Published authors self-publishing - all together now

Over recent weeks I've interviewed nine published UK children's authors who have also self-published. I asked them to give tips for any of you considering doing the same and they have come up with generous and wide-ranging advice.

The reason I wanted to focus on writers who have already been published in the traditional way is that this is a blog about getting a publishing deal with a high-quality selective publisher, not about self-publishing (which may also be high-quality but is not what I'm here to talk about.) I wanted to highlight the fact that published authors may have an extra understanding of the realities of being published in any form and that they are likely to bring this understanding to their own publishing. I also believe that all writers, whatever their aims and ambitions, would do well to listen to a wide range of views. There are few definitive answers and many grey areas, many things that will work for one writer/book and not for another. The more we know, listen and understand, the better we can curate our words.

As you know, I am a published author who also self-publishes. (See here for my forthcoming double ebook - and don't forget to enter the competition!) I have a great relationship with my main publishers, Walker Books, and have a book coming out with them next year, The Teenage Guide to Stress. Walker Books have done a brilliant job for me, with Blame My Brain in particular, and they have done things I couldn't possibly have done myself. People often say that publishers only focus on your book for the few weeks around publication. To an extent that is inevitably true; however, you should realise that publishers (good ones) behave like excellent business people (as self-publishing writers must, too) and will take opportunities to push books that have been around for much longer. Blame My Brain was first published in 2005, revised slightly in 2007 and revised again this year. And this year, Walker have really pushed the boat out for it, seven years after publication. Why? Simply because they see it doing well and see an opportunity to make it do better. That's sensible. They have chosen to put resources of time into it, which they can't do for every book. (And that's one of the advantages of self-publishing: you, the author, will continue to work hard for your book. But it's also one of the disadvantages: you have to continue to work hard for it to the extent that you will probably have less time to write your next book.)

Why was Blame My Brain doing well? Because Walker did a good job at the start, because I worked hard to keep promoting it and because the nature of the book meant that it became more and more popular, with more and more schools and parents seeing the need for it. So, partly me and partly the book, and partly the fact that the Walker publicity people took the right opportunities, being both reactive and proactive where there was a realistic benefit in being so. AND, crucially, luck. Publishers and authors often do a great job but luck is not with them and the book (most books) disappears, leaving a little tear-stained shape on an author's heart.

It's really important to keep your feet on the ground and be very realistic, hard-working and decent to work with. Attract the fairy dust.

For all the interviews with fellow published self-publishers, see:

Lynne Garner with Anansi the Trickster Spider

Katherine Roberts with I Am The Great Horse

Julia Jones with The Lion of Sole Bay

AT Boyle with The Typing Man

Diana Kimpton with There Must be Horses

Rhiannon Lassiter with Little Witches Bewitched

Miriam Halahmy with Secret Territory

Joan Lennon with Diary from the Rim

Daniel Blythe with Emerald Greene and the Witch Stones

All children's books, all ready to buy for your young readers. And advice for you, from all of us.

Work hard and keep the faith!

Don't forget that you can ask me a publishing or writing related question for me to answer on this blog. Contact me using the link at the top of the page.

Published self-publishers 2: four more children's writers speak

The rest of my published self-publishing authors are here today, with links back to their main interviews on Heartsong. You'll see range of different approaches, but all professional. All have been published in the traditional way before and have used what they've learnt.

First up, with a vast amount of advice, generously shared, Diana Kimpton, with There Must be Horses. I love Diana's realism, too, for example where she says: "I learned that self-publishing is fun and I love being in control. Sales build slowly with a self-published book so I haven't sold as many copies in the first year as I would have done if I'd gone the traditional route. On the other hand, it wouldn't be for sale at all yet if I'd gone with a traditional publisher, and I've got plenty of time to build word-of-mouth recommendations because the book won't go out of print."

A.T. Boyle's 'dual language' novels, one of which she wrote with her father, sound intriguing. She talks about The Typing Man here and explains her views of writer-publishing.

Julia Jones brings you The Lion of Sole Bay, one of a series of adventure stories for 9+. Julia sees herself mainly as a print self-publisher.

And finally, Katherine Roberts, with a book that should never have gone out of print, I Am The Great Horse, which had terrific reviews when it was first published. Katherine's main aim is to keep her backlist available. Glorious cover!

