welcome…
…to all my secrets on life as a published author
(I’m 7 traditionally published books in and I’ve learnt some stuff 😉)
I blog weekly about author websites, newsletters and life as a writer…
New posts published every Monday 😊
Want to learn more about me and my own publishing journey first?
(includes info on how I landed one of those mythical six-figure book deals!)
Read all about my own journey to publication →
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30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 30 – what you do does actually matter
Oh my goodness, I actually feel quite emotional writing this post. I can’t believe I’ve come to the end of this blogging series!
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 29 – publishing runs on hype
The most shocking thing I think I have learnt from my five years of being published is that the industry often knows which books are going to be the next ‘big books’ far, far in advance of publication. And sometimes even before they are even bought by publishers. 😮
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 28 – your characters are unlikeable
Sometimes I think it doesn’t matter if your characters are PERFECT. If they behave impeccably. If they are flawless models of perfection. I have learnt over the past five years that no matter what they are like - good, bad or downright ugly - someone out there will absolutely hate them.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 27 – no-one knows anything
No one knows anything… including me. So please take all my posts with a pinch of salt. I’m just sharing my experiences in the hope that they will be, if not useful, then interesting at least!
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 26 – you should write the book that's in your heart
An interesting thing happened to me after I had written two books. I decided to try to be a bit more strategic.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 25 – goodreads and netgalley are the devil's work
Oh Goodreads! Oh Netgalley! What can I say about you that won’t get me blacklisted among the reviewing community?
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 24 – you know your book better than anyone else
I think when we’re starting out, most writers feel - understandably - that we don’t really know much about anything. We’re winging it, writing from the heart and enjoying the ride.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 23 – I still google 'how to write a novel' every time I start
One of the benefits of being a published author is that other avenues of work open up for you. For example, many of my published friends teach creative writing, or do manuscript reports for aspiring authors.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 22 – genre snobbery is real - and annoying
Gah I am so scared of turning this into a rant. But oh-my-goodness, I was not prepared for the genre snobbery when I first got a book deal.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 21 – there will be times when it all feels hopeless
I’ve said before that I hate the massively overused rollercoaster analogy when it comes to having a career as an author, but I’m afraid that it’s so unbelievably perfect that I must bring it up here once again.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 20 – (your) social media doesn't sell books
Let me start this post by saying that, contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate social media. I know I tend to give it a hard time but you might think I’m a bit of a hypocrite in doing so, because, as you might have noticed, I’m all over it myself.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 19 – there is hope after bad track
Not sure what ‘bad track’ means? Let me enlighten you. There’s a clue in the adjective: ‘bad’. And ‘track’ is just short for ‘track record’.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 18 – you can write in another genre
Perhaps today’s post is obvious, but I thought it was worth talking about anyway. A lot of the writers I speak to feel very nervous about ‘branching out’ or leaving behind the ‘brand’ or genre that they’ve started writing in.
30 things I've learnt from 5 years being published: no 17 – it's important to take stock from time to time
I believe that the thing that makes authors able to author is the thing that also means we are never satisfied. In order to finish a book, you need so much willpower, focus and determination and you basically have to be really, really hard on yourself.
✨ 30 things I’ve learnt from 5 years being published ✨
September 6 2023 marked 5 years since my first book was released 😲
To celebrate, I shared a new post about what I’ve learnt from being published EVERY DAY throughout the month.
Enjoy!
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