More advice for writers, but not from me

I have come to believe that Facebook is one of those places that writers hang out in when they are either;

1. Lying to themselves that they are networking
2. Lying to themselves that they are researching
3. Lying to themselves that there isn't so much editing left to do
4. Have ran out of ideas

Ok, I know I am exaggerating, but this morning I was practicing excuse number three.  I was telling myself that the fifty pages left of Psychophilia can wait a few minutes or a few hours depending on how engrossed I get.  But there is a point to Facebook that reveals itself in various forms of cool stuff every now and again.
 

There are days when my newsfeed, and I'm sorry Facebook buddies, is simply full of shite.  I can scroll down to story after story and find nothing that interests me.  But today, TODAY, was something else.  You guys have obviously been taking the funny pills again because you have liked and shared and posted some pretty funny stuff.  Just for fun, and in the spirit of sharing some of the giggles, which even as I post it again now doesn't seem quite as funny (maybe I was the one taking the funny pills), I replicate one of the said funny images for you here.
 
But on a more serious note, Facebook is also the place where I came across author John Green.  In case you haven't heard about him he is a writer who almost became a priest but instead became a book reviewer and wrote for New York Times Book Review before writing his own book and then starting a video blog diary called vlogbrothers for which he covers just about every topic known to man.  The lack of punctuation in this last sentence is not because I went on an editing holiday.  John Green's videos do not have any punctuation.  He is the most entertaining and yet simultaneously exhausting person I have ever had the pleasure to watch.  He is also a fantastic author.  Check out The Fault in Our Stars.
 

John Green

So when this guy speaks, I tend to open an ear, stop scrolling down my Facebook newsfeed and take a look.  Today I came across a link to some of his wise words about the art of being a writer.  We often hear about how to market ourselves, how to write a good blog that keeps people interested (if anybody knows......), how not to spam people with book links etc etc.  But what about advice on how to just enjoy what we do.  In his own words, because I can't say it any better, here is John Green's advice.
 

Every single day, I get emails from aspiring writers asking my advice about how to become a writer, and here is the only advice I can give: Don’t make stuff because you want to make money — it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous — because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people — and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.

Maybe they will notice how hard you worked, and maybe they won’t — and if they don’t notice, I know it’s frustrating. But, ultimately, that doesn’t change anything — because your responsibility is not to the people you’re making the gift for, but to the gift itself.

 

The post I wrote on Monday was all about sales and figures, and to date on this blog it has been the most well received post, getting the most hits and the most positive feedback comments in various places I have pimped it out.  We all want to sell, right.  Well that's true, and I can't deny that I hope one day writing brings in enough cash that I can do it full time.  Ok, full time and legitimately, without feeling guilty or hungry.  But I didn't write any of these books with a £ or a $ sign in my eyes.  I wrote them because I believed in them, and when I look back at the pages in them now I see chapters of my life and different emotions peppering the plot and characters that I know come straight from me.    

People sometimes say that writers are closed people.  But I disagree.  I think writers are some of the most open people in the world, because we bleed our hearts and souls into the words and stories we write.  And John Green is right when he calls the end result a gift.

 

So I am turning off Facebook for a while and going back to the editing so that I may continue with the current gift in progress.  But this gift is not just to readers, but to myself.  I'll leave you with the last post I saw on Facebook before switching off.  I guess it couldn't be more suitable.

 

 

Eighteen months post publication

There have been many things that I have been impressed about as a member of the indie publishing community, but there is one thing that really stands out, and that is the willingness that people have to share data, including personal stats and sales data in order to help another writer.

Last Friday I mentioned to a fellow author in a Facebook group that I had noticed a degree of consistency in recent months with regards to my sales.  This was in response to another author referring to his own sales, and commenting how they didn't really seem to be coming very quickly or with any regularity.  They asked if I had a blog post regarding my sales.  I didn't.  So I have done one.  Here it is.