Edited to add: A late addition, Lynne Garner giving great advice surrounding her publication of Anansi the Trickster Spider.

Thanks to all these children's writers and great good luck to them. If you are looking for quality books for children, you need look no further than these and the four writers in last week's post.

Published self-publishers 1: four children's authors talk and bring you books

I'm running a new series of posts, featuring published writers who decide to self-publish one or more books. I'm cross-posting on both blogs for the best exposure for the authors. Below, I refer to the first four, which have all been on Heartsong this week. Four more next week.

Daniel Blythe - Emerald Greene and the Witch Stones. Here's my favourite thing that Dan said: "I haven't got involved with any writers' forums. To be honest, I really don't think that's a route I'd go down. [...]  I'm not sure how I'd come across as a previously "conventionally" published author plugging his first e-book [...]."

I agree - I also had that worry. Especially when on the first day on one major forum I received two messages warning me off. One from a friend who'd already been bitten and the other from someone clearly furious that I'd turned up. Why do people have to be so nasty? I can't be bothered to try to manage that type of behaviour so I left. Yes, you may say I ran away. I say I had better things to do.

Second, Joan Jennon, with Diary from the Rim and other stories. My favourite quote from Joan's interview is part of her reason for publishing her book herself: "And book publishers are wary of ... well, everything, really. So I decided to publish this book myself - part experiment, part rescue mission."

Third, Miriam Halahmy, with Secret Territory, previously published by a publisher who went out of business so Miriam snapped the rights up. My guests are being so generous with their advice. Here is part of Miriam's: "Make good use of the keywords and blurb to promote your book. People write whole books about keywords and it’s certainly worth some thought. I changed mine a couple of times (an easy process) and have now linked my book to Homeland (for obvious reasons). But my blurb makes it clear why. There’s no point in misleading your readers, they won’t love you for it."

And today, appropriately for Halloween, Rhiannon Lassiter with Little Witches Bewitched. Here's my favourite thing Rhiannon said: "I don’t expect to make much money from selling my own books. I expect a trickle, not a flood, and am planning accordingly. I think the biggest danger is spending too many £££ on companies that offer to help you self-publish or on advertising. Self-publishing is not the killer app for financial solvency any more than writing is in the first place."

*applause*

Will publishers accept my previously self-published novel?

This question arose from a Twitter conversation. A writer who had self-published his novel, in order, as he later explained, to get feedback and see whether it/he was good enough to be published, then saw that a particular publisher's submission guidelines said it wouldn't consider previously self-published books. The writer wondered if this was normal. I said it was, and so did the publisher.

Had he screwed himself, he wondered?

No, but he has published his book and clued-up trade publishers will only republish books in certain circumstances, and these are rare:

1. If the book does phenomenally well as a self-published book, proving its worth. NOTE: "phenomenally well" means two things: high volume and at a decent price point. If you've sold ten thousand at only 49p, this tells the publisher nothing. That is a good result for a self-published book, but it's nowhere near good enough to show a publisher that this book has sufficient legs to sell enough at a higher price point, and a publisher needs a higher price point to cover costs and overheads - including, crucially, editing, which the self-published book almost certainly will not have had. (You may technically have had your book edited, but the publisher will most likely want to suggest changes and this is a vexed issue if the book is already out there. Be warned, too, that your understanding of the word "editing" may fall short of professional standards. Editing requires training and is not at all the same as proofreading - which also requires training!)
2. If a book has been previously published but perhaps went out of print or only sold modestly (at a proper price) but now the author has become very successful with other books, so his "backlist" genuinely stands a chance of a new life.
3. If there is some other unusual reason which gives the book a special chance of success. For example, you've suddenly become a celebrity. Or something else which my imagination is failing to imagine.

Writers need to realise that publishers are looking to publish "first rights", and if you have published the book yourself, first rights have gone, by definition. Rights are at the core of the publishing industry. The publisher does not want an unedited trial version out there already. It's not regarded as professional.

So, why did I say that the writer had not made a mistake by self-publishing? (And the publisher in the conversation agreed.) Because it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, will teach the writer a lot and could be very satisfying. Then the writer needs to take what he learns from the process to write his next book and make it really sing. He can submit that for publication and know that he has a better chance. So, self-publishing as a tactic towards improvement, or for personal satisfaction, is perfectly reasonable. After all, you're a writer - this will not be your last book and you understand the need for practice and apprenticeship, don't you?

