Writing a book is one thing; publishing it – and consequently encouraging everyone you can think of to buy and read it – is another. It is now a month since publication, and a month is plenty long enough to read a book.
Which means, of course, that my friends are now finishing the book and letting me know what they think… thankfully all good so far! I appreciate it may be that no-one would tell me otherwise to my face, but I hadn’t even collected my cup of tea after church on Sunday (I’m always swift to a cup of tea, so there wasn’t any dilly-dallying!) before three people had asked me when my second book would be published. *Second!! I’m just reeling from the first!*
One lady was very generous and said she’d give me a couple of weeks…! If only writing and publishing a book could be so quick. I know from other blogs and articles I’ve read that it takes a year or two within the professional publishing world, with drafts going backwards and forwards constantly. How much more so when self-publishing? The easiest way to spot mistakes is to step away from the writing for a period and come back with fresh eyes. If you are the only person seeing your writing that process is all the more difficult, and takes longer to perform properly.
Still, it is my expectation that this term (I have children: everything revolves around term-time and holidays – work achieved in one and nothing achieved in the other)… as I was saying, this term I will review the first draft of my second book and put it into some sort of coherent order. In amongst this I am doing several talks and attending book clubs and general promotion of In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree. It is all very exciting and it is as if I am living the dream (although I could improve the dream with a multi-million pound contract and a yacht, if there is anyone out there…)
My book publishing is entering a second phase. After the initial high, the major push to get it known and recognised, it is now a case of spreading the news. Of course this is done by active publicity on my part, but increasingly it is done by the people who have bought and read my book. One friend lent it to her daughter-in-law, who passed it on to her mother… and so the chain of people who may recommend the book to others will increase.
So if you have bought it: thank you. And if you have read it and enjoyed it, please let your friends know. You are my greatest source of support and I am most grateful.
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