The following data is the real data straight from my KDP account.  This post is all about my first book, The Loss of Deference.  I published this book at the end of May 2012, so I am now 18 months post first ever publication.  When I think of it like that, it doesn't seem possible that it is only 18 months ago, and so much seems to have happened since then.  Since publishing this book I have written and published two others, I have a manuscript close to publication in the second quarter of 2014, and another first draft that seems to lend itself to serial release sat in a drawer waiting for my attention.  Sometimes I beat myself up a bit when I see other self publishing authors who claim to go from blank page to a finished publication in two months straight, and that one or two releases a year isn't enough, and wonder how it takes me eight months from concept to publication.  But I guess when I put it like that, I haven't done too badly for 18 months.  Anyway, I digress.  Back to the point of this article.

Let's just cut straight to the chase.  I promised you figures, right?  Honest figures.  I am not sensitive or too proud to announce that my writing career has not yet made me a gazillionaire, so this is book one, year one, in bare, unadulterated, at times depressing figurative form.

 

The table above is everything that happened with The Loss of Deference in the first eighteen months.  What I sold, and what I gave away.  I have left out borrows, because whilst they happen and there are a few throughout the months, I didn't find that it particularly added anything to the overall picture.

 

So let's just leave that to sink in for a moment.  I feel a bit like I have just shown you my credit card statement with a few of the zero's wiped off the record!  But that is the nuts and bolts of what went down so far.  In total, during the first eighteen months I sold 540 copies of The Loss of Deference on the .com and .co.uk Amazon sites combined, of which 80% of those sales were from the .com site.  I also gave away 8,094 copies, of which 90% were from the .com Amazon site.  There were sales on most of the other domains of Amazon too, but in terms of seeing the greater picture that information was also irrelevant. 

 

So what do I take from this?  This morning I heard about another indie author who chose to reveal her stats, and lets just say they didn't look anything like this.  She had sold 10,000 books in the first couple of months, and whilst I love a happy success story, there is something about her story that doesn't fit the typical indie blueprint.  I think what I have sold in the first year when The Loss of Deference was a debut title, and for the first six months a single title, is a bit closer to the norm.  When I think back to months four and five now, and when I remember the excitement of hitting double figures in December 2012, it has been a great journey so far.  And the first cheque for £258 will never be forgotten.  It didn't pay my aforementioned credit card bill, but it felt damn good.

 

 

 

 

You can see that I have used the Select promotion with Amazon a few times throughout the last 18 months.  During these promotions I tried different techniques.  For the promotions in the figure above I tried emailing every single site/person/sockpuppet twitter account I could find in order to advertise my free book.  It was early days and I was new, so you can forgive me a bit of spamming, right?  It took me hours during every one of those promo periods, each of which was either 2 or 3 days in length to keep up with the social media element of the promotion, and in the end it didn't really amount in any huge impact or great benefit to overall downloads.  Spamming doesn't work after all!

 



 

During the September 2013 promotion, the best to date in terms of number of downloads I decided to contact only Pixel of Ink and Ereader News Today to advertise my free book.  I was lucky that ENT picked it up and I saw at least 50% of the downloads occur after the advert went out in an email.  Oh, the excitement of seeing the numbers rocket up that time!  There is no doubt in my mind that this advertisement was to thank for the increase in downloads.  This was a four day promo period.  I was a bit disappointed afterwards as there wasn't much of a sales bump, and because of this I decided to pull my books from Select, thinking that perhaps it just wasn't worth it.  Freebie-scmeebie, I thought.  But I had one Select day left so I decided, what the hell and threw in my last promo day at the end of the year just to use it up.  I gave away 185 copies and afterwards sold more than that during the same month, and since then the sales have been steady for the next two months.  Currently in January I have sold 27 to date.  I have just scheduled a free day for tomorrow as well, and will wait to see if another little push cannot keep this run going.  Yep, I'm still in Select at the moment.

