the self-published route, it really does pay to be very aware of what you are signing up for. Some of it is obvious. Some of it, well, kind of silly. All of it will come up sooner or later.

This is some of what I’ve been up to, other than working on the second half of The Protectors.

Editing - 48 hours. That was how long we took off between finishing the editing of The Dreamwalker and starting on editing The Protectors. My husband now tells people that he had always thought that the hardest part of writing a book is the actual writing, but that he now knows he was wrong. It’s the editing. Anyone can write a book. It is the editing that ensures that it’s a good book. Preferably, a great book. Find a good editor. Someone you have a working relationship with. Then listen to them. If they don’t like something, it’s not because they’re out to get you. It’s because they believe in you, and they want your book to be the best it can be. Sure, there’ll be times when you fight to keep something in, because it’s there for a reason. Generally, though, if they say something needs changing, it needs changing. Together, as a team, you can make something wonderful. Won’t happen overnight though.

Social Media - Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. Hell, even Goodreads. Watch these become your new second home. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but you need to get into all of these places, and let them get into you. It is, however, important to realise that you need time for yourself. I forget that sometimes. It’s hard – I have a full time job. I have a novel out and I’m working on the sequel. I’m marketing the first novel whilst writing the second. I have a husband, and a cat. There are only so many hours in the day. The phrase work life balance has never been more important. The smart phone is both a blessing and a curse.

Marketing - A follow on from the above. Our marketing budget is pretty small, so we have to watch every penny. We do pay for some advertising, but my co-author and myself have a lot of meetings where we end up analysing the return we’re getting for our money. It is being a real learning curve, and so much of what we’re doing is trial and error. We read everything we can get our hands on about what does and doesn’t (or what should and shouldn’t) work. At the end of the day, though, the only real way of finding out is to try it out.

Images - We’re currently working on designing the cover for The Protectors, the sequel to The Dreamwalker. Now, my co-author and I generally design our own covers. This is not something that I would recommend that you do yourself unless you have a real handle on graphic design. There are some great professional cover designers out there, at really reasonable prices. Given that so many people do actually judge a book by its cover, making sure that yours is as good as it can be can really pay off.

Anyway, that said, we design our own (we’ve both had a sideline in graphics for over a decade and a working knowledge of some pretty powerful art programmes). We’ve sat down and worked out what we want for the cover of The Protectors. Ideally, what we would love, is to be able to feature both Rhionnan and Colleen McCarthy on the front page. In order to do that, the starting point has to be trying to find stock models who embody the two women. This morning, all morning, has been spent on Skype together, pouring over stock imagery. Colleen is a challenge, because she doesn’t fit what people like to photograph. Colleen McCarthy is a mid-twenties, frumpy, plus sized redhead with terrible fashion sense. Really not that easy to find. Seriously – I’m currently taking any and all suggestions on our fan page, so if anyone has any suggestions of how they see either Colleen, or how they see Rhionnan (18 years old, petite redhead with a round face), please do drop them in!

Web Design - We are lucky. Very, very lucky. I’m married to a professional web designer. Check out our website to see some of his work! (Thank you Serious Ninja Productions) That’s the upside – we got a professional, bespoke website at a very reasonable price. The downside? I have spent most of the afternoon restructuring menus layouts and discussing coding. In other words: he does the hard stuff, but he teaches me how to do the donkey work myself. The rewrite is still ongoing. We’ve received such positive feedback for The Dreamwalker that we’re putting in a testimonials block in the next few days. Exciting, but another thing to add to the list that is ‘Not Writing Book Work’.

There are days when it all feels too much. There are certainly days when I realise why people travel down the traditionally published route. Most days, however, aren’t those days. Doing everything ourselves, whilst hard work, means that we really appreciate every sale. We really appreciate every ‘like’ we get on our facebook fan page. Every comment we get about the book. Every person who friends either of us on Goodreads, or follows us on Twitter. It’s hard work, but vastly rewarding.

Bring on the next challenge.

Just... make sure it comes with a cup of tea.