It’s now eight years (eek!) since I self-published my first book, ‘Damp Dogs & Rabbit Wee.’ Relatively speaking, it did rather well, considering I had absolutely no idea how to release it into the big, wide world.

Since then, I’ve written two other, ‘short-read’ books: ‘Give The Dog A Home,’ and ‘No Laughing Matter … a short tale of death and how to recover from it.’ (All three are available worldwide through Amazon. 😉 )

The latter two were not promoted other than mention on my personal Facebook page, but still shifted in half-decent numbers.

Sales and income were not the motivating factors for writing any of them, though. Rather, I viewed them as ‘training’ books; books that would give me experience in the big, harsh world of publishing. And, boy, did I learn some lessons along the way!

‘Damp Dogs & Rabbit Wee,‘ for instance, sat on the virtual shelf of a small, but established publisher for a full twelve months without any promotion other than a mention on their own website and Facebook page. Consequently the total sales that year amounted to … zip.

I should have acted on my instinct and withdrawn from the deal as soon as I saw the first run of copies with the word ‘rabbit’ misspelled on the back cover blurb!

But hey – this was all good experience. It taught me to be very prudent in regard to who I work with in future.

The other two books, written and published in 2023, were promoted on the basis of royalties being donated to specific (small) charities. However, neither seemed at all interested and did nothing to promote the books. So I gave money to other similar charities and stopped punting the books myself to concentrate on my blogs and my present work-in-progress.

Another lesson learned.

And so here I am today, at the stage where the research begins to arrange the logistics for a ‘proper’ launch of my new book; cover design; editing; beta readers; advance promotion and marketing. Then there’s the nightmare of formatting the book for paperback and e-book editions – that’s the bit I truly detest. 😉

I do have some of this covered already, and I’ve just this weekend invested in an editing tool which should ease the burden.

So, I’m now at the tedious and boring part of publishing. And costly. However, until some big, established company steps forward and offers to cross my palms with silver (or preferably gold) I think this is the way to go.

What’s that? What’s the new book about? What’s it called?

Let’s just say, it’s a mix of dry humour, and an offbeat, nostalgic account of growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to report good progress in the coming days and weeks.

And of course, blog subscribers will be the first to read the updates 😉

I truly value your support. Thank you.

Cheers for now.

🙂

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