In Review

I knew I'd have to be active on social media, so a lot of work went into building pages and websites, and gathering followers and likes, which was the hardest part. I'm still really struggling to get my work out there, it does take time to garner recognition and reviews. If you're willing to work at it, you'll start to see results with some patience and time.

The hardest part of being published for me was to really own up to this. I've been very closeted about my writing despite self-publishing and self-promoting for a few years now. Close friends at work were aware I was writing and releasing books, but I wasn't advertising this very much. I tried leaving business cards at places around the city, but most shop owners were either bemused or unwilling to allow me to leave a stack by the register, even though my titles were all free and I wasn't out to compete with anyone. I mentioned earlier the art scene in my city is very small, and you have to be quite gutsy to really put yourself out there. But the responses I have had have largely been very positive. I certainly haven't had anyone tell me I should give up anytime soon, everyone has been very encouraging and impressed with what I have written.

While I was waiting for Live to Tell to become a reality, I decided I wanted to work on a novel, and I managed to bash out a very rough draft in about 13 days. This draft has since travelled with me to the UK and Amsterdam, which became Into the Other. I was determined to do a novel this time, and while I didn't think the story was particularly interesting, it still managed to maintain my editor's attention. I feel like both books were a success for me, as they'd signified the accomplishment of my long-term goal of being traditionally published. I know many people feel it's not about how you're published but how well you do once your work is out there, however it was important to me to have my work officially recognised by a publisher. While I was at university, we never really discussed self-publishing, our goal was primarily to be picked up by a publisher and to help represent the Western Australian writers' scene on the world stage. At that point, in the early 2000s, ebooks and online publishing houses weren't even a reality. There was talk of a lot of all forms of media going online, and that newspapers and print books would eventually be a thing of the past, but we were still a long way off seeing how this would actually play out. And there's definitely still a market for print books.

I'm not sure about my path from here, as far as I can see, it's anything goes. I think if someone approached me with an option to turn any of my books into a film, I'd probably shrivel up in a ball of anxiety about someone taking my words and turning them into moving pictures, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. For now, I'm happy with how far I have come as a writer.