In Which I Decide To Self-Publish

Yep, in December Storms in Teacups will be available for sale on Amazon. I'm a little bit scared about my decision, but I'm also kind of excited.

I made the decision after I received some 'good' rejections from agents. I got requests for pages, but was ultimately told that my genre (women's fiction/chick-lit) is a hard sell to publishers in the current economic climate, but that I should try again when the market improves. One mega agent told me they wished I'd submitted it a couple of years ago. Lots told me how much they liked it. So I don't think I'm completely deluding myself by thinking I should self-publish.

Am I prepared to wait until the market recovers? In a word: no. I don't know about other countries, but conservative estimates for Ireland's 'recovery' are ten years away. I have always wanted to be a writer, and holding out on a chance that it may happen sometime in the future doesn't really seem appealing to me. Self-publishing is a lot more realistic now than it ever was before, and it offers me a chance to make a living writing  in the near future.

Yes it's a gamble, and it's far from certain that it will be successful. But I'm not afraid of hard work, and as my husband has set up his own company I have some knowledge of that end of things.

I don't think traditional publishing is dead - far from it - but for me this seems to be the best decision right now.

What about ye? Any of you tempted?

It's halfway through October. Really?!

I can't believe that it's already October 17th. There's so much that I still have to do. Finish edits, finish first draft of Guildhall, plan my Nanowrimo stories, get a start on the Christmas shopping, buy a tiny Halloween costume in the shape of a cute bug for Polly Pocket... I also have to catch up on my social media, write some articles and do some historical research. I also, crucially, have to sleep. I have no idea how I am going to do all of these things before midnight on October 31st. 

Has time sped up? I don't know why, but the past couple of months seem to have just flown by.

What about all of you? How are you doing on your goals?

On Pubslush and Inkubate

So, the endless rounds of querying can get you down. Self-publishing is an option, but it's highly labour intensive and you have to do a lot of the work yourself. Yesterday I read an article in The Huffington Post talking about Inkubate and Pubslush.

Now these endeavours aren't new, I've read about them before. I'm not sure their methods are going to get that much traction. How many people would think a book premise was that good that they'd preorder it without being sure that they'd ever see the actual book in question. It might work for established authors, but maybe not so well for newbies.

What do you all think?

Sorry for the brevity of this post, I'm learning the art of typing with a baby on my shoulder. I'm sure I'll get better at it :)

Introducing Polly Pocket

I've been somewhat absent for the past week because I was preparing for my new foster placement. We brought home a premature baby girl today, who's only slightly more than 2 kg. She's the tiniest thing, but so beautiful.

I spent twelve hours in the maternity hospital waiting for paperwork to come through and learning to care for a baby that technically should still be in the womb. I'm exhausted. Therefore, this post will be fairly short.

I'm not allowed post anything on the internet that would identify a child in my care or breach their right of privacy. Which is good - otherwise you may have to hear about my foster daughter at length (I managed to feed her 90 mls tonight - I was prouder of that than I was getting my undergraduate degree). As I can't use her name online, if I'm referring to her at all I'm going to call her Polly Pocket. Because she is the tiniest thing.

It's twenty to midnight, so I'm going to go to bed. I hope to get around all your blogs tomorrow.

Night all! :)

Road Trip Wednesday: Spin-off Characters

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This week they want to know which supporting character would you like to see in a novel of their own.


I'd go for Alice from The Twilight Saga. She was my favourite character, and she'd have a lot of potential as a primary character.


What about you?

On Audiobooks

For those not in the know, fibromyalgia is a syndrome. This means that it has a number of characteristic symptoms, and patients have a selection of them. One of mine - visual disturbances.

This can lead to migraines, floaters, light sensitivity and muscle tiredness. At the end of the day, when I'm tired from having looked at a computer screen for most of the day, I find it difficult to read. I've carried books around with me since I was a toddler, so not being able to read is uncomfortable to me. What to do with the time?

So I decided to download a couple of audiobooks. This rankled for three reasons.

First of all, I'm a traditionalist. Despite the fact that owning a Kindle would be easier on my wrists (because it's lighter - the weight of paper books can hurt me) I still haven't managed to bite the bullet and buy one. I have an emotional block. I like ink, paper and being able to mark my page with a bus ticket. Audiobooks are the same deal for me. It's like someone trying to convince you that paper plates really are the classier alternative to ceramic.

Secondly, it makes me feel old. I'm 24, and I already feel like a pensioner the majority of the time. I have fibro and inflammatory arthritis. I wear glasses, sensible shoes, and occasionally have to use a walking stick.I have to pace myself, and not over exert myself or I may need to go for a nap. I've come to terms with all this, but nothing, NOTHING has made me feel as old as downloading audiobooks.

This is irrational. Plenty of people download books to listen to while commuting to work or doing household chores. It makes sense. It's only in my head that I see my ninety year old great grandmother listening to her Catherine Cookson tapes.

I found the audiobooks ok, but the price was ridiculous. You can pay twice as much for an audiobook as you do for a paperback, and that's a conservative estimate. Considering an average book is five hours long when read aloud, this is pretty steep.I know you have to pay the narrator, sound engineer and get the book adapted but it makes reading expensive for those with eyesight issues. At least I have a choice.

What about you? Do you 'read' audiobooks?