Publishing a Book

 I have been working hard on my book. Getting it published as been an unexpected journey, so I’ll share my experiences so far with you in case you ever decide to go the same route.

The first (and most fun part) is writing the book. I love doing this, it feels a lot like acting - I sort of ‘become’ the characters, think about how they would feel or react and daydream them into interesting situations. Most books seem to fit into the 70,000 to 100,000 words range. Which means that after I have written the story, I usually have to go back and delete great swathes of unnecessary sentences. I found the book ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King to be a big help here.

Next comes the ‘not fun’ part. You have to decide how to publish your work. I wrote my first book soon after I realised I would not be returning to teaching (long story, won’t go into it here.) I gave the completed manuscript to Husband to read, who tends to be ‘constructively critical’ of most things I do. To my surprise, he loved it, said he had never realised I could write so well, and encouraged me to send it off to publishers. I did a Google search to find publishers and discovered that most (all of them really) do not accept unsolicited manuscripts from new authors. To get to a publisher, you first need an agent.

I bought the ‘Writer’s Handbook’ and found contact details for various agents. They were all different, all asked for very specific details. Each submission took most of a morning. I then settled back and waited for them to request my full manuscript. I waited a long time. A few replied with very nice, personalised letters, telling me that my book showed real potential but wasn’t something they felt "passionate enough about" to represent me. Several replied with a standard ‘no thank you’ letter. Most never replied at all.

I have since learned that a good agent already has many authors as clients, they only take on a few each year. They receive however, about 300 submissions every week. In order to cope with that, and to not spend their entire working day reading submissions, they employ people - often work experience students, who read the submission letters and decide if they think an author is worthy of being viewed by an agent. The criteria for knowing if the cover letter is 'good enough' is vague and subjective. I think, unless you know someone 'in the trade', finding an agent involves a lot of luck.

During this time, I was writing book number two, Hidden Faces. I also began to talk to other authors. They informed me that rejection was normal. I heard stories of people who had eventually been accepted by mainstream publishers, but during the editing process, their book was changed beyond recognition, it didn’t feel like theirs anymore. Publishers need to make money. Some seem to almost have a formula for the types of book they can sell, things that are currently in fashion, and they ask the authors to fit into it. I feel it is a bit like an artist painting a picture, expressing how they feel, then daring to exhibit their work, and being told, “I would like to buy your painting, but please change the sky to green and add some people and take out that tree…” Would it still be their work of art?

I was now not sure I wanted a mainstream publisher. I began to look into self-publishing. This was confusing. It seemed to fall into two categories: the rather unflattering term of “vanity press” and “self-published”. But what was the difference? It seemed that shops were willing to sell “self-published” books, but not those that used “vanity press”. But it was hard to discover the difference. Both were what I would call “self published”, as the author had paid themselves for the book to be published and they only received money if people bought it. (Generally, my understanding is that for a first book, a publisher will pay the author about £800. All profit after that goes to the publisher. However, people are shy about talking about specifics when it comes to money, so that may not be correct. When I get to the relevant parts, I will tell you what I paid for things, so you know.)

I eventually learned that “vanity press” is when an author writes a book and immediately sends it to be printed. So, no one edits it, no one checks the spelling and punctuation, no one says, “this bit is confusing, you need to change it”, no one type-sets it. You can find sad stories online of people who paid a company to publish their book and then found it had no copyright page, or chapter one began on the first, left-hand side of the book. They received books that ‘felt wrong’, often cheaply bound in very thin card, with pages that were loose.

My feeling is that if you have written a book that you are proud of, that you just want to see in print, to perhaps give to your family (but not sell to strangers), then why not? I hate the term “vanity press”. Writing a book takes time and effort, why not see it published? I much prefer the terms “home press” or “amateur published”.

However, I did want to sell my book. I wanted a ‘proper’ book, one I could be proud of. I started to look online for editors, copy-editors, type-setters, printers. There was a lot of business stuff involved. It was beyond me, so Husband took over (he is good at that sort of thing.) He started by going into a bookshop and asking if they stocked any self-published books. He then looked to see who had printed them and contacted the printers. He got quotes for printing and asked for details of editors and type-setters, people they had worked with before who they could recommend. He then contacted various people, asked for examples of their work, quotes for prices, details of what they would do.

