(Just to add today, 13th June, I wrote this on June 1st and it stayed gathering dust as a Draft until today).
I expect we all know the feeling of being on the brink of something new. It may be only a minor change, or it may be something enormous like a life decision. The feeling links up the mind and the body to disturbing effect.
I experience this often. In the last few days I’ve been on the brink of making decisions about my work as a writer. Last year I set up this WordPress site, knowing I should do something public as a writer, having – after a long silence – self-published three books with Createspace on Amazon. I had decided to give up attempting to clamber back into the traditional publishing world. I would fling myself into the ocean of self-publishers and take part in all the activities – blogging, engaging on social media, and so on – necessary to promote myself, my titles, and sell some copies.
For some reason, which I’m sure I thought logical at the time, I established the domain name aliveinww2. This is the title of the non-fiction book, one of those three on Createspace, subtitled The Cousins’ Chronicle, commentary and memoir. It’s based on family wartime newsletters and of course some present-day cousins – at various levels of kinship – were interested enough to buy copies. Beyond them, did anyone fork out the eight necessary pounds or equivalent dollars to buy and read this book … very few, if any. I probably thought that by using the title as domain name I might help sales.
I set up this WordPress site with this URL and made myself explore the world of blogging. I began to understand just how every second person in the world thinks they can write. People sometimes tell Peter when admiring his work, that they’d dearly love to be able to draw and paint but they can’t. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t think they can write. After all, they’ve done it ever since they learnt to hold a pencil. Of course a lot of people do realise that it is an art like any other. You need a certain amount of inborn talent to start with, then a lot of hard work, experiential learning and perseverance.
One of the things I’ve found hard is being part of this unregulated world. There is no quality control at all. When anyone of whatever merit, lack of talent or basic literacy can publish their writing, how can readers find a decent read? I learnt about book bloggers, and decided that this would be a way to reach the kind of readers who might like my kind of writing. A trawl brought up the name of Teddy Rose who organises digital book tours http://virtualauthorsbooktours.com. I signed on, full of hope. (I’m a incurable optimist). My ‘tour’ ended on May 31st after two months. As yet it hasn’t resulted in a single sale of the novel I was promoting.
In fact, I enjoyed all aspects of the tour save this non-sale result. It was fun to answer questions about the book ‘White Lies’. It started with a wild interview with very jolly Michelle Jordan’s ‘Indie Review Behind the Scenes Maverick Moment’ Youtube video. Teddy was a good companion during the strange tour of book bloggers. An early one objected to be use of the word ‘natural’ for the woman she’d prefer to be called the ‘birth’ mother, and removed herself from the tour. Apart from this blogger, the reviews were in favour of the book, eleven in all. I was pleased because they came from people who – I gathered – usually review novels that are easier to read at speed. They found White Lies needed greater attention but said that it rewarded their time. One of the last reviewers (on Amazon.com) said the story “paints a fuller picture of the emotional intricacies of adoption.” She has an adopted brother. “This book makes me think outside of the obvious.” She expresses the hope that, if ever they talk about his adoption, she will “navigate the interaction with compassion, empathy and a whole lot of sensitivity.” This comment pleased me. I always hope that my books will nudge people to think about and see their own lives and relationships in a new way, as well as entertain them with a good story.
But how much effect, if any at all, has this tour had on spreading the word about Susan Barrett and her work? I spent money on it. I would have liked sales to pay for it. I don’t expect to make money out of writing – very few authors do. But I would like to reach more readers. I also want to give up this business of working at promotion, and get back to writing the novel I’d begun before the bloggers’ tour. Its working title is Greek Gold. Today I began the third chapter. Alex, my main character, is on the brink of a parachute jump. In fact, he’s been on the brink since January. I kept him there, alive in my head in that quivering moment, for the intervening months. This morning I began to put into words my vision of the poor chap – and he’s still not jumped after one page of writing. I’ve been waylaid by this post because I have the idea that I will give a page of the site to writing this novel. That might be a good way of finding the path between promoting work and writing it.
I’m on the brink of a decision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft-xXmaPsMU