 

The other thing that happened in September was the release of my third book.  Sales for which have definitely been better in the first few months than in comparison with The Loss of Deference.  I cannot help but assume that a greater number of books kind of acts like a greater sized fishing net and pulls in a larger number of eyes, which in turn results in all round greater interest and sales numbers.

 

So to date I believe that giving away my books has definitely been the catalyst for the majority of my sales, and I also think that the release of further titles has had a positive impact.  Advertising is important, and the best result for me personally has been when using Ereader News Today, which is likely due to their huge target audience (Facebook 467,019 Likes when I just checked).  The fact that 80% of the sales are in the US is no great surprise when you consider the size of the country, but the lack of impact that the advertising to date has had on UK sales, even with ENT, definitely means there is a gap in the market for the advertising of such events.  Guess I need to find out where that is.  So if you are at the beginning of your journey and feeling disappointed in only selling a few books here and there, just remember that sales take time to occur.  We can't all be selling 10,000 in a couple of months, as nice as it would be.  I started off with very few sales, and whilst they are still not great by any standard, I do feel that there has been a consistent and steady improvement.  If I made the same increases by this time next year I would be more than satisfied.

Literature in Hawaii

Back in November last year, Jill Engledow, a British writer based in Hawaii appeared on my blog in order to introduce her new book.  The Island Decides is set in Maui in the 1960s, and follows a young mother's plight to reclaim her lost child.  I was taken by Jill's story, and by the idea of life on what is known by most as a tropical holiday paradise.  So I was excited when she agreed to come back and tell us more about the world of books and literature of Hawaii.  Over to Jill.

On a plane to Paris a couple of years ago, I discovered that Hawaii is not as famous as we who live here like to think. To my amazement, the Frenchwoman sitting next to me had never even heard of Hawaii. So for those who also are unfamiliar with these lovely isles, allow me to introduce them.

Hawaii is a chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, stretching some 1,500 miles from the ancient, almost submerged original islands in the northwest to the largest, newest and still-erupting Hawaii Island at the southeastern end. These islands grew from a “hotspot” under the Pacific tectonic plate, which sends a plume of molten magma from deep within the planet to build new land in long-lasting, spectacular but gentle eruptions. Because the plate moves very slowly to the northwest, older islands are carried away from the hotspot and gradually dissolve into the sea. Six of the newer islands at the southeastern end are populated. 

That’s the geological background of islands that are farther from other landmasses than any place on earth. Today, Hawaii is the 50th state in the United States of America (and the birthplace of President Barack Obama), a place many Americans dream of visiting, a tourist mecca attracting people from around the world. 

 

 

I live on Maui, the second-newest island, still bearing the marks of volcanic eruptions less than 600 years ago and still potentially live, since 600 years is nothing in the life of a volcano. Maui is a place of great natural glamour, a “Goldilocks” island that is not too big, not too small, not too hot, not too cold. It has miles of beautiful beaches, an amazing geological feature we call the “crater” at the top of the volcano that makes up the eastern end of the island, a wealth of talent among its people, and gorgeous views anywhere you look. Obviously, I am proud to live here, but it’s not just me. The island slogan is Maui No Ka Oi: Maui is the best. And Maui is regularly named the “best island in the world” by various travel magazines.  

 

With that background, I’d like to share some suggestions for those who want to read about Hawaii. The islands have a long history of storytelling. The Polynesian people who first arrived here nearly 2,000 years ago believed fervently in the power of the word, and though they never developed writing, they memorized long, subtle, elaborate chants to preserve their history, tell of their chiefs’ adventures and praise the beauty of the land.

When Christian missionaries arrived in 1820, their first task was to create an alphabet, and within a few decades Hawaii had one of the most literate populations on the planet. They filled thousands of newspaper pages, putting ancient stories into writing. At last, that work is being digitized and translated into English, bringing a long-lost literature to the modern world. One great saga, of journeys undertaken by the little sister of the volcano goddess Pele, is The Epic Tale of Hiiakaikapoliopele. This illustrated book is pricey but precious, a collector’s item indeed. But there are plenty of Hawaii-themed books for regular readers.