So, self-publish to get feedback, if you want to. (And if you know how to judge the validity of the feedback.) But don't self-publish as a trial run. Yes, you might be like EL James and your trial run accrues massive sales and huge publicity, leading to a deal, but please realise how very rare this is, and that it could only work for certain books with mass market appeal anyway. Doing this because you think it's going to net you a deal is a very rash thing to do. Unless, of course, you can sacrifice this book for that risk and get to work on your next, better one.

Self-publishing is a strategy. But there are different intended or desired goals. If the goal is becoming published by a publisher, then you need to understand how publishing works. And it doesn't work by republishing books that haven't sold squillions.

(Please forgive me if I'm slow to respond to comments. I'm in London and tomorrow I have a big event for Mumsnet. Not big as in big audience - it's a small audience - but big in terms of exhaustion and energy. And hours... Tomorrow evening, I will have collapsed, nursing a small glass of wine.)

Valuable advice on self-publising in ALCS News

Let me draw your attention to a very well-rounded article by Caroline Sanderson in the current ALCS News.

I'm not here to give advice about self-publishing (though I could, having done it moderately successfully myself). What I want to do is flag up this bit, because it raises some points I'd like to emphasise for all writers:

"At the Society of Authors day, an alarming number of self-published authors who had visited local bookshops expecting to have their wares welcomed with open arms, expressed shock that discounts of 40 to 50% were routinely required. Well, welcome to the world of traditional publishing. Bookshops have to make money too, and often they don’t. They might take a punt on a new self-published author, and do a supportive favour to a local writer, but it's the author who should be obliged, not the bookseller. I was astonished by the number of authors who felt that the fact that they had published a book gave them an automatic right of entry onto the shelves of any bookshop."

Here are the points that occur from that paragraph:

1. Bookshops only contain a tiny percentage of the books available. They have to choose the ones they think they can sell. Competition between books is huge.
2. Space in a bookshop costs. Things have to sell, otherwise they are taking space (and therefore potential income) from the shop. If the shop knows it can sell a pile of Harry Potter books easily but a pile of Nicola Morgan books with greater difficulty, it would be wise (though arguably short-termist)  to stock HP. Sadly.
3. Luckily, most booksellers are book-lovers, and they want a good variety, so they may choose to stock NM, but they must believe in the book. It's the job of my publisher to convince them.
4. Yes, discounts are minimum 40%. Usually 40-60%. Discounts to Amazon may be 80%. Discounts to book clubs such as the Book People will be at least that. (And, by the way, our royalty is on the revenue received, not the cover price...)
5. Most books don't make a profit, for the above reasons.
6. Every publishing contract is a guess. Publishers want to get it right and they take many risks along the way. If they didn't, we wouldn't stand a chance unless we wrote only relatively safe commercial sellers. 

If writers understood the bookselling business better, they might be less bitter when the rejections come. They might be more realistic. They might make a greater effort to give their books a must-read quality. And they might stop thinking the world owes them a living. We have to fight for our living, but we have to do it with knowledge and understanding, not naïveté. Same whether we are aiming to self-publish or to be published.

That's why I once wrote a post recommending that all writers should self-publish. (But please read that before reacting to the statement, as that title is misleading!)

Eyes wide open, dear writers. Eyes wide open.

Yes, we are all independent

We're all independent, we authors. Whether we are self-publishing, or publishing with trade presses, or a mixture. Some people use the word "indie" for self-publishing, which reveals a misunderstanding of what being a "published" author is. And, for those of you who are looking for a publisher for your work, it's important to know.

DEAR CRABBIT: what if I can't afford professional editing?

From a blog comment:

Dear Crabbit,
It would be great if you did a post on the best things we can do if we can't afford a full-editing service, Nicola. I'm on a strict family income and spending on my writing just can't take centre stage. I can save and build some money to use, and would love to know the best way to spend it to get the best advice for my work. I can see how important outside proof reading and editing can be, so I want to get it right with my limited resources!

DEAR CRABBIT: agents recommending paid-for services

Dear Crabbit 

Below I have pasted the rejection I received from literary agent [redacted] yesterday having read my full manuscript. I am not in the slightest bit bothered by the rejection in itself.

