Self Publishing & I - Chapter 1

ME ON TWITTER: ‘Has anyone successfully compiled a #scrivener ‘novel with parts’ as a manuscript? I've followed the 'Novel Format' instructions but my MS is coming out as one long thing.’

Welcome to my new blog, ‘Self-Publishing and I’, which will record my experiences as I attempt to self-publish a first novel on Amazon. I’m going to skip the traditional opening paragraph about having an idea for a crime story, jotting down my first ideas, three years of drafts and redrafts, the creative writing courses I took, my writing diploma from UEA, my supportive writing community on Twitter and a terrific professional edit. I’m sure this is a familiar journey to many.

Why didn’t I try to find an agent, you may ask. Well, I did, a bit. I pitched to a couple of agent panels at crime writing festivals and sent out a few random submissions. From this I learned that my premise is (a) impossible to summarise in two sentences and (b) guaranteed to raise the eyebrows of literary agents more effectively than Botox. Meanwhile, I attended a couple of day courses on self-publishing and found the idea exciting. I have a history of biting off more than I can chew, and a leopard doesn’t change its spots, so here I go again.

Am I worried about the technical side of self-publishing? Yes, it terrifies me, but this isn’t the first time my world has been shaken by technology. My generation didn’t grow up with laptops in the workplace, never mind in the home. In the late 1990s, when I was beginning to advance in my career, it suddenly became essential to learn how to use IT. There was never enough funding available to train people like me up, and as the mother of young children, I had little spare money or time to educate myself. My tech skills were scraped together from a series of in-house day courses and the occasional online seminar, so I missed out on many of the basics. As a result, I learned to do essential tasks without knowing how to transfer my new skills. It was a bit like taking part in a spelling competition when you don’t know the alphabet.

A few years ago, I was leading a team of young graduates who seemed to have been born with USB ports where us oldies have navels. It took a lot of determination to solve IT issues for myself, when my colleague at the next desk could fix a problem, which had been driving me crazy for half an hour, with one casual tap on a keyboard. The reassuring thing was that at my age, no-one expected me to be totally computer literate. However, I felt that I wasn’t pulling my weight, and because I enjoy using technology, I wanted to achieve more. Working part time, I’ve been able to develop my writing skills, and now I’m excited by the challenge of publishing my book digitally.

It’s going to be a rough ride, but I’m looking forward to it. Will you join me on the journey?