Published! Amazing! A dream come true! There are not enough exclamation marks for the achievement of labelling yourself as an author. It comes with people telling you they always knew you’d do it. With hugs and messages of support on social media. With invitations to your children’s school and a feature on a colleague’s book club list. With a collective exhale as the book is printed and looks like it should. With a flurry of orders from relatives, workmates (past and present), and half your Facebook contacts.

But then, like the athlete who competes at the Olympics, once the cameras are gone, what next?

Upon publishing the book, there were lessons to learn (still). I had been told the ‘print on demand’ route would fulfil orders five days after contact. It took three weeks. I was told I couldn’t sell in bookshops without a relationship with Gardners Book Ltd. I had a relationship with them. What I didn’t have was the book registered with Nielsen Title Editor – making the details accessible to retailers. I should have ironed these problems out before telling people they could buy the book, giving myself six weeks from printing a proof copy to selling. Oh well. I know now…

But once all these issues were gone, I had a nagging hollowness that couldn’t be filled.

I had started this journey with the goal of being published. The story, the cover, the process: everything had unfolded over that period to generate a physical book that can be bought and held in a person’s hand. Fantastic.

So why wasn’t I celebrating at the finish line?

I planned to write a sequel. I had the first draft finished and had completed a structural edit. But I put that on hold because I felt I wasn’t finished with the first book. The journey was incomplete. I couldn’t move on.

I’d interviewed authors on the N2tS podcast who believed it wasn’t their job to promote their novels – other than posting on personal accounts. Their job was to write. They’d dreamed of being an author, not a marketing expert. But I discovered that I disagreed. What was the point of writing another book without attracting an audience to this one? And by ‘an audience’ I meant people who hadn’t bought the book to support me, but had been enticed to the story from outside my sphere of influence. Writing is amazing. To write for a living would be incredible. Moving from story to story. Engaging in your passion constantly. What a dream. But to reach that dream, I had to promote the book, surely? And I can’t rely on anyone to do that more ardently than me.

If writing a book was structured and linear, I would have to leave the beaten track to continue the journey.

And what a new route! (there’s that exclamation again)

I had no idea how to start. Podcast interviews? I messaged creators on Instagram and had a couple that will land in 2025.

Articles? I googled ‘author interviews’ and contacted sites that were interested in my journey. They sent me questions to answer and publish.

Newspapers? Radio? Buoyed by interest, I contacted them and received… silence. Perhaps I aimed too high, but lost little.

Social media? I’d posted as soon as I’d published the book; if anyone was interested, they’d have bought it already.

Author groups? I joined two. Really great for support. Encouraging. Sharing each other’s posts. Great people with the best intentions. But, as much as everyone supported one another, it didn’t lead to the sale of books.

What to do then to increase your audience?

I wish I had an answer.

But the answer is not to ignore the problem and plough on with writing. It can’t be. I can’t join the dots that lead from there to success. The next book will come. I will love sculpting it. Right now, however, I should change the name of this blog and continue working: Zero to Published becomes Zero to Noticed!!!