Publishing is a lifelong learning journey and in the past few months I’ve certainly had an education. Now that my manuscript has been typeset, the cover artwork has been uploaded, the publication details have been added and the book made available for pre-order, I’ve been busy behind the scenes gearing up for launch day. Essentially what that means is, I’ve been doing research on book bloggers and reaching out to ARC reviewers.
I made ARC copies using Calibre, which was straightforward; an important aspect for me, as I’m not the most confident person when it comes to technology. Having copies available in Mobi, ePub and PDF was important, as each reviewer so far has had a different preference for what type of file they prefer. Calibre was user-friendly when it came to uploading my original doc X manuscript, ready for conversion.
Extra proof copies for ARCs
Of course, I also bought extra proof copies to send to book bloggers who prefer physical copies. Apart from the ‘Not for Resale’ watermark and barcode on the back instead of ISBN, they give a good idea of how the book will look once published.
There’s not too much more to be said for now on the process, as my reviewers are still reading. With 2 months to go until launch day, there’s not a huge rush. I’ll be sure to keep you posted. In the meantime, look out for a forthcoming blog post on costs involved so far on my publishing journey.
Guess what came in the post? My paperback proof copy of my second novel, The Buddha’s Bone, arrived a few days ago. You can imagine how excited I was, right? A rainbow appeared just as I was taking my promotional photos. If that isn’t a good omen, I don’t know what is!
Like the e-book, the paperback will be released on 25th October, right in time for Halloween. It’s not a horror – it’s literary fiction/social realism, but Halloween is my favourite season, so it’s double the fun to look forward to. If you want to listen to a sample reading, check out my video on YouTube here:
It has been an intense week for me. Since I got my new laptop on 29th July, specifically one with enough RAM to power Kindle Direct Publishing (fyi, 8GB RAM is recommended) I’ve been getting stuck into my self-publishing journey. Last Saturday, I spent half the day learning how to format my manuscript for publication as an Ebook. Thankfully KDP have a handy Ebook template that you can download, which is very user-friendly. I’m not the most technologically adept person in the world, but I was able to manage converting my MS without any major hiccups. I chose to use Draft2Digital as a distributor for my Ebook to all the other major online bookstores aside from Amazon – Kobo, Barnes&Noble, etc – and they also provided a very user-friendly Ebook converter with a variety of different templates and fonts. I’ll be publishing separately on KDP in addition, mainly since I already had an account beforehand, but also so that I can run discount promotions from time to time.
This weekend I’ve been typesetting my manuscript for the paperback version, which will be released on 25th October when the Ebook is live. Typesetting was something that I hadn’t a clue about, or where to start, as recently as a few weeks ago. I had vague notions of using Adobe InDesign, but had heard that it could be quite challenging for a beginner. Thankfully KDP have a template for paperback to use that includes all the margins and layouts already formatted. I chose to select 5×8 as my trim (A5 size) after grabbing a few books off my nearest bookshelf at home and measuring them with a tape measure. Yep, I really was that clueless about the process! I was then able to insert my title page, copyright and acknowledgements followed by the rest of the MS where the template indicated to paste everything. The whole process turned out to be much more straightforward than I had been fearing. In fact, the bulk of my time was checking that there were no blank pages, that all the first lines had been correctly indented and that there weren’t any orphans and widows: I learned that there are settings for widow and orphan control under ‘line spacing’ on MS Word that you can ‘check’ to do this automatically for you. A note regarding publishing – paperback books cannot be set for pre-order on Amazon, so be sure to save your uploaded book as a draft instead of hitting publish, if your Ebook is set for a pre-order date – as your paperback will go live right away otherwise.
Preparing a book cover is another matter. An author friend of mine advised that Canva are a great source of cover artwork for those on a budget – she had used it for her book that she self-published last year. Now, I’m no graphic designer by any means, but I have a background in art and I had an idea in mind about how I wanted my cover to look. I was delighted to find an image to suit what I had visualised and was able to add graphics to it with ease. Changing the background colours and fonts is also much more straightforward than I had been fearing and I was able to tweak my photo exactly as I wanted. Draft2Digital require that the resolution of your cover artwork is 1600×2400, which is easy to do by selecting those requirements on Canva.
If you’re a fellow Indie author looking to self-publish your book, I would highly recommend using Draft2Digital if you’re looking to ‘go wide’ and Canva if you’re wanting to create your own cover artwork on a budget. KDP is also very user-friendly and has a great and easy to navigate cover creator tool as an option if you’re stuck. Whatever you decide on your own self-publishing journey, good luck with it!
