Well, this was a surprise.

I started my own publishing company for my first book because I didn't want a traditional publisher to sand the corners off to make it more 'sellable'. I'd self-published nine books before—four of my own, five for other people—but always Amazon-only. The Girl Who Was There was my first step into grown-up publishing.

And that's where it got interesting. I registered The Girl Who Wouldn't Die with Nielsen, the UK book registry, before I'd sorted out Amazon. I thought I was being efficient. But it turns out that doing so ties Amazon's hands. No way to schedule a release any more. And no scheduled release means no author copies in my hands, and most of my sales are to real-life people in real-life rooms.

So... yesterday... I hit 'publish'... not 'schedule'.

And that means book two is out. It's three weeks early, but that also means it came out before my birthday which I kinda wanted, so the mess did me a bit of a favour.

But also... so much admin! Late nights, lots of ice cream eaten, tea, chocolate biscuits, and processes rewritten at two in the morning!

My current state: frazzled, but loving it!

I wouldn't have it any other way.

And to be fair, I'd rather trip over these teething problems on my own books than on the books of the authors who will be publishing with Silent Stone in the coming years.

But most importantly... my second book is out in the world.