What bothers me a great deal is the link she sent me to a service that will edit, provide a cover and convert the whole thing into a Kindle e-book for just under £1000! Surely I could hire a proof-reader and do it myself for far less (or am I being naive?) I have studied their website in depth and it does not inspire confidence. I have no idea who they are or anything that gives me confidence in their abilities. It strikes me as amateurish and maybe even exploitative.

So what do you think? Is this value for money? And what do you think of this growing trend where agents seem to be "monetizing (horrid word) the slush-pile"?

Thank you. Your thoughts based on your experience of e-publishing would be appreciated.

The letter which this writer showed me advised her to self publish on Kindle and recommended a company "who are experienced in providing a fast and first-rate means of self publishing effectively enabling your novel to reach a significant number of readers."

"enabling your novel to reach a significant number of readers" sounds as though it's pretty much been taken from an advertising flyer, doesn't it? I suspect the company sent a promotional flyer to the agency, asking them to recommend them, and the agent has done so. This is not breaking any laws, of course. I'm not aware that it contravenes any guidelines but it strikes me as an unusual thing for an agent to do. It strikes me that one should only recommend a company for anything when one has very, very good reason to know that the company does a good job, and not just because the company says so. The writer talks about "monetizing the slush-pile" - but there's no sign that this is what's happening, unless the agent is receiving a commission and there's no suggestion of that.

I want to pick up on the other aspect, though: whether it's better to use a package or to handle each part of the process separately. It is my personal view that a self-publishing author is better served by keeping proper control and separately outsourcing each aspect that he or she cannot or does not wish to handle. I am against the idea of packages as I don't think they usually serve the writer best. I just think that if you're going to self-publish (as I have done) you are better off properly self-publishing, keeping full control and doing as much as possible yourself.

I would always want to commission an editor and proof-reader I trusted (which might be different for each book); a cover designer I trusted; a formatter I trusted (if I couldn't do it myself or didn't want to). I'd definitely insist on writing the product description on Amazon etc myself; and no way is it necessary to get someone else to upload for you - it takes no longer to do it yourself than it would to email the docs to the company. The company in question doesn't offer the marketing - and quite right, too, as this is best done by the writer, perhaps with some paid-for back-up publicity or the assistance of clued-up friends.


[Edited: I previously listed the costs I incur when I've self-published a book, but, following Meg's comment, I realised that because my editing costs are unusually low this was pointless, though it wasn't offered as advice and my advice has always been to get your work properly edited. My editing and proof-reading costs are very low because a) the books are short non-fiction and the final draft by me is clean and accurate and has been through beta-readers b) I have expert friends, including a fully-trained proof-reader who charges me "mates rates". I do not want to suggest that you shouldn't pay a proper rate for editing stages. However, even if you paid a substantial amount of money, I still believe that it is better to choose an editor yourself, rather than taking editing as part of a package from a company, when you haven't seen the editor's work. This is the point of my post - not how much it costs but how you choose who will help you.]

The only two hard bits are a) writing the book and b) selling it, and the company mentioned, and others I've seen, are not offering either. (Thank goodness!)

I would stress that it may well be that the recommended company does a fantastic job. I'm just saying there's nothing on the website that would lead me to think they will do a better job than an author outsourcing the necessary bits. 
I'd be perfectly happy if the agent had said, "I think this is a book that could work well as a self-published novel, but I recommend that you go into this with eyes wide open and get lots of advice on the various parts of the process from those who have done it."

All writers should self-publish

No, I haven't gone entirely mad. Or even, I venture to say, a tiny bit mad. Nor have I started to believe the self-publishing-is-the-answer-to-everything and the publishing-is-completely-broken rubbish.

I am, as you know, a published (more than 90 books) author who has also ventured into self-publishing, and who is enjoying it. I dare even say succeeding, though John Locke need not watch his back. But my steps into self-publishing do not mean turning up my nose at traditional (hate that word but... ) publishing: yes, I still want to be published by publishers. Pretty please. And, especially, to have my books in proper bookshops.


And I believe all writers should self-publish.

I'll rephrase that: I believe that all writers should self-publish something. (Unless they have worked in a publishing company themselves.) 

Why? Because I think that self-publishing teaches us a great deal, if we choose to listen, and I believe it teaches us a great deal about how difficult publishing is.

