indie publishing and what i wish i’d done differently

(I’m resting from a little bout with salmonella that put me in hospital for an overnight stay. I wrote this before I knew what was coming my way. Haha. Oh, innocent me … YOU DIDN’T KNOW …)

It’s been over three years since A Most Irregular Prophecy was published and I’ve got some reflections, okay? I’ve got some thoughts.

THE FRONT COVER … WHAT DOES IT *DO*?

So. They say a good front cover should communicate what the book is about, and also fit into the genre that you’re aiming for. (I’m ‘they’.)

Well, well, well.

Let me EXPLAIN my front cover.

Okay, so the tea pots and tea are because Vi (the heroine) likes tea and is a Victorian. The chair is because furniture becomes sentient, the shovel is for what is essentially winged unicorn manure, the red hair is because Vi has red hair – obviously – but less obviously, it’s a plot point, and the golden little winged unicorn is because, well, there’s winged unicorns. I don’t see the problem here. This is clear communication.

It’s, like, totally clear? I don’t understand why this book isn’t a best seller.

Actually … I might have some idea …

I DID ZERO MARKETING

I’m British. (I like to blame my actions on everything that isn’t myself.) I was convinced that you know, word of mouth is a powerful thing and it’s kinda lowkey embarrassing to force my books on other people so my marketing plan was as follows:

1. If online, be excessively tentative when talking about my book. Don’t, for goodness sake, talk about it too much. Be chill. Have chill. Have all the chill.
2. If in person – warn, demur, refuse, and stall. Be reluctant. Ham up how strange it is.

Ah. Yes. Well. I might have caused my own issues here. I can see that now. I’d hoped that my book would spread like a contagion through word of mouth and develop a cult following without trying to do a jot of marketing.

No, I don’t harbour delusions of grandeur. Pfft. Pishhhhhh. Posssshhhhh. I? Never. (Behold – the arrogance of youth!)

Plus, you know, the way to sell a book is to write another one. I’d heard that piece of advice. The only issue? It’s been three years. No other book.

Rude.

I CANNOT UNDERSTATE HOW LITTLE MARKETING I DID FOR THIS BOOK

I learned lessons from my previous bout of indie publishing: get an editor and get a front cover designer. (That’s it. Those were the two lessons.) I had not learned the third lesson: marketing.

I’m shy, okay? That’s what I’m going with, and that’s what I’m sticking with. Shyness.

But sometimes, just sometimes, someone did find it. I made friends with someone who a) read my book and b) was a fan of Amelia Peabody. Obviously, she has the very best taste. She was also a librarian, since retired, and we would meet up perhaps once a week to chat books. There’s some lovely reviews and if only one person enjoyed it – I count it as a job well done.

I LIED

Look, it’s been a busy three years. I don’t think I had that je ne sais quoi to do a good job at marketing. I don’t really regret it or wish I’d done it differently. A Most Irregular Prophecy is a weird book – it’s strange. It doesn’t quite fit in a box, but it contains so much joy and it made me laugh while writing it and I enjoyed it.

It was, perhaps, written entirely to my own tastes – the romance, the Medusa sub-plot, the trees that are actually alive and also FYI wolves, the sentient rain, the portals, the Suffragist tilt, the longing to do good, the tragedy of failing, the humour, the toxic unicorn manure, and so on and so forth.

It is, in short, utterly bizarre & very eccentric, and it is dedicated to a neighbourhood cat who I was semi-convinced was a shape-shifter (she’d climb a tree and stare deeply into my soul) and it defies genre-stamping.

But again – I loved writing it. What an adventure. I’ll get a new front cover for it soon. Give it a polish and a push. But I’m proud of it, nevertheless. And I want to keep writing, keep learning, keep going.

Will I market any future books? Oh, I shall be bidding adieu-&-farewell-ye-fair-Spanish-ladies to shyness. I’ll be insufferable. (Probably.)

Happy reading!

(and oh what’s this? A LINK TO MY BOOK?)