I’m writing a blog. Why?

I’m a writer. And, as most people know, writing is a competitive business, and that’s if you do it professionally. For an amateur like myself it’s even worse. The chances of getting noticed or published in the traditional sense is near impossible. Instead many choose to go the ‘indie’ route, which involves getting work out into the world by self-publishing.

This is, in itself, a whole new kind of minefield. You avoid the bland-yet-soul-crushing rejections from traditional publishers, but you open yourself up to a different kind of disappointment. There are two routes. You can pay a publishing company for a package, which usually includes a set number of printed copies of your work and limited distribution (though usually this ends up nowhere, as the publishers have their money already and make little effort to make your dreams of being the next JK Rowling come true). Alternatively, many use free publishers such as Amazon Kindle to get their writing into someone’s hands. Anyone’s hands. Anyone at all. Sounds simple right?

Wrong. Because nobody is going to read your work when it’s number 538,725 on the Kindle ‘most popular’ list. Add to that the stock cover art and the fact that nobody had heard of you and you’ve got yourself a real challenge to reach readers who aren’t your best mate or your mum. So, not only have you spent most of your free time of that last x years writing that novel, you now have to spend time (and often money) marketing it. Thankfully this is easier than you’d think, what with the ever-expanding world of social media at our fingertips, but it takes time. Regularly. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, writers groups… There’s a lot to manage. And every one of them is chock full of other people just like you, desperately trying to be noticed.

There have been success stories of course, a good example being E. L. James, author of the ‘Fifty Shades’ books. These were the result of paid publishing, and just so happened to take off in a big way. I found this both encouraging (there is hope!) and depressing (my writing is way better than this pile of rubbish). But the fact is, I’m not looking for massive success. I just want to have the confidence to put my work out there, to risk criticism, in the hope that someone I don’t know will read it and enjoy it. In order to achieve this though, I need to market. And that’s what this blog is (primarily) about.

So read on if you will. I will try and post every week, but having a clingy baby does put a slight dent in regular scheduling so we’ll see. If you yourself are a writer, well done. Keep going. It’s a hard slog but there is nothing like seeing your name in print. And if you’re a reader, just go onto Amazon and download a ��3 novel from someone you’ve never heard of. Find something nice to say about it, and leave a review. You might just make their day.