A contemporary look at the skills and knowledge of the native people of Hawaii is in Voices of Wisdom: Hawaiian EldersSpeak, by MJ Harden, who interviewed highly accomplished elders, tapping wisdom passed down through generations. The beautifully written book is illustrated with equally beautiful black-and-white photos.

 

James Michener, an early master of the multigenerational saga, lived in Hawaii for years and wrote the fabulous book called Hawaii. I first read this when I was a youngster, and I remember sitting in the car waiting for my mother to buy groceries, reading the incredible first section that describes the Islands’ fiery rise from the ocean. Though I myself had seen amazing recent eruptions, it still boggled the imagination to think that the supermarket and its asphalt parking lot were built upon that fiery base. Michener’s version of Hawaii history is fiction, but I think it is true to the spirit and the general trend of Hawaii history over many generations. This classic is now available for the Kindle.

The American artist Georgia O’Keeffe visited Hana, a remote and beautiful area on Maui, in 1938. She stayed with a family whose daughter, now an old woman, has written a memoir of that visit, illustrated with paintings O’Keeffe did while in Hawaii. 

My own writing has been nonfiction until recently, mostly appealing to regional readers who know and love the Islands. Now I’ve ventured into fiction with The Island Decides, a tale of a young mother who “finds herself” when she travels to Maui to reclaim her lost child. I specialize in writing about the history of Hawaii (The Island Decides is set in 1971, which probably qualifies as history for younger people), and future novels will draw on the knowledge I’ve accumulated writing about Hawaii’s past. 

There are many other books about this beautiful place, including some by famous early visitors such as Mark Twain, Jack London and Isabella Bird. More are on the way, with a lively set of self-publishers on Maui alone; mysteries set in the Islands are particularly popular. If the books I have mentioned pique your interest, perhaps you’ll want to read more--or even come for a visit.

   
 

When your local bookstore is 3000 miles away

My first memory of going to the bookstore was at school.  One of the teachers ran a weekly book club for which you could buy tokens to save up to buy books.  Now that same teacher may have been infamous for throwing a desk across the classroom - I kid you not - but I wasn't going to let a small thing like reputation stand in my way.  I bought my tokens every week, and every few weeks happily handed them over in exchange for a new book.  After this, and perhaps because of the teachers reputation, my mum got me into the local library, a place I went routinely right up until leaving my home town.  This was the time when I exchanged my residency in the fiction section for the biochemistry section at university.  It was definitely a lot less enticing. 

After moving to Cyprus my local book store became a lot less personal, too.  Whilst there is a great section for foreign literature, knowing that 95% of the books are not for me.......well that's just depressing.  I don't mind reading in Greek, and do so when I find something that doesn't look too difficult.  But reading fiction in Greek is only any good if I want to read a book every couple of months, or every three to four if I am being honest.  But also, other than being slow, it dramatically increases the changes of me speaking and writing in Greeklish rather than English, and as far as I heard, they were not looking for scriptwriters for Shirley Valentine take two.  Therefore when it came to books, Amazon, and the post office became my best friends. 

I love Amazon, I really do.  If it wasn't for Amazon I would most likely have five manuscripts sat in a cupboard rather than be published, and have way less access to the books I want to read.   But there is one element with which it just cannot compete.  The local bookstore.