Actually, no: publishing is easy. Anyone can publish a book and publishing ebooks is child's play. (Literally; I heard of a teacher whose primary pupils publish their own work to Kindle, actually doing the publishing bit themselves.)

Yes, publishing is easy but selling is hard. And it's the selling of our books that causes published writers so many gripes about their publishers.

That's why I think we'd all benefit (and our future publishers would benefit) if we tried to publish something ourselves. Our increased understanding would both make us able to contribute better to the marketing process with our future publisher and more appreciative of why disappointments do happen. Also, we'd be more realistic and professional-sounding in our pitches. No longer would we believe that our lovely book was certain to sell tens of thousands if it really wasn't. Our ideas, our pitches, our writing, our consideration of our readers - all these would, I venture, be tighter, more professional, more likely to be realised.

I'm quite prepared to admit that what I've learnt through publishing Tweet Right, Mondays are Red and Write a Great Synopsis leads me to be a little less harsh on publishers who have made mistakes, either in their decisions to publish (or not publish) or in their failure to sell as many copies of an author's books as they should.

It's harder than we think to reach those readers. Only when we've tried to sell something in a market where there are hundreds of thousands of competitors can we truly know how hard it is. We become, I think, more connected to the reader who buys our book, buys it from us, not from some middleman.


So, yes, self-publish in order to learn what it's like on the other side.

But does this mean I'm letting publishers off the hook? Oh, no! I'd also like every publisher to try to write a book. I'd like them to know what it feels like to put our precious oeuvre, perhaps the work of two years or more, into someone else's hands and watch it sink and vanish, as most do. I'd like them to deal with negative reviews and poor sales, when we only have that one book to earn our crust with that year. Don't get me wrong: I love what I do and I choose to do it, and the same can be said for almost all of us. I do NOT want you to get the violins out. Nevertheless, it's harder than most publishers think. It's more emotional, more raw, more distracting, more damn gutwrenching

And both writers and publishers should understand a little more of the challenges of the other.

State of flux - where we are now

I draw your attention to this excellent overview of the changing situation in publishing vs self-publishing. Libby Fischer Hellmann has used both avenues, and therefore knows of what she speaks. She compares how things were eighteen months ago with how things are now, listing changing pros and cons of each route to publication.

My message has always been, "Whatever you do, do it with eyes wide open" and that blog post will really help clarify things, I believe. It also has links to other useful posts.

I think she speaks great sense and I like her calm analysis.

To remind you of my own position:

• As you know, I have been published many times (around 90) by trade publishers - publishers whose role is to take all the financial risk (apart from my considerable time) of production and distribution and invest in the editing, copy-editing, proof-reading and marketing of my books.
• However, a) most trade publishers now invest far less in all of those roles for most authors, including me b) published authors are expected to do more and more for less and less return and c) some books are eminently suitable for self-published, at least by clued-up authors.
• Therefore, as you know, I am also doing some self-publishing, under Crabbit Publishing. I have so far published Tweet Right, am about to republish Mondays are Red (details very soon!) and then will publish my in-progress ebook on how to write a great synopsis.
• However, I still want to be published by trade publishers for some of my work. I think I am very well-placed to know which is the better form for each book of mine.
• And I want to continue to share that knowledge with you and help you make the right decisions, too. Through Pen2Publication,  I am also currently helping a client who intends to self-publish a novel.

So, there you have it.

Oh and one more thing: I don't care about my sales as much as perhaps I should. I care many times more about putting out books I can be proud of. Commercially, I care very much that my books sell enough to keep a decent publisher happy - because otherwise I won't stay published - but riches? You can stick them.

Luckily.

Never say never self-publish a novel: Catherine Ryan Howard visits

OK, I'll admit it: I'm a bit of a fan of Catherine Ryan Howard. Catherine is one of self-publishing's success stories and that success has come about through her being clever, nice, strategic and a very engaging writer. I think her attitude to the whole business is utterly professional and she is well worth listening to. I read and enjoyed her first highly successful memoir, Mousetrapped: A Year and A Bit in Orlando, Florida, and agree with her ruthless analysis of why it wasn't accepted by a trade publisher. I bought both the ebook and POD versions of her bible of self-publishing - Self-Printed: the Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing - and very much followed her strict (scarily so) instructions when I came to write and publish Tweet Right - The Sensible Person's Guide to Twitter. In fact, was there possibly some subconscious influence on that title??