While Husband did all this research (made me remember why I love him) I rewrote a serial, Counting Stars, that had appeared on my website, making it a complete story. I now had two new books ready to publish. (I had given up on the first one and decided I needed to rewrite it.)

This account is getting long, so I will continue Part Two another time. I will explain about editors, and what exactly 'proof-reading' means (it is not what I thought!) and why you might need insurance...

Why not sign up to follow my blog so you don’t miss it?

anneethompson.com

Thank you for reading.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

My first book, 

COUNTING STARS by Anne E Thompson

 is now available as a Kindle Book from Amazon.

xxx

How to Recover From a Craniotomy

How to Recover from a Craniotomy

For the first few weeks after my op, I was fuzzy. Very fuzzy. A sort of "I have drunk too many glasses of wine and can't quite concentrate" sort of fuzzy. I could speak and behave relatively normally, so people didn't really notice, but processing information was an effort. It wasn't unpleasant actually, I just didn't get much done. That was July.

When the fuzz finally cleared (after about three weeks) I was mainly tired. I also found that I became anxious very easily and was very emotional. Anything that would normally have made me think, "Aw, that's sad" now made me cry. Sometimes it was hard to stop crying. Close friends and family became accustomed to seeing me with a red nose and I carried tissues wherever I went. Initially, I found this intensely embarrassing. Then I began to notice that actually, no one minded and many people actual preferred the 'weak' me. There is a lot of competition in life, a lot of keeping up of appearances. It is a strain on everyone. Most people were very comfortable with the scatty red nosed lady who now attended things. I became closer friends with a lot of people. Mostly, people are nice.

After about six months, I began to feel that I was finally 'getting better'. My hair had grown back (my surgeon was a rubbish hair stylist - more a ‘shave down one side’ than a style) and I could stop wearing the annoying scarves over my bald patch. I still got tired very easily, especially if I was doing 'brain stuff'. So I could only read, write, hold a conversation, for a limited amount of time before I felt exhausted. I wasn't physically tired though and a walk across the fields or pottering around in the garden, gave my brain enough rest to then start working for another stint. It was important to recognise what was tired (my brain) and what was fine (my body) so I could still do things, just mentally demanding things needed to be paced correctly. It is important to do as much as we can, partly because it's not fair on other people to be more of a burden than we need to be, partly because unless we try to do things, we won't know if we can.

I also still had memory issues. That Christmas, I did cook the normal big Christmas turkey dinner with all the trimmings. However, it only happened because my son stood next to me, reminding me of what I was doing. He would say things like, "There's a saucepan of water boiling, did you mean to put those sprouts into it? When did you last check the sausages? Are those breadcrumbs for the stuffing?" He didn't actually need to DO anything, but he did the thinking bits for me. Without him, I would happily have boiled saucepans of water while the vegetables sat on the side. I think being aware of the stage of recovery is important, asking for the help that is needed while doing as much as possible yourself. Doing things made me feel more confident; having help, meant that I could actually achieve what I wanted to.

After about nine months, I felt as if I had improved as much as I was going to, though I still got in muddles easily. Previously, I had been a primary school teacher. When teaching a class - sometimes of thirty children - I knew exactly where every child was in the room and roughly what they were doing. I knew which ones could work independently and which ones I needed to check on regularly to keep them on track. Any change in noise or movement, I noticed at once and could stop distractions before they happened. I could respond to questions, accidents, behavioural problems, as they happened, whilst maintaining the general calm of the classroom. All this was a lot of information to hold in my brain. Even when I felt better, I was not confident that I could juggle so much all at once. 

I think the key word here is 'confidence'. It is possible that, had I needed to, I would have coped perfectly well. However, I just wasn't sure that I would notice if a child slipped out of the room. If there HAD been an accident, even if it wasn't my fault, I would have worried that I missed something that could have avoided it. I therefore decided I would not return to teaching, not yet. However, I was bored. A friend suggested that I started writing a blog and this led to writing longer articles and then novels. I still got mentally exhausted and had to take regular breaks, but I felt that I was achieving something. Again, I think only you know what you feel able to cope with. But if you cannot do what you did before, do something different. It is all about taking small steps on the road to recovery - and recovering from brain surgery is a very very long road. Brains heal MUCH slower than broken bones.