Cover reveal! It’s time to share my exciting news…my literary novel, The Buddha’s Bone, is coming on 25th October. Here’s the blurb from the back cover:
Death
Kimberly Thatcher wasn’t an English teacher. She wasn’t a poet. She wasn’t an adventurer. Now she wasn’t even a fiancée. But when one of her fellow non-Japanese colleagues tried to make her a victim, she said no.
Cremation
In Japan on a one-year teaching contract at a private English language school, and with her troubled relationship far behind her in London, Kimberly set out to make new friends. She would soon discover the darker side of travelling alone – and people’s true intentions.
Rebirth
As she came to question the nature of all those around her – and herself – Kimberly was forced to embark on a soul-searching journey into emptiness. What came next after you looked into the abyss? Could Kimberly overcome the trauma – of sexual assault and pregnancy loss – blocking her path to personal enlightenment along the way, and forge a new identity in a journey of-
As July draws to a close, it’s time for another literary check-in. Back in mid-June I had started the summer season with a checklist of things that I wanted to accomplish over July and August. I’ve been making my way through the list and have ticked a couple of things off so far. Here’s a summary:
1. Novel WIP#4, which is my supernatural/psychological horror story, is at 70,400 words. I’m three chapters away from the finish line, hurray!
2. I bought myself a great new Acer laptop yesterday (which was slightly above my budget, but it’s for writing/publishing purposes so it’s worth it!)
3. I have found Canva to be much more user-friendly than I had been worried about; pleased to say that I’ve designed my own professional-looking cover artwork instead of having to hire a graphic designer. Win-win!
4. I have decided to go with a distributor to enable my book to go wide. During the past few weeks I’ve been doing my homework – namely research comparing the different options (Bookbaby, Draft2Digital, Ingramsparks, etc) and watching YouTube videos by Indie Authors on how they did it. It’s feeling far less overwhelming than this time last month.
5. I’ve also been doing my homework re book marketing services and have found one within my budget who has had a thumbs up from at least one successful Indie Author I know. A trepidatious yes on this one.
As for the writing side, novel WIP#3 is basically finished and ready to be published. I’m lucky to have an amazing team of beta readers to read my final drafts, so I have no doubts about the quality of the manuscript on this particular book. Whether the theme is what may interest readers is another matter. But, if I could predict what an audience wants to read, then I’d be a bestselling author, wouldn’t I? Ah, but to dream!
2021 has been a frustrating year for me on a publishing and personal level, but for the purpose of this post I’ll be sticking to my traditional publishing gripes. Background to this is that my debut novel, Gods of Avalon Road, was published in 2019 by Blossom Spring Publishing. That has been a good experience overall: I’m still even getting royalties trickling in on sales 2 years later which although meagre (aww) are a happy sign that people are still buying my book (yay).
In November 2020 I completed my third novel (novel work-in-progress #1 remains unpublished as the prose, being experimental, has so far had no luck on the trad-publishing slushpile!). Novel WIP#3 is a mainstream social realism story about a foreigner’s travels in Japan and deals with the themes of loss of identity and test of spirituality and faith. I received a request for a full MS from a small press publisher in December 2020 and as you can imagine, was rightly celebrating. In January this year, my hopes were raised further when said publisher sent me 2 A4 pages of detailed strengths and weaknesses of my story, including suggested revisions. Happily the bulk of this critique was in sync with a beta-reader, who also happens to have a PhD in English Literature – in other words, I valued this feedback. I implemented the changes to my MS that I agreed with and queried some of the other points; the publisher had welcomed any questions I had, and I did indeed have a small list, including my ideas on possible alternatives to their suggestions on parts that I felt might deflect from the protagonist’s growth arc or detract from the story. Reasonable enough, or so I thought. I’m not a ‘precious’ writer; I’ve worked with publishers and editors numerous times over the past decade to know how to cut stuff that doesn’t work, or revise parts to improve a book, etc. So, when I didn’t receive any response to my questions about the suggested revisions, or to a follow up email a few weeks later, you can imagine how I then came to view this publisher as unprofessional. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was a waste of time; after all, they gave me a detailed critique free of charge. I understand that a publisher might be busy prioritising books that are slated for publication first rather than new projects, but if they can’t even be bothered to reply to an author, then is that really going to be a viable business relationship? Exactly!