But Catherine was on record as saying she would not self-publish a novel. And now, she has. So I dragged her here to explain herself.

But first: about Catherine:
Catherine Ryan Howard is a 29-year-old writer, blogger and enthusiastic coffee-drinker. She currently lives in Cork, Ireland, where she divides her time between her desk and the sofa. She blogs at www.catherineryanhoward.com.

And about her novel, Results Not Typical:
The Devil Wears Prada meets Weightwatchers and chick-lit meets corporate satire. Through their Ultimate Weight Loss Diet Solution Zone System, Slimmit International Global Incorporated claim they’re making the world a more attractive place one fatty at a time. Their slogans “Where You’re Fat and We Know It!” and “Where the Fat IS Your Fault!” are recognised around the globe, the counter in the lobby says five million slimmed and their share price is as high as their energy levels. But today the theft of their latest revolutionary product, Lipid Loser, will threaten to expose the real secret behind Slimmit’s success...The race is on to retrieve Lipid Loser and save Slimmit from total disaster. If their secrets get out, their competitors will put them out of business. If the government finds out, they’ll all go to jail. And if their clients find out… Well, as Slimmit’s Slimming Specialists know all too well, there’s only one thing worse than a hungry, sugar-crazed, carb addict – and that’s an angry one. Will the secret behind Slimmit’s success survive the day, or will their long-suffering slimmers finally discover the truth? Available now in paperback and e-book editions.


NM: You self-published Mousetrapped because you recognised that (and why) a publisher wouldn't take it; you knew that although you could find readers who would like it, there would not be enough for a publisher to recover investment. Is the same true of Results Not Typical?

Essentially, yes. Results was on submission for nearly a year, and even bagged me a meeting with the editorial director of one of the biggest publishers in Ireland/UK. (That was quite the exciting afternoon, let me tell you!) But it was Mousetrapped-scented déjà vu – everyone who read it had positive things to say, but ultimately they felt it wasn’t suitable for the Irish/UK chick-lit market. One editor said that UK/Irish readers wouldn’t warm to the satirical nature of it, another said the humour was too slapstick and yet another said they she loved it, she just didn’t love it enough. (Surely the most infuriating rejection!) They all said there was something there – somewhere – and recommended that I go off and write something more mainstream, more meaty. I was getting that banging-head-off-brick-wall feeling again, so I stopped submitting it so I could take a step back and regroup. I started work on the Something More Mainstream & Meaty, but as I did, an evil idea began to form in my head...

NM: You said that you would never self-publish a novel. Why did you say that and why have you changed your mind, you naughty person?

I said it because at the time, I believed non-fiction was the only genre that could really suffer from the “We Like It But There’s No Market For It” rejection. I mean, if your novel was good enough to be published they’d publish it, right? But publishing houses just don’t have as much money as they did before to take a chance on something new (if they ever had it) and if you’ve written something that doesn’t neatly fit into an existing genre, then it’s something new. Publishing is a business at the end of the day, and me and my book were extremely high risk. Too high risk.

But I’m a business too – a self-publishing business. In March of this year, Mousetrapped had been on sale for a year and I’d managed to offload 4,000 copies of it. Up until that point I’d looked upon my self-publishing adventures as something to keep me in coffee grounds until some Fairy Editor-mother came along with a six-figure deal (hey, a girl can dream...), but I realised then it was time to start treating it like a serious business, like my actual career. I made two decisions: to write and release the sequel to Mousetrapped, a book called Backpacked, and to self-publish Results Not Typical. The editors who rejected it because they felt it wouldn’t do well in the Irish/UK market were undoubtedly right – they are the experts – but I don’t have to sell to any one territory. I can sell worldwide. Plus, I already have an established readership – I’m not starting from scratch – and there’s only a miniscule financial risk involved for me, relatively speaking, because I sell e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks. So for me, doing this is extremely low risk.

Do I hope Results sells a gazillion copies and that all the editors who rejected it burst into tears of regret while emitting wails of despair? Yes, of course. Obviously. But even if it does sell a gazillion copies, those editors will still be right. A book can be wholly unsuitable for traditional publication, yet do well when the author self-publishes it. That doesn’t mean either side was wrong. What matters is that both sides agree the book has merit, and that there’s people out there, somewhere, who’ll be interested in reading it. I just need less of those people than publishers do to say, “Okay. Let’s go.”

