I've just had a couple of weeks off after publishing my third novel, LONG SHADOWS, and am now back at my desk and working on book 4.

I have to say, I felt more nervous publishing the third novel than I did the previous two. At first I wasn't sure why. I'd redrafted and redrafted it until I was happy with the story but I still felt nervous as publication day approached.

I finally realised the reason. When I published the first two novels I was selling half a dozen books on average each month. In June, when I published LONG SHADOWS, I sold over 800.

In the last six months my sales have rocketed in the UK, mostly for first novel, DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION and many people seem to like it and have kindly added ratings/reviews onto Amazon and Goodreads.

Whilst this is wonderful and what I've always dreamed about; I realised that for the first time, I was publishing a novel into a world where a large group of people knew my books and would therefore have expectations about what the new one ought to be like; especially as it continued the story of several characters from DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION.

I felt a lot of pressure. In a recent interview that I did I was asked about which of my 3 books I thought was the better work. In my response I explained how personally, I don't like books by one author to become too 'samey' unless they're part of a series, and that I'm aware of that when I write. I've tried to be a bit different in each of my novels. While DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION was written in the first person, NOTHING VENTURED was four separate stories but all interlinked. With LONG SHADOWS there's more of a concentration on the burgeoning relationship between Derek and Angela where their pasts are still haunting them.

While each one maintains the humour and my writing style, I think they all have a different quality. But what if I'm the only person that wants that from a book? What if the majority of people like their books 'samey?' That's why I felt scared publishing my new novel. What if I'd got it wrong and people stopped reading my books?

I realised then that I was just allowing my insecurities to take over. I've written a novel that I think tells a good story, has plenty of twists and is still very funny. At the end of the day all I can do (what any writer can do) is write a book that I like and that I'm proud of. No one can please everyone. Some will love the new book, some will hate it; hopefully the majority will like it. It's been the same for my first two novels. I've received some bad ratings/reviews as well as good.

So it's onto number four and another 'different' book; a humorous crime story this time. I did some work on this last year and am really looking forward to getting on with it. Come publication day though I'll probably be terrified again!