The thing I've learned about writing books is it's not a meritocracy. I should have learned it ages ago but my idealism and romanticism clouded my vision. I thought if I wrote better & better books then I'd be more likely to find a way of sustaining a full time living from it. But that's not true...
There was part of me that thought, as I approached 50, that this one - my 15th - would be The One. Not the one to make me more well-known (which I don't want) but the one that just sold that little bit more, got released outside the UK, and made everything more sustainable. But what I have earned...
... from it to this point is pitifully far below the minimum wage. I wonder if that might change at some point. I still hope it will, since I have no doubt that it's book that many people fiercely love. I am shown repeatedly that without big marketing spend & publishing industry hype on your side...
... you are kind of screwed, & what I've been doing on Bluesky recently is sort of a stubborn way of trying to prove to the romantic idealist part of myself that this isn't true... that actually when a lot of people are spreading the word about a book that kind of grass roots word of mouth support..
... UK bookshops, and finally available outside of the UK. I have to draw a bit of a line at some point, though. This book was finished almost 2 years ago. After that, my ex-publishers, Unbound, collapsed, taking what I was owed for Everything Will Swallow You, & the 6 books directly preceding it...
