New Year, New Book Submissions

Hello, my friends, how are you? Back to work and back in the old routine now? Or did you engineer a major life change for 2019, and you have changed jobs or retired or embarked upon a new adventure? Do share! I have decided to start 2019 without any formal New Year’s Resolutions. In previous years this is the day when I would sit at my computer, scribble notes in my diary, and attempt to plan a rigid structure for writing new books, updating my blogs, finding freelance work and building my brand. Inevitably I would be distracted by domestic challenges, supporting friends and family members, and my own spiritual development. And I didn’t create the magical, easy career as a writer that I dreamed about.

Now I have seen the light, as it were. I know how the industry works. I have done a lot of research, tried and failed a lot of systems and projects, and learned a lot about my place in the book world. Shortly before Christmas I watched a documentary on Sky Arts featuring the food critic Giles Coren, and his journey as a failed author (his words). I learned that he was paid a very generous advance of £30k to publish a literary novel about ten years ago, and it didn’t sell. Or at least, it didn’t sell enough copies to make him a success by industry standards. With his established career as a journalist and his privilege to know the right people in the right places, he would have expected more, and he admitted that. I enjoyed watching the documentary.

You would think that I came away feeling deflated and defeated. I am most definitely a failed author by those standards. Nobody has ever paid me an advance for a novel, I have never been offered a book contract by a publisher, and I don’t have an agent. Everything has been done independently, on a very low (non-existent) budget, with very little emotional support from people around me. And I am proud of what I have achieved. Ok, nobody knows about my books. Most people don’t know that I have 5 published books in the Redcliffe novels series, or that I have published 3 standalone novels, half a dozen short stories, and have run two blogs for almost ten years. None of that matters, because I am a failed author. Well, guess what? I refuse to back down, and I refuse to give up. There are more novels waiting to be published, and quite a few prestigious agents are open for submissions this year. I will try again. We will not back down!  

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Why #NaNoWriMo and #CampNaNoWriMo are Perfect for Me

This month I am a very happy writer. After what feels like a ridiculously long absence, my Muse has returned, and she is raring to go. I signed up for #CampNaNoWriMo last year and my enthusiasm fizzled out very quickly. There were a lot of distractions within the family due to babies and accident-induced illness. I had to reluctantly accept that my writing would not flow while my mind and heart were consumed with other affairs. And it put me into something of a depression, I will admit.

Anyway, that was last year. This year, I am back on track. I never gave up with my writing, and it was always there, ticking over in the background, buzzing like a machine on standby just waiting to be switched on. Perhaps I needed the time to recharge my batteries. Maybe I was simply focusing my attention on my young children, conscious that they are growing fast and that my writing will still be there when they leave home as adults. Whatever the reason, I feel like I didn’t achieve very much on the writing front in 2014. I did, however, keep both of my blogs updated regularly, so I was still writing something, even it was largely what I call ‘disposable babble.’

Now, back to the present. When I began #CampNaNoWriMo this year, I wasn’t entirely certain that I could achieve my goal. I set a word count target of 25,000. That way it is not as much as the full 50,000 required for #NaNoWriMo, but it is still a good enough chunk of words to constitute a fairly decent novel. I had to start somewhere. I need new material to publish. My last novel was published in 2013, and now I am itching to get something else out there, although my methods and plans are a whole other story. And I am happy to report that my novel is growing steadily, and I am well on my way to achieving the word count goal.

I find that #NaNoWriMo and #CampNaNoWriMo are perfect writing challenges for me. I am one of those people that works better to deadlines, and I believe that the reason I have not necessarily reaped the benefits of being a freelance writer so far, is that I have not been putting myself in positions where I have tight deadlines and people to answer to. It was quite nerve-wracking, I suppose, taking on such a responsibility, and what with the distractions of preschool children, I didn’t trust myself to do the work. Doing #NaNoWriMo is a fantastic compromise. I get to write my novels, in the way that I choose, and there is nobody to criticize. Indeed, I receive a whole lot of praise, encouragement and support from my virtual cabin mates on #CampNaNoWriMo, and there is always someone to talk to online when you need a pick-me-up. You get a whole month of writing abandon, and afterwards you have a solid piece of work that you can mould into a finished novel. Perfect!

It is Time to Get my Act Together #amwriting

The past five years have been a whirlwind of chaos and confusion, excitement and drama for me and my family. During this time I quit my safe, full time office job in order to pursue my dream career, I got married, I got pregnant, and now I am a housewife with two young children. There was lots of other stuff as well, but I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say, I have been very busy.

Now, because of being busy in my domestic life, I have neglected to devote the proper time and attention to developing my writing career. There have been lots of ups and downs while I alternately celebrated my successes, and commiserated my failures. It is an endless cycle in the world of small business, and especially so when it comes to the modern world of book publishing and writing.

I envisioned a career where I could spend my days writing my stories, and where I could earn a comfortable income from book sales. This was a very naïve vision, as I now understand. I waded blindly into my new dream without assessing the situation, and I am not a natural  business person. But I am willing to learn. And I am always learning.

All the advice I receive tells me to set up a business as a writer of some sort, whether it be ghost writing, proofreading and editing, technical writing or similar. So I have tried it. I have drifted from one part time job to another during the past few years, and all have the same basic catch: they do not pay. Most internet based companies will try and persuade a new writer that they can build their portfolio by writing articles for free, or these companies pay an absolute pittance that does not constitute a living wage here in the Western world. I have done my work experience. My portfolio is healthy. Now my wallet needs to catch up.

I need to get my act together. I need to assess exactly what kind of writing I want to do for my career. My personal life is also a very big distraction. We cannot afford external childcare in order for me to go out to work (I know, crazy!). But we hope to send our toddler to preschool in September when her older sister starts primary school. Then, perhaps, I will find time to settle down and actually write all of the stories that I have scribbled in snippets in my notebooks. That is where my heart lies. That is my career dream. I cannot be an author if I do not continue to write (and publish) new stories. So I will knuckle down, stop being distracted, and write. I will!