There is something magical about that small shop on the corner full of books where you can go and browse.  I miss the idea that there is an independent bookstore just down the road where I can pop in and get them to order me a book that I can't find elsewhere.  Every shopper can benefit from an assistant who genuinely loves books, and who can make recommendations based on something other than your previous purchases or Kindle content.  I regularly do interviews on line and on other blogs, but I remember meeting an author in the flesh as a child and being amazed that the person who actually-wrote-the-book was standing in front of me and was signing my copy.  Such experiences brought me closer to my love of reading and the world of books.  But yet independent bookstores are suffering, and in 2012 The Booksellers Association reported a fall in the number of independent bookstores for the sixth year running, whereas Amazon reported a record number of sales.  Independent bookstores and independent authors seem to me to have something in common, and yet we barely have a relationship.

I still consider my local bookstore as the one that is over 3000 miles away.  Not exactly somewhere I can pop in on a day to day basis.  But I am on my way back to the UK for a few days in the next few weeks, and right after booking my plane ticket, I have sent a message to my 'local' store asking them if I can call in and give them a few free copies of Identity X.  It would be a real treat to see them on the shelf.  And whilst I am there, I might just stock up on a little bit of that magic that has been lost from the major sellers.

New Writer, Know Thyself

A short while ago a blogger contacted me and asked me to put together an advice article for new writers.  This article first appeared on her blog, which has several very interesting advice articles for new and established writers in 'Between The Bindings'.  You can read mine below, but make sure you take a moment to stop by and visit Meghan, the Gal in the Blue Mask, too!

When Meghan first contacted me and asked me to write an advice article for new writers, I wondered what it was that I was supposed to know.  It’s tempting to try to sound important and act like I have some compelling advice that will help you write your masterpiece, snare an agent, or better yet a publisher in New York.  But the truth is that when she asked me, I didn’t really know what to tell you.

One obvious starting point is the same advice that I see repeated all over the web when new writers ask how they are supposed to become successful.  It goes something like this. 

1) Get a blog

2) Get a Facebook account

3) Write a good book

4) Tweet about said book until somebody other than your mum buys it

5) Make money and celebrate

I have seen this kind of advice time and time again.  It makes it sound like there is a twelve step program on how to write the next NYT bestseller.  Actually, it’s not bad advice, at least steps one to four.  I believe that having a blog is the best way to showcase consistency in your writing and style, and Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world.  I have made friends in five of the seven continents through Facebook and this has definitely resulted in sales.  But the fact is this.  You probably already knew that you should do some/all of the above, and if you didn’t at the start, I bet you have read it somewhere else already.  All I gave you by writing it again were ten minutes of displacement activity for you to think about how one day you are going to become a successful writer.  As practical as the advice is, it’s kind of like an empty promise.  It doesn’t really amount to anything, or help move your dreams forward.

So instead, I wondered this.  What would I tell myself right back at the start of my journey when I wanted to become a writer?  What would the 32 year old Michelle tell the 18 year old version, other than the fact that the Jennifer Aniston haircut won’t suit me, and that going to Megadeth gigs will definitely screw up my hearing?

Well back in 1999 when I was eighteen, as well as bad hair and questionable taste in music I developed a great love of film.  Especially Sci-Fi.  So when The Matrix came out I saw it at least five times at the cinema, and at least one hundred times on DVD, re-enacting the fight scenes with anybody willing.  But in my haste to move in bullet time and work out where to buy Trinity’s boots and sunglasses, I missed the best piece of advice for my potential future as a writer.

Temet Nosce.

Know Thyself.

In The Matrix, Neo takes a trip to see The Oracle in order to find out if he is The One.  This is what she tells him.  Temet Nosce.  She informs him that nobody could tell him that he was The One, just like nobody could tell him if he was in love or not.  He would just know it. 

When I was contemplating writing the first chapter of my first book around the same time, I still didn’t know myself as a writer, or really believe that was actually what I was.  It took another seven years before wrote the full first draft, and even then I was full of doubts about whether it was any good.  I thought that because I didn’t have a degree in English Literature that real writers would think of me as an imposter.  I was pretty sure that somebody would take one look at my work and point their finger to question what the hell I thought I was doing.  Even a couple of years ago I was still mooching around advice websites asking people what they thought of this, and what they thought of that.  It was as if I was trying to make excuses and shift the responsibility for saying, this is who I am, and this is what I write.  As if I was waiting for somebody like The Oracle to tell me that I was a writer.