The following August, thirteen months post op, we went to Malta. My boys had bought the Game of Thrones board game. This is quite fun, not as rude as the films, and a good 'family bonding' activity. However, it also has lots of rules. Millions of them. I found that I still kept forgetting them and this was extremely frustrating. I became very angry with myself and very emotional (the whole crying thing was better by this time but still not as calm as I would have liked.)I am so not someone who cries over board games, so that added another level of frustration. I just could not hold enough information in my head. 

I'm not sure that there's a solution to this one. There are things that are simply too difficult, which would not have been a problem prior to surgery. I rather spoilt the game by bursting into tears. It would have been better to have laughed and asked for help. I think a lot of recovery is to do with being aware of when to stop, to know what will stretch and improve us and what will simply frustrate us. The thing is, no one else will know what is hard for us. If we had a broken leg, people would see the limp and walk slower for us, they wouldn't expect us to climb a mountain. Once your hair has grown back, everyone will assume that because you look 'normal', you are completely back to where you were. If you're not, it is up to you to tell them. It is okay to say, "I cannot do that anymore."

Eighteen months post op, I was cooking for forty people at a lunch club for the elderly (which was fine unless someone tried to have a conversation at the same time and then things went a little awry - but no one noticed). I was writing every morning. I was raising poultry and running the house. I seemed completely recovered. However, I still got mentally tired easily, I still forgot names and dates and lost track of time. I was chatting about this to a friend who had recovered from cancer after a big op and chemo. She also still gets tired, but she also pointed out that I was eighteen months older - if you include the five years of headache beforehand, I was actually six years older than when I was well. As we get older, things stop working perfectly, especially our brains. A lot of women my age forget things and get tired. 

There is a danger that we blame everything on our surgery. We do not know how we would be if we hadn't been ill and had major surgery. In many ways, it's not worth worrying about. We are where we are. What's important is that we recognise where we are, know that we still have a lot to offer - even if it's different to what we were able to give when we were younger. We have more understanding for people who are older, in pain, finding life difficult. We have had to learn patience, that we are not invincible, we have faced death and lived to tell the tale. Maybe we are better people than we were before.

When I had written this, I was chatting to my son about it, telling him what I had written. During the conversation, I made the point that if I could go back six years, to before I was ever diagnosed with a brain tumour and was given the choice, either to have the tumour and craniotomy as happened, or to never have had either, I would choose the path I had been given. True, it was painful and emotionally difficult. But the things that I have learned about myself, the new way that I have learned to trust God, the knowledge that I have gained about other people, what it means to suffer and survive, new strengths that I never knew that I had - it has been worth it. 

Brain surgery changes us. However, we would change anyway. Never forget that you are a valuable person, what you can offer now may not be the same as you could offer before being ill, you are different. Perhaps you are better.

xxxxxxxxx

Thank you for reading.

If you would like to read my novel, Counting Stars, it is now available as a Kindle book. I used my feelings post craniotomy to describe how one of the characters was feeling after brain surgery. 

Counting Stars

Counting Stars published June 2016 as a Kindle book. Available on Amazon for £1:99

What would you do to save the family you love? How much would you risk to save your child?

It is a time when most of the world’s problems have been solved. There is no longer poverty, climate change, or unemployment and most illnesses are easily cured. Wars are a thing of the past, crime has been eliminated, and everyone works together for a better future. But at what cost? And why does no one in the Global Council ever die?

When Lena’s husband is taken away, she fears she will never see him again. On the run with her two young children, Max and Lucy, she enters a world beyond anything she had ever imagined. She discovers that comfort has a price. And when Max goes missing, she must call on resources she never knew existed, and courage she didn’t know she had.

Lena is a mother first and last. There is nothing special about her, but she will do whatever is necessary to save her family, because that is what mothers do. But will it be enough? And when the stars are finally counted, will Lena be included?

#

Counting Stars is a thriller. It is a fast paced, exciting read, with some ideas that will cause you to think long after you have finished reading.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Counting-Stars-Anne-E-Thompson-ebook/dp/B01GA99KTG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1467134904&sr=1-1&keywords=anne+e+thompson

xxxxxxxxxxxx

I wrote the article, 'How to Have a Brain Tumour' soon after surgery. The link is below:

https://anneethompson.com/how-to/how-to-have-a-brain-tumour/

xxxxxxxx

If you enjoyed this, why not sign up to follow my blog?

anneethompson.com

xxxxxxxxxxxxx