On Becoming An Indie Author

I must have been the only author in the world who didn’t know about Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) – that is until a friend told me to publish my novel myself. This was after coming excruciatingly close with agents and publishers, who liked my work but were being mega cautious.

After a spate of emails to agents and the odd letter here and there to publishers (with replies varying from not for us or you write well, we liked it but aren’t taking on new clients to the more promising couple of agents who wanted to read the complete manuscript of my novel, one of whom said she would be interested in reading it again subject to certain revisions), I got rather demoralised. Then I was massively side tracked by learning to play Gaelic wire strung harp, and more recently guitar.

So back to my friend Leah Whitehorse, herself a writer of considerable talent. I had done a lot of the revisions on my novel, as suggested by the agent and was getting ready to approach agents and publishers again. I happened to ask Leah for a tarot reading about the book. The reading was fairly positive but suggested self publishing. But, I reasoned, everything I’d read advised against vanity publishing: it’s expensive and doesn’t guarantee you sales, and, besides, I’ve had five books published with a bona fide publisher with varying success – enough success anyway to have afforded to rewire my house and convert the loft, not to mention being able to put best selling author in the bio on my Amazon author page. But no, Leah wasn’t talking about vanity publishing, she was talking about publishing the book myself for free through the KDP program.

So that’s what I’ve done, though the book I’ve just published isn’t the one I’ve recently submitted to agents: this one was written some time ago and I’ve uploaded it under my published author name Elen Hawke, as it has mystical and spiritual elements in common with some of my previously published work. Though the hoops to be jumped through to get a Word doc converted to Kindle format so that it shows without gaps and errors will be the subject of another blog entry, I suspect. I also enrolled in the Kindle Select program, which allows me to offer the book free on Amazon for five days in any three months as long as it isn’t published elsewhere within that period. I used three of those days to give the book a kick start so that it acquired an Amazon ranking which helped to make it stand out from the several hundred thousand other books on there. I was thrilled to see it appear in the top 100 in its category. Since it’s been put back on paid status again, it’s still reasonably high in the ranking system, so I think it was worth doing the free period.

So here is a link to the book

The Sacred Marriage by Elen Hawke: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sacred-Marriage-ebook/dp/B007JN67WQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1331674071&sr=8-4

And the US Amazon site: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sacred-Marriageebook/dp/B007JN67WQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=digitaltext&ie=UTF8&qid=1331717615&sr=1-3

And my Amazon author profile:

https://www.amazon.com/author/elenhawke

And lastly the product description:

As she has done since childhood, Sophie spends the summer with family friend Rory Ballantyne in his old stone longhouse in the heart of Celtic Brittany – a ravishingly beautiful region filled with ancient customs and steeped in the mystery and romance of Arthurian legend. But this year things are changed: her family are involved with their own lives, so she stays there without them. At first she is troubled by tension and quarrels between Rory and his wife, but she is soon distracted by the arrival of gorgeous artist Jason Ryder. Sophie becomes increasingly drawn to Jason but she also realises that Rory is not the older brother figure she had thought him, but a fascinating and attractive man. Then a series of strange dreams opens her to the energies of the land there, forces that seem to want something from her. At eighteen, Sophie is no longer a child, and she sees the local area and people through different eyes. Gradually she realises that the energies she senses, along with her dreams, emanate from a holy spring dedicated to Sainte Nicole, a Christianisation of a Celtic deity whom locals refer to as the Lady. The spirit of the land is reaching out and Sophie’s quest to fathom its message brings her, through love and loss, to an understanding of herself that helps her cross the threshold into maturity and gives her the strength to follow her own truth. 

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iris

an encouraging email…

…from an ex commissioning editor for Time Warner, who liked my previous novel and would have taken it if her fiction list hadn’t been full for five years ahead (see what first time novelists are up against!??) I sent her some sample material from the new book. Her response was to say that she likes the concept and location and my writing is fine but…she no longer commissions work, she is in a purely administrative role now and, though she had considered  taking it to one of their editors, she knows they won’t look at it unless it comes via an agent. But how incredibly thoughtful and kind of her to take the trouble to send such a positive email and to wish me luck.

pigeon and golden ash

star of bethlehem under the trees

and a riot of blackthorn, lilac, apple and cherry when we took the dog to Aston’s Eyot this evening. The sun was setting in a ball of orange flame over the river, almost opposite the moon, which is huge now it’s nearly full. Wisteria on all the houses, and flowers in shades of purple, blue and yellow in the gardens. The hawthorns are packed with flower buds. Everything is making up for the long, harsh winter we’ve had and it’s all bursting out a month early.

Hmm, don’t think much of the camera on my iPhone 4, even in good light there seems to be a lot of digital noise. Maybe mine’s faulty. Must take my camera out with me like I used to.

None of this is getting my book revised!

burgeoning spring and not getting on with my book

It’s so beautiful out in the world at the moment. the sun is shining for all it’s worth. In the woods the bluebells are out, though not fully opened yet, there are wood anemones, primroses, wild white cherry blossom and chestnut candles. You can’t help but feel joyful in the midst of all this frivolity and bounty. A word that comes to mind is bosky, which means leafy but which, to me, sings of naughtiness and abandon and an excess of life.

I need to get on with editing my book, but it’s incredibly hard to get down to it. Having worked intensively for seven months and then had encouraging feedback but no takers, I know I should be pressing on with it but I can’t seem to muster the energy or inclination for it. Maybe the next rainy day!

you need to edit your novel

It’s been far too long since I wrote in this blog.

The second agent didn’t take on the book. However, she was very complimentary about my writing. She sent a very long email full of advice on editing, particularly concerning the structure of the book. She also said she would be interested in seeing it again if I made the changes suggested. Although it would have been wonderful if she’d agreed to represent me subject to editing, at least she didn’t reject outright. I’ve had two more positive rejections along the lines of you have talent and there is much to like about your novel, but we’re taking on so little now.

Meanwhile spring is fully upon us. After the summer heat of last week, the apple blossom has flowered and is now beginning to fall and the bluebells are out in our garden. It’s cold again now, but the sense of joyous energy lingers. Birds are singing and everything is that amazing, tender bright green that only happens at this time of year.