Two Years as an Independent Author
November 2022 marked my second anniversary as an independent author, when I published Hall of Bones, the first book in The Brotherhood of the Eagle series. I wrote a similar reflective piece on the first anniversary of its release, so as 2022 comes to an end and Christmas approaches it’s interesting to think about what’s changed and what I’ve learned over the past 12 months.
A year ago the dizzying high of being selected as an SPFBO Finalist was fresh in my mind, and I’ve written about my amazing experiences in that competition in subsequent blog entries. Back then I also began to recognise the achievement of publishing a good book was but one step on a long road. Put simply, a four-book series needs, well, four books.
I think the adrenaline rush of releasing Hall of Bones to such a positive reception provided a burst of energy, which carried me through publishing the sequel, Sundered Souls, in July 2021. As I geared up to continue the series, though, I found fatigue was beginning to set in.
I do all my own editing and after two years I can confidently say my main learning point in relation to this is self-editing isn’t easy. I don’t have the budget for professional editorial services, so I accepted early on when I decided to independently publish that this was something I was going to do myself. This approach, coupled with the fact I write long books, certainly has an impact on my speed of release. I’m fortunate that my agent John Jarrold takes a look at every project. Getting another perspective on your work is really important and that dialogue between agent and author plays a vital role in shaping the final version of the novel.
As I wrestled with the long process of editing the third book in the series, Lost Gods, I found I was also in a major battle with imposter syndrome. I don’t think this ever goes away completely and I’m starting to understand you have to channel that anxiety in a positive way. If you’re too fearless, you’re not taking on board the feedback of your agent, test readers and reviewers, leaving unresolved weaknesses in plot or character development. At the other extreme, if you attempt to accommodate every opinion, you end up trying to please everyone, resulting in a novel that loses your unique voice and pleases no one.
In October’s blog I mentioned how Lost Gods proved to be a challenging novel, where I found myself struggling with the scale and scope of the material and plotlines I’d established in the first two books. I experienced a serious case of nerves ahead of its release on 1st November 2022, finding it difficult to gain perspective on my writing and have confidence it was ‘good enough’. Originally, I’d published merely to please myself, and for about 12 months I only had myself for company as an author, so that was fine! However, as I slowly gained readers another pressure began to build – a heartfelt desire not to let anyone down when they’d really enjoyed books one and two. There were times, as I edited and rewrote vast chunks of Lost Gods, when I doubted I could hit those heights once more.
There were two different aspects that helped pull me through and release that third book, the first of which relates to self-editing. I’d discovered it was essential to build a break into the editorial process. As an author reading your own work, you tend to read what you think you’ve written, not what’s actually on the page (thank goodness for the audio function on Word, which has been a lifesaver in terms of sentence structure, rhythm, and those sneaky typos). Coming back to your manuscript with a fresh pair of eyes is vital, and this is where short fiction proved so useful.
I released my very first short story, The Foundling, in November 2021 and found I really enjoyed the process. It completely cleared my mind of other projects and enabled me to focus in a sustained way on a specific story for a short space of time. There was the satisfaction of completing something quickly, as well as learning a new skill. Different storytelling techniques are required when using 5,000 to 10,000 words, rather than 150,000. However, the main benefit has been providing that ability to use short fiction as a way to ‘reset’ between drafts of novels. I think these stories have improved my writing skill and I hope this translates into my longer works as a result. That opportunity to rest and regroup definitely helped me work my way through the problems I encountered on Lost Gods and, ultimately, I was able to complete a novel that I felt met the standards I’d set for myself.
Short fiction was a useful way to improve from a technical perspective. However, the other aspect of this that I really underestimated was the emotional toll of a sustained period producing novels and releasing one every year. Doing this around the demands of the day job and wider family life isn’t easy. I’m not sure I would have been able to sustain these levels of productivity without a wider support network.
The encouragement of friends and family is vital but so too is the support from the wider writing community. It’s helpful to have people on your side who really get what you’re going through, where you can bounce ideas around and also share early versions of your work. Honestly, I don’t think I would have released another book without the support of those book bloggers, readers and writers I’ve met and become friends with.
It's a strange thing but you never quite know who is going to become important to you on this journey. Every now and again those random encounters bring you into contact with someone and you just click. Thank you to everyone who’s supported and encouraged me in any way – you helped me maintain a positive mindset and kept me going. When I look back on the last two years they have been incredibly positive in so many ways, and that’s down to this wonderful, nurturing and engaging writing community.
Last year I made the point that the biggest challenge for new authors is to make people aware their work even exists in a competitive and fast-moving environment. I understand now just what that entails and how you have to keep working on spreading the word, alongside creating content people want to read. November 2022 was my best month as an author by several measures, not least the amount I earned in royalties and the number of pages read through Kindle Unlimited. I won’t be giving up the day job any time soon but it is tangible proof the audience for The Brotherhood of the Eagle is still growing, a fact which spurs me to carry on writing!
2023 is shaping up to be my busiest year yet as an author and I’m excited to see what the future has in store. Whatever your plans might be over the next few weeks, I hope you enjoy the Christmas season and I wish everyone a prosperous and peaceful 2023.