So, teenage Michelle, twenty four year old Michelle, and New Writer.  Listen up.  Know thyself.  Know that being a fiction writer is not about pleasing others.  You cannot work to prescription with writing like you could in your old job as a scientist.  There is no correct method to follow.  No correct story to tell.  Nobody can tell you that you wrote the wrong thing, but only if you know what it was that you wanted to write in the first place.  They can reject you, yes.  I was rejected loads of times by agents and publishers.  You can indeed be something that they are not looking for.  But they cannot tell you that you are not a writer or that you got it wrong.

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t follow other people’s advice.  Advice like reading a lot and doing endless amounts of revision of your work are really important.  But you learn this quickly.  The thing that is harder to learn is that you shouldn’t look to anywhere else for validation that you are a writer.  Know it because you do it.  Write what you want to write, what you feel.  Know that you have something to say and keep going until you have finished saying it.  I can’t promise you it will be any good, but I can promise if you keep doing it that it will get better.  We can look to the Stephen Kings of the world or the Hugh Howeys and say that’s where we want to be.  We can look at their methods and see what worked for them.  But ultimately, nobody wants to be a replica. 

Know that your skills and your talents are what will take you forwards.  To have belief in your abilities to produce something original and of merit is the best thing any new writer can remember.  Only then will you produce work that you can truly be proud of, and that in itself is an element of success.  Only once you know yourself, can you stop trying to please, or be somebody else.

 

Behind the Social Network

When I was seven years old there was a moment that I was waiting for that felt like it would never come.  There was a corner, a quiet, dark, and forbidden corner of my classroom where no child was allowed to go without the strictest of permissions.  There was a list, and you had to wait your turn, and considering that my surname starts with an M, I was somewhere in the middle of the list.  I will estimate that the class was about 26 children strong, so in order of the register I was about half way through.

So what was it tucked into the corner of the room?  The door to Narnia? The door to the playground and imminent escape?  No.  It was The Computer.

That's right.  I might only be thirty two, and I'll tell you now that I really do not feel old, but I am from the generation who went to school before computers were as common as desks.  Being half way through the register in a class of about 26 children meant that my 'lucky' week must have been week thirteen.  I got Chicken Pox in week twelve and my trip to the computer never happened and had to wait another two years before I got my hands on one.

Nowadays however computers form an integral backbone of our daily lives.  From the Smartphone/iPhone, the PC I am typing on now, the laptop in the next room, the ultrasound system which I use to scan patients, and the server's that deliver my books and television, I use computers for everything.  From the days of learning how to type the right code to, wait for it, draw a straight line, to the fact that I now talk to people all over the world through social media, how we use computer's has changed a lot.  Now they are accessible and fairly easy to use.  Even my dad uses a computer for complex tasks, and made a call to me a few months ago to check I was defragging my system on a regular basis.  But as an author, and somebody who relies on using an online presence to sell books, should the way we use computers be under a degree of scrutiny?

We have all read or heard of the celebrities who post a twitter rant only to delete it thirty minutes later.  Haven't we all got one friend who makes inappropriate comments or posts annoying status updates on Facebook?  As an author I use Facebook as an important way of interacting with readers, but it seems that some of those readers are actually turning away from using the site and using other social networks instead.  The Global Social Media Impact Study found that older teenagers not only think that Facebook is on the slide, but basically dead and buried (source: Inquisitr). Instead they are turning to applications like WhatsApp, Twitter, and Snapchat, an instantaneous messaging service that deletes all the messages automatically, to communicate.  But sometimes communicating on Twitter just feels like shouting at a bunch of strangers at a cocktail party; nobody is really listening.  And as for the others, these aren't going to help me sell any books.