NM: Anyone who self-publishes has to spend huge amounts of time on marketing, no? And trust me, although published authors have to do stacks, too, you DO have to do more as a self-pubber. I know. So, how do you manage it and can you pass on some tips?

I barely manage it, to be honest. [NM adds: thank you, thank you, thank you!] My computer is on almost as much as I’m awake. In the last few months I took a step back from Twitter, etc. so I could write Backpacked, and that is reflected in my sales. If you stop working, the books stop selling. I feel like I have some momentum now but still, I have to keep working at it.

My advice would be to concentrate first on having a great “hub”. For me, that’s my blog. That’s always my number one priority and I put more time into it than anything else. If I have time, I’ll do things like Facebook, Twitter, etc. but I always make sure my blog is up to date and offering new, valuable content, no matter what my writing schedule is. I think if you do that, the whole online platform/book promotion/tweeting incessantly thing becomes infinitely more manageable. Blogging brings people to you, and that’s a whole lot easier than trying to go out there and find them.

Having said that, I have absolutely no time for the whingers and moaners who are all, “I just want to write. I just want to concentrate on my craft. It’s all about the art for me, darhling. I don’t have time for Twitter...” etc. etc. Even if you sign a deal with a major publisher, you are going to have to promote your book – and rightly so. It’s like a certain young Hollywood actress who claims to hate publicity and only wants to make indie movies. How many movies no one goes to see because they don’t know they exist does she think she’s going to get to make, eh?

NM: What have you learnt about writing since writing your first book?

My favourite piece of writing advice has always been “Write the book you want to read” but what I’ve learned is that while doing that’s all well and good, you need to write the book you want to read that someone else might one day want to read too. Otherwise, there’s no point. With Mousetrapped, I definitely strayed into self-indulgence in places. I was enjoying writing about a certain thing or place, and I thought, Well, I like this and this is my book, so... but you have to re-write with the end reader in mind. If you don’t, you won’t have any.

NM: What have you learnt about publishing since publishing your first book?

I’m more convinced than ever that luck plays a huge part in success, whether it be traditional or self-publication. You can certainly “prime” yourself to receive luck by doing things like writing a good book, acting professionally at all times, doing a lot of online promotion, etc. etc., but there’s no sure-fire way to sell books. You can promote a book 24/7/365 and sell 50 copies, and you can sit back and do nothing and yet sell 5,000. All you can do is strive to make luck your only variable. Do everything you can and then wait as long as you can. As I type this I’ve sold around 8,500 self-published books, but I sold less than half of them – about 3,000 – in the first year (March 2010-March 2011) and only 500 of them in the first six months (March-September 2010). The first month I sold 62 copies. But I hung on, and I kept plugging away. Then, luck came. If I’d given up a few months in, I wouldn’t have be around to receive it.

NM: What do you wish I'd asked you? Answer it...

Oh, you’re good. You’re very good. I’m going to use that one myself in future!

Well, I suppose since this is a blog tour to promote my new novel, Results Not Typical, any opportunity to plug Results Not Typical, subtly or otherwise, is fine by me, I’m going to pretend that I wished you’d asked me why I chose to write Results Not Typical, a book about an evil weight loss company.

*cough*Results Not Typical!*cough* Well, Nicola, I’m glad you asked why I wrote Results Not Typical. (!)

It’s because a) I’m still annoyed about a certain bestselling chick-lit title that had the protagonist banging on and on about “ballooning up to 10 stone”, b) I think the weight loss industry has been asking to be satirised for years and years and c) I, fortunately or unfortunately, have plenty of experience in that area, most recently with a scary cult-like organisation that forbade me from eating 99.9% of all foods and tried to convince me that decaf coffee was a worthwhile thing. I’m still overweight but, hey, I got a novel out of it, didn’t I?

Would you like to buy Catherine's book?  (No, Catherine, not you, silly.)

Results Not Typical on Amazon UK is here.
Results Not Typical on Amazon US is here.

Would you like a chance to win one? If you visit Goodreads here you can enter a giveaway to win one of five paperback copies of Results Not Typical. Open for entries from September 30th-October 31st. Open to all countries.

People, if you plan to self-publish, please do read Self-Printed. And if you just want to curl up with a good piece of fiction, think Results Not Typical.

Thank you, Catherine, and good luck with all your books.