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In 10 days time I’m self publishing a book. I have very mixed feelings about this. It isn’t the way I’d hoped to get my work out there but my journey has been long and complicated. Huge highs and crushing lows. (Thread alert - sorry!)
I’ve been agented, in fact I had 3 offers in those heady days. I’ve been to editorial meetings with this and other manuscripts but it’s always been a no. This book was even edited by a publisher before the no came.
I’ve written 13 books, 9 of them for children. I’ve also written around 30 picture books. That’s a lot of words and a lot of time. But it’s a passion, an addiction and a big chunk of who I am. And I write ALL-THE-TIME !!
I am currently writing my 14th MS. It has the benefit of 2 courses behind it, one not so good and one bloody amazing! It also has the benefit of 13 previous ‘practice runs’ and almost 10 years of serious writing.
But draft one is still a little way off and then I need to do the months of rewrites and editing before I can even think about putting it (and me) through the soul-destroying submission process again.
So I decided to self publish. And I felt embarrassed and like I was admitting I’m not good enough. In short, I felt I had failed. (No disrespect to the fantastic indi writers out there. I’ve read some brilliant SP books. Just talking about my own dreams.)
But then I saw the cover with my name on it, and I had some brilliant feedback from people I really trust. I’m learning to feel a little bit proud of what I’ve done. Not least because I’ve had to learn to format a book for publication!
So here it is. Mima Malone and the Mad Bad Inventor. And I’m finally ok to shout (or at least murmur as loud as I dare) about it.
