Finally…my books are going to be books!

I can’t quite believe it but…

I’m finally publishing the four books I’ve been working on for the last 12 years!!!!!

It has been a loooooong and winding journey, as evidenced in many of the blog posts on this site.  But the moment has come when I feel like the books are as ready as they’re ever going to be, and they need to get out there in order to be read, at least by family and friends who’ve been listening to me waffle on about my writing for all those years.

First up is book one in my young adult sci-fi romance series – “Give Me The Stars” – which is scheduled to be published tomorrow (Thursday 12th June)!!!! Books two and three will follow roughly a month apart, i.e. mid-July and mid-August.  Then my (currently) standalone young adult sci-fi book “Controllers” will be published in October.

To anticipate a few questions:

Why has it taken you so long to publish?

I’ve only been writing part-time, sometimes very part-time (!), including a full two years off when I did my MA and other patches when I’ve been completely disillusioned by the publishing industry.  Each of my books has been edited multiple times, which takes time.  I also didn’t want to rush getting them out there until I’d improved as a writer, and so that I could go back and add things to book 1 if I suddenly realised I wanted to while writing book 3!

Why are you self-publishing?

I’ll be talking more about this in future posts but the bottom line is that no agent wanted to take on my books.  Young adult is a small category in the big pool of writing genres, and science fiction is niche within that.  Agents and publishers only take on what they think they can make money from – they are businesses and have to eat, after all!  I can’t say that I pursued every agent on the planet, but I did push a few doors to see if there was any interest.

But I’m actually SO excited to be self-publishing!  More on that soon…

Are your books any good?

You’ll have to be the judge of that!  If you like them, then please let me know and/or leave an Amazon review.  If you don’t like them, then please don’t tell me – there’s not a lot I can do to change them once they’re published.  Critique readers have always enjoyed them, and if I had a pound for every time someone’s said “I don’t like sci-fi but I do like this”, then I’d be getting rich quick 😉

While self-publishing was formerly a way for sub-optimal literature to get into the world (!), it’s now a bonafide method of publishing.  As a reader, hopefully you won’t notice any difference between my books and traditionally published books as I’ve worked extremely hard to make them look just as professional, and the purchasing process on Amazon is exactly the same.

Watch my social media for the announcement that “Give Me The Stars” is finally available!!!