Novelist Kathryn Craft suggests that what readers are really looking for is to be entertained, and importantly by somebody who is real.  Readers want to hear about the life of the writer behind the words and book covers.  Facebook seems like a great place to do this, but with ever growing concerns regarding privacy, is it really the best place to hang out?  Only yesterday I considered adding my blog directly into my Facebook fan page, only to find every App wanted permissions that I wasn't prepared to grant, namely permissions to see my friends lists and their email addresses.  Handing those out doesn't seem like a great way to craft a good relationship with my readers.  It's like being back in that classroom staring at the BBC computer all over again, because neither of those permissions have or will ever be granted.

So is there any one place that as writer's we are certain is the best place for social networking.  Personally, I think it's important to adopt an integrated approach, and the advice of Kathryn Craft is a really useful motto to take forward.  Readers want to see a real person behind social media, and just like your real life friends have different demands on your time and friendship, an integrated use of social media, through a combined use of different networks is the best way to communicate with your readers and grow your personality behind the book covers.  Or behind the smiley ;-)

 

 

A new year and a new start? No thanks

 

So a new year arrives and another one disappears.  The clock strikes midnight and we toast and celebrate, and then I do it all over again when the 'real' new year arrives (I'm still on London time for some things).  But what does it really mean?  Does life change in the time it takes for the second hand to strike twelve?  Can we learn from our mistakes and resolve not to take them forth into the year ahead?  Does everything change on the stroke of midnight?

Personally I am not so sure about the idea of resolutions, and I never make them.  In fact, I do the opposite.  I purposefully ensure that I don't change anything in January, if only to ensure that I do not join the crowd of people who by the end of January have already got their faces back in the biscuit barrel at 9 pm.  I resolve not to resolve in January, and it is just about the only thing you will find me promising anybody as the previous year draws to a close.

But this time last year I did make a series of evaluations of my publishing career to date.  I vowed not to make my own covers, to make sure I edit properly, and listen to the advice of others who are in a better position to give it.  Sounds like I was giving myself some good advice, and I did take it.  But it comes as somewhat of a surprise to me that it was only last year that I was learning these things.  It seems to me as I sit here today that I have been publishing forever, and when I look back on the old Michelle who used to type up stories at night after her on call shifts in the hospital had finished, it seems unbelievable that I didn't know these things.  Was there really ever a time that I wasn't writing my books? Did I ever think that becoming published would be impossible?  Did I really think that the first cover I knocked together for The Loss of Deference was good enough, and was it really only a year and one cover ago that I decided that I would never again make my own?

I cannot believe that it was only a year ago, because it seems so much has changed regarding my books in the twelve months gone past.  A year it seems, is a long time, and changes happen slowly throughout it.  But in other instances the changes come as fast as lightening.  I married my wonderful husband this summer, but only three months before that I was in ITU and my differential diagnosis was bleed/tumour/viral encephalitis/stroke.  You can plan all you like, but you can never predict something like that, and sometimes you just have to get your act together and do your best in whatever situation you find yourself in.

My initial plan was that I would have three books published this year, but instead I only published one.  I wrote the first draft of two others, but nothing is ready for publication yet.  But only yesterday I totalled up my expected royalties for the last couple of months and know that I am expecting a cheque from Amazon anytime soon.  Last year I was happy to have sold a few books a month, and this year I am happy with a few hundred.  Happy changes, totally unplanned.  I didn't sit down and say by next Christmas I will be selling three hundred books in a month, but it happened.  But equally I bet that there was somebody else selling three hundred books this time last year who is now selling more than three thousand and when they look back they too cannot quite believe it. 

So this year I am not making any predictions or planning any of the details.  Whatever happens, happens.  I resolve only to keep working hard.  But I do believe that I can learn from the year behind me.  I can learn that we are not able to make things happen, or prevent them.  Instead we can just enjoy the ride.  Whatever that ride might be.