20 YEARS AS AN AUTHOR
Yesterday was my 20th Authorversary, in that it was 20 years since Blackout, my debut, was first published. I look back to that launch party and I can't quite believe it's been 20 years. I didn't ever really think, back then at least, that I would get to this point. I didn't think I would publish a second book, let alone over twenty more of them. It was a whole lot of fun coming down to my office all decorated for the occasion and I was spoilt and celebrated, as it should be with this kind of milestone.
I usually do a post around this time every year that talks about what I've learned in the time since I first became a published author, and while I plan to touch on that a little today, I also wanted to talk about the fact that dreams may always seem way off and like you'll never get there, but you will. It takes time, sometimes a lot more time than you first realise, but you will get to that point where you look back and wonder why you thought you'd never get there.
I wrote my first 'book' when I was 13, I refer to it that way because it wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a complete novel. It was 36 pages of A4 and I even sent it off to publishers in hopes of making it big. They were lovely about it, sending me back letters about their young writers programs, but I kinda assumed that was it for me, and I wouldn't ever actually be published. I never planned or dreamed of being an author from a young age, it just felt like something I could do as well as my other plans.
See, I'd always, from a very young age, wanted to be a doctor. It was probably a side effect of spending a lot of my time as a kid in and out of hospital. That didn't get any better with age, and I was so sure that was what I would be doing with my grown up life. It was only when my health got worse, and I picked up a few other conditions, and even before that, when I realised that I didn't have the smarts to do medicine, that I turned to other pursuits.
When I was retired at 19 on medical grounds from the working world, I didn't really know what to do with myself. I didn't want to do nothing, and my health limited what I could do otherwise. That's when a story idea, one that had been brewing from those school days, burst forth from my mind onto paper and I found a way to do something with my life. I could write. I could be published, and a few short years later I was, but I never imagined it going beyond that.
See, there wasn't the indie world then as there is now, and the only way I could be published, having tried the early 2000s version of querying, and not been successful, was to go with something called a vanity press. I have many regrets about doing that, but the truth is that I also wouldn't have taken that leap into publishing if I hadn't. I knew it wasn't something I could afford to do again, so I took my best work at the time, and pushed the button to send that out into the world.
I kept writing, sure, because I wanted and needed to write, but I always kind of assumed it would be my one and only published work. How wrong was I? It became my career, it became something where I don't actually know where I'd be without. Thanks to the advent of ebooks and KDP and the indie life, and I finally had a way to share the stories I'd already written, and write a whole load of new ones. So while I regret using a vanity press because of all the hassle they brought me, I do not regret publishing when I did.
I was 23 when Blackout hit the shelves, I'm 43 now, and have written just under 50 books. I would love for them all to, one day, also be out there for people to read, but I honestly don't know if I'll manage it. I know I was made to be an author, and I know that I will always celebrate getting that chance to. My stories were made to be told, just as a lot of other writers are the same.
So here's to the next 20 years of author life. I can't wait to take you along on the journey with me.
Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!
