Tuesday was another book-birthday for me. My first book was published in March 2018 and my new novel Alia Henry and the Ghost Writer went LIVE this week.
I was honoured to be interviewed by Catherine Berry, author of But You are in France, Madame. It was so lovely to meet Catherine over the phone and to be able to promote my work on her blog. I read her memoir a couple of years ago then gave it to an acquaintance who was thinking of moving to France with her two young children.
I had a couple of pre-orders for the book which was a nice surprise, but there was little in the way of fanfare or sales. There is nothing quite as anti-climactic than launching a book! You know that feeling you get after a really great party? Well it’s a bit like that, but the writing of the book was the party. At least there’s a lot less cleaning up to do!
I went to dinner with some friends who were chuffed to be at their first “book launch” even though that wasn’t the plan when we went to dinner.
It was wonderful to release the book and I have had some beautiful comments and reviews. But just like that, the climax of the week was over. Right on cue with Mercury going retro, the sun came up the next day and I opened the document for my new novel. I got ‘write’ back on the horse. It’s par for the course, that the hard work of marketing begins after you type ‘the end’. At this stage, I’m not interested in spending money on advertising. I built a brand in the Dream Job a few years back with zero advertising budget. I mainly used Pinterest and Instagram so I’ll just keep doing the same, ‘organic’ marketing (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram) and more importantly, I’ll keep writing. As the saying goes, the best marketing for your current book is releasing your next one.
So why write? I love writing but if I was to work out my hourly rate, it would be well and truly in the red.
Why do humans have this seemingly inherent need to create? I don’t know the answer to why except it’s a desire to find meaning in life. A couple of years ago, I gave up painting because I just couldn’t find a Growth Zone no matter how hard I tried. It had always been my dream, to ‘make it’ as an artist, but after making art to order for years, I found I just didn’t want it enough any more. It was time to give it away.
Your girlhood dream isn’t necessarily your womanhood dream.
~Cleo Wade
With writing I can easily get past the fear zone, push firmly into the learning zone and now I’m touching the growth zone regularly. I probably wasn’t ‘put on this earth’ to write stories, but who knows? Storytelling is an ancient skill that is still utterly relevant and essential today and while I’m at it I might even inspire others to take their own journey.
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Feature Photo by Christine Betts. Palm Beach, Queensland.
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