Well it’s official: I’ve now published two novels. Eat Pray Shag is out in the world, and the comments and reviews from readers so far have been so wonderful. Everyone who’s read it has loved this book—many even more so than Laura the Explorer—and I now have people waiting eagerly for book 3 in the series!

So, what has it been like publishing my second book? I’ve learnt a few new things, but also have learnt a few what-not-to-do things. Here’s my breakdown of the positives and negatives about publishing my second book:

POSITIVES

1. I’m so proud of this book, and I’m so happy that it has connected so well with readers! I knew it was strong from the start, but hearing what others think of it has really confirmed for me that this is a great book.
2. I didn’t hire a professional editor for a structural edit on this one, yet the book is so well structured and paced anyway. It’s great to know that I do have what it takes to write a well-structured book without needing to pay for feedback along the way!
3. My own blog proved invaluable in streamlining the book production process – so often I found myself referring back to my own blog posts to remember how I formatted my first book, and that definitely helped speed up the process of the second one.
4. I learnt that it’s okay – and very enjoyable – to reach out to experts for assistance with book research. When I was finalising the last draft of Eat Pray Shag, I contacted Diane Riley from The Australian School of Tantra and asked her if she could read some of the scenes between Laura and Truth to make sure I was accurately capturing what a Tantric expert might do and say. Diane was so lovely in helping me out, and hearing how excited she is about having Tantra represented in a fiction novel really made my week!
5. Hiring a fabulous copy-editor and cover designer again were so worth the money. The final book looks (and reads) amazingly.

NEGATIVES

Okay, so there were a few things that I definitely think I could have done better. Many of these were due to the fatigue and lack of morale that comes from being an indie author—something that has been written about really well by Joanna Penn in her various non-fiction books about self-publishing—and I have a feeling I’ll need to do a blog post about it sometime soon. But for now, here are the things I wish I’d done better:

1. Not being in such a rush. I probably should have learnt this after publishing my first book, but I’ll definitely learn it now for my third! Basically, I didn’t give myself any time to do pre-marketing before the book came out. I literally got all the final files together and published it barely a week later. Reasons for this include: Feeling like it had been too long between books (it had); Putting too much pressure on myself; Not factoring in normal work/life things in my timeline; not feeling confident enough to actively sell my own work.
2. Expecting people who bought the first book would automatically buy the second book. Reality is, I’m pretty sure 90% of them don’t even know there’s a sequel out. I think I was relying on platforms like Amazon and Goodreads to give those alerts that say things like ‘new book from an author you’ve read’, however since I loaded and released the files online really quickly, I don’t think any of those automatic emails and alerts caught it. I might be wrong (I don’t actually know how the back-ends work on those platforms) but this is something I really want to work out prior to releasing my next book.
3. Basically ignoring all the advice on book marketing that I already know. Ha. Good work me.

Anyway, the beauty about being an indie author is that we’re in it for the long haul. We can—and will—keep promoting our books and getting them to work for us in the long term. Just like with Laura the Explorer, Eat Pray Shag is going to be a slow burn in terms of marketing and getting it out into the world. And in the meantime, it’s time to focus on writing book 3!

What I’m working on:

Laura the Explorer Book 3

Anyone who’s read Eat Pray Shag will have noticed that the title for book 3 has already been revealed … and I’m already hard at work on this book.

Kalileia

I’m at a bit of an impasse with Kalileia right now. I’ve been working on redoing the beginning, and I’ve either made it a lot better or kind of destroyed it. Jury’s still out.

Second fantasy YA novel

So there’s another project I started a while back (actually wrote a chunk of it during NaNoWriMo a few years ago), which I’m really excited about. I’ve recently been playing around with this again, but whether it’ll return to the backburner or not I haven’t decided.

Secret Project

I have a completely separate, secret project in the works, something that isn’t going to be a novel. This could turn into nothing … or it could turn into something super cool.  But there’s a couple of other people involved in this, and I hope I’ll have some exciting news to share about it soon.

Okay, enough cryptic comments about stuff I’m working on. The point is, I’m doing a lot of different things at the moment, including a whole heap of new digital marketing stuff for my real (paid) job. But, yes, I will soon be focussing wholeheartedly on LTE3. Promise.

What I’m Reading

Recently I’ve read:

Wool by Hugh Howey – Really loved this! Although I wasn’t sure about all the guns … though I suppose it just makes it a really American book.

Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas. Having been a long-time fan of Sarah J. Maas, I was looking forward to this book. There were so many things I really enjoyed about it, but I found myself wondering why her editors didn’t ask her to simply strip out the single sex scene and make it a YA novel. Everything else felt very YA … it kind of reaffirms my long-time theory now, which is:

Big name authors no longer receive honest advice from editors. Editors kind of just let them go off and do their own things, acknowledging (rightly so) that readers will buy the book regardless. But I’ve seen this a lot now with successful authors where their later books could have done with some really strong advice and direction early in the drafting process. Do editors no longer provide this once you’re a success? And if you turn in a final book which isn’t as great as it could be, do they just publish it anyway?

Hmm. Food for thought.