Novice Self-Publisher Learns Some Hard Truths

I am supposed to be in the deepest part of my marathon training but we’re away in Ribblesdale for a long weekend with family and although I brought my kit, I’d also brought a pair of trainers that were technically retired. I’d had a vague plan to go to Clitheroe for their parkrun, but I sat in our hot tub instead. So today is not a running blog.

I do have a bit of news that isn’t running-related. My very first novel is coming out in paperback and Kindle on Amazon from 31^st August. It’s a self-published little number and as I’m finding out, Amazon is kind of necessary if you want to go down that road. It allows you to create your book and gives you a platform to sell it. The book shops, even the independent ones need to have footfall to survive so need authors that are well known. 

We had a go at offering a proof copy of my book to The West Kirby Bookshop but they declined. What? you might ask. Surely an independent shop should be supporting local authors? Initially I thought that as well, but the owner gave us some very compelling reasons for not taking the book. If you’re attempting to run a viable business and competing with the online behemoths and the national chains, then on top of just having the current best sellers and classics on your shelves, you need to develop your shop inside your community. This means having in-house interviews with well-known authors, creating book clubs and other events to pull the punters physically in. On top of organising, publicising and putting on those events you’re having to read all the pertinent books and any big names that have the big publishers behind them – alongside actually running the shop and maybe having a life.

If then scores of people come in and say that they’ve written a book and could you read it and stock it please, you’re either going to have to employ someone else to read them or just have a blanket No! to all. 

The wonderful thing about self-publishing is that it’s available to many more people than the regular publishers will take. I haven’t gone down the road of trying to find an agent who would then try and find a suitable publisher because a) I think that would potentially add years to my getting it out there assuming it ever did, and b) I possibly feel a bit self-conscious about the idea that I’d be visible to more than just family, friends and a few extra friends of friends.

However, as a self-publisher, I kind of have to be a bit scared and do it anyway, which means going into shops and facing a rejection (albeit with some excellent advice about the type of marketing I should try) and it means getting into contact with the local press and saying, hey please can you interview me!  – I haven’t done this yet and I am trying to build myself up to it.

The book will be available (about a week or so after the 31^st) from News From Nowhere bookshop in Liverpool, and Kraken Comics in Bebington, Wirral. Kraken normally just does comics and graphic novels but as I used their space for a lot of my writing, they have kindly said they’d make an exception for me, which is rather wonderful. For those of you who don’t use Amazon and don’t live locally, I can post a copy direct for the price of the book plus postage, but if you do use Amazon, please do leave a review, as that may help a few complete strangers look at the cover of my book and think that they might want to have a go at it too.

There are now only eight days until the book is available to buy and I am slightly terrified but also extremely excited that this is becoming real. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on it when they read it, so long as you can be kind and constructive. This is the first book in a series of four books that will eventually come out, so fingers crossed you like the first one as there will be more.