Friday, June 26, 2015

What next?

It's difficult being a self-published author, you have to be everything. I know I've said this before but it really does get frustrating. Yesterday when I was researching where to submit the book for reviews I realised that I was going to have to make a mobi and epub version of the book. So that meant searching about how to do it.

Finding reviewers is not too bad but very time consuming which means significantly reduced time to write. This is frustrating, but necessary if this book is to be a success. Yesterday I received my first review on Letters and it was a cracker! This is the second mental health professional who has said the book has a use in her field and she will be recommending it to clients. That gave me a great feeling, even though it surprised me a lot because I wrote this book to entertain. Yes, I did think that people in a similar situation would appreciate reading a story about getting free of it. However I did not think that it would be considered a useful tool for mental health professionals. It is first and foremost a work of fiction to be read and enjoyed.

The feedback I am getting on the book is all fantastic and validates my belief in my writing ability. However I need sales and I need visibility to get those sales. Knowing that I have a story that has been enjoyed by a variety of personality types makes it even more frustrating that I am trying to get exposure to it on my own. That's where a publishing house would have been great - but then, when this book is a big success it is their loss.

So it is steady steps forward. Some more readers may yet leave reviews and the reviewers with blogs that I approached may agree to read it also. I'm considering paying Amazon money that I don't have (!) to advertise the book. It makes sense to me - have I said this to you before? - to advertise on Amazon where the audience is people who have already come there looking for a book.

I'm annoyed with myself that my anxiety over getting this book marketed, and my feeling of inadequacy in that respect, is over-shadowing the happiness I felt at the feedback on it and the fantastic review. It takes time to be a success, especially for someone like me who is basically fumbling in the dark, hoping that one of the switches I press will be the light.

Anyway, here's an excerpt from that wonderful review and my eternal thanks to the lady who took the time to write it:

While it would be tempting to treat Cassie as a victim and treat her as such, Sheryl creates compassion for Cassie without allowing her to fully fall in the victim role which is a talent in and of itself. She also creates room for compassion for Nathan, the other half of the co-dependent relationship.

I think Sheryl has discovered and defined a new type of fiction, educational fiction. This book may be able to reach people who are in similar co-dependent relationships and show them a hope and a way out. I’m sure that there are thousands of people who are in co-dependent relationships and have no idea, and a book such as this could be the bridge that gives them the courage to seek help. As a mental health professional, I am deeply moved by the accuracy of this book and how it could help so many people. As a reader of fiction, I was thoroughly engrossed and disappointed only by how quickly the book seemed to end.

Well the book probably did end a bit soon, that's because there will be another book focusing on one of the secondary characters. In that book there will be more on Cassie which will answer questions the ending of Letters may have raised. The new book will be a continuation about a year down the track.

In other news I have just about finished the process on CreateSpace to get the paperback version happening, and while I was at it I also finished getting the paperback version ready for my cat book, The Story of a Street Cat Called Sabrina. In a day or two I'll get the paperback version of Zora's Dawn ready to go as well. I know a lot of people prefer paperback so I decided that I would figure out CreateSpace and get that happening. I'm learning so many things, something new every day it seems.

Well that's it today, not at all a random topic. But I've spent all day searching out reviewers and converting my book file to mobi and epub, so my brain is full of all kinds of information, most of which proved to be incorrect. You know how it is, you spend hours researching and figuring out how to do things, and a lot of what you try is wrong. So by the time you get it right, you can't remember exactly what it was that you did to make it work. 

I'll leave you with a promise to do something different tomorrow!






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