Self-published authors need to be much more than good writers, they need to be visible, passionate promoters of their work and able to work the far-reaching social media machine. Marketing and self-promotion were the most challenging aspects of the self-publishing journey and proved to be a full-time job, something I wasn’t fully prepared for. My budget wouldn’t stretch as far as hiring somebody to help with the marketing so I had to do all this myself.
I loved being involved in the creation of the cover and having more autonomy this time around with all the different steps that go into putting a book out into the world. If I was going to self-publish, I wanted to do it properly. It was a steep learning curve to work towards self-publishing, but I enlisted the support of an editor, cover designer and formatter, trying to find a balance between not spending through the nose whilst also not scrimping on professionalism. My story had been brewing for many years and I really believed in it so I stood my ground, amicably parting company with my publisher. My publisher told me that they would only take it if I was prepared to change my male characters to female, but there would be no story if I’d taken this path and I’d have to start writing from scratch.
The two main characters in my third book, however, were male. “The reason why I decided to self-publish my third novel, The Secret Life of Alfred Nightingale was, quite simply, because my publisher didn’t want it! I had previously published two historical fiction books with Bookouture and they liked strong, female protagonists.