
Why I decided to go Indie.
January 15th saw the publication of Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things, my fourth Tudor novel. I decided to go Indie with this novel. Why? I no longer wanted to be published with small publishers.
I had signed with my first small publisher in 2002, and continued to be published with small publishers until late 2018. I will never regret being published with small publishers, but late 2018 I woke up to the fact (tutoring at University keeps me busy and my mind on other things!) I had only earned $200 over two years for my first two Tudor novels with one of these publishers. Realising I had to take back total control of my writing career to change this, I created my own imprint, Poesy Quill Publishing, and took back the rights of these novels to publish them myself.
I confess the success of Indie published friends persuaded me that this was the right path for me to take. Some of these friends also guided me about how to get my novels selling again. It did not take long before the close to flatline of book sales became a beating heart again. I allowed myself to hope again. Could self-publishing be the way for me to achieve my dream of being a full-time writer? For years, I had worked as an educator for the income necessary to financially support my life. But I have always believed I could be financially successful as a writer – if life allowed me more time to write. And my belief is rooted in history. The Light in the Labyrinth was my PhD artefact. I wrote it while supported by a three year PhD scholarship (bliss). In its first year of its publishing life, The Light in the Labyrinth
proved I could write a true bestseller. For one lovely year, The Light in the Labyrinth
provided enough income for me to be able to just write. It even paid for another research trip to England. I count myself as extremely fortunate as a writer to have experienced at least once in my writing life this kind of success.
Six or so months after making my decision to start my own imprint, I knew Indie publishing had been the right decision for my writing career. It was also obvious I needed to publish more books under Poesy Quill Publishing to become a self-supporting writer. I took back the rights to my third novel, the first part of my Katherine of Aragon story – and began mapping out my plan to publish its sequel.
The many challenges of last year reminded me that if I want to support myself through writing then it is important for me to write. The more books I have under my belt, the more chance I have to earn the money I need to be a ‘full time’ writer.
So – my goal for the first half of 2021 is to draft out my fifth novel, as well as my first nonfiction biography – commissioned by Sword and Pen.
Which is why I signed up at Patreon.
What I plan to do for my patrons subscribing to my patreon platform is to write pieces about writing, my research for my two new books and reflections about life. I may even publish recipes that keep my family happy, but also keep me happy by not keeping me in the kitchen for hours.
Want to help me complete two books this year?
Please consider becoming one of my patrons!
P.S. If pateron is not your thing, another way to help me is by buying my novels. Smile – ebooks are so affordable! You can also read all my novels for FREE at Kindle Unlimited.
P.S. The original version of this post was published at Patreon.
Comments (0)