Of course, this publisher was only one of several dozen that I had sent my cover letter and sample chapters to; one of many simultaneous submissions, for those of you reading who know the terminology. Sim subs don’t guarantee a writer will get a response any quicker though. As it happens, I’ve still been waiting since November to hear anything back from at least 20 of the above; a slow process in a writing career. I’m sure you might be wondering why I haven’t mentioned the publisher of my debut novel amidst all this? My debut, Gods of Avalon Road, was published as a standalone novel, which meant I had a one book contract (as opposed to some writer friends who have had 3 book contracts offered, on the basis that they then write 2 sequels after their debut). Additionally, novel WIP#3 is a completely different theme to the genre of my published novel – social realism, not urban fantasy. It also deals with heavy themes and topics that my publisher of Gods of Avalon Road strictly prohibits in their list of topics: namely sexual assault. Although I deal with this in a more abstract than graphic sense, I can understand how some publishers may want to avoid this topic entirely. Publishing is a business after all, and some may want to steer clear of what they view as risky topics that could potentially offend readers. In a nutshell, I didn’t even submit novel WIP#3 to Blossom Spring Publishing for consideration in the first place as it would have wasted all of our time.
Considering all of the above has helped solidify my decision to go forward on my self-publishing journey as an Indie Author. It’s new territory for me – I have no experience of typesetting a book or sourcing cover artwork/photography, as this was handled by the publishers of my three poetry collections and my novel. Nor have I made up my mind about whether to DIY it or use a distribution service to publish my work. These are all decisions that will unfold over the coming months depending on how skilled I become while undertaking these tasks – or not! Whatever route I decide to take, be sure I will write many more blog posts about it.
Finally! I’m up to 60k words with draft 1 of novel WIP#4, which is my supernatural horror. I needed to do some chapter planning for this most recent chapter (chapter 28) as there was a time skip in between and I had to make sure the continuity was sound. Since all is going well with this story, I’ve decided to make a plan for the coming weeks, which is loosely as follows:
1. Day job finishes at the end of June (I work in a grammar school, so I have July and August off, hooray!). This means I’m going to knuckle down and make writing my temporary 9-5.
2. Finish draft 1 of novel WIP#4 by hopefully the end of July.
3. Buy a new laptop and figure out how to typeset novel WIP#3 (that was finished last November and is currently out on submission to traditional publishers) using Adobe InDesign.
4. Source cover art for novel WIP#3, or maybe attempt to DIY it myself on Canva.
5. At some point hopefully towards the end of 2021, I’m hoping to ‘go wide’ with novel WIP#3. I’ll write about my reasons for deciding to self-publish in a later blog post.
For now I’m celebrating my novel writing progress this weekend with a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio, since I’m officially three-quarters of the way through novel WIP#4. 60,000 words is no easy feat, especially while working full-time, wrangling a rambunctious preschooler and running Bindweed Magazine. Whew!
Ok, so amidst all the writing updates on my novel progress lately, it’s time for another personal post. Back to my epic weight loss journey then!
As you may know from my post in May 2020 I lost 3 stone/42 pounds/ 18 kilos from doing strict keto for 5 months between 10th April and 10th September during lockdown last year. After 3 years of rapid weight gain during pregnancy and my year of maternity leave afterwards I found myself 3 stone heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight. All through my twenties I had taken it for granted that I could eat what I wanted and stay slim. I didn’t have a sweet tooth. But pregnancy changed that! I craved junk food and ate whole tiers of cake and multi-packs of crisps in-between my 3 regular meals. I indulged myself, using hormones as an excuse to fuel my sugar addiction. This led to my first venture into keto.
Keto journey 1 – how I lost 3 stone:
Struggling to do household tasks because of being obese (my BMI reached 31. 30 and above is obese) was what motivated me to start keto in April 2020. Before keto I was used to eating 3000 calories a day of which 250-300grams were carbs; not needed for a 5ft 4 woman! I spent 3 weeks prepping my body by gradually reducing carbs, starting by eliminating the 5 big ones: bread, pasta, potatoes, rice and refined sugar. I then went strict keto, keeping carbs to under 10g a day, although often my overall daily calories were high at around 1600-1800 a day. I made a 2 weekly menu for myself that I rotated. This got repetitive quickly, but I was motivated by the weight loss I experienced and not by variety in my diet. My menu was something like this: black coffee with no breakfast (intermittent fasting)/ naked bacon with eggs, manchego cheese and avocado for lunch with dessert of 2 raspberries and 3 blueberries with 30ml of double cream/ steak or salmon or chicken breast with side salad of 2 brocoli florets and half a tomato in olive oil for dinner. Boring, but it got the job done. After 7 days of keto flu (headaches, lethargy, leg cramps) my body adapted to ketosis and burned between 1.8 to 2.2lbs of fat a week. And I didn’t get hungry as my body was living off its own fuel; and there was plenty of fat to burn! Before I started keto, I had given up on ever being slim again. But the results speak for themselves – check out my before and after photo from 10th April 2020 and 10th September 2020:
After I reached my pre-pregnancy weight target and completed my goal of 3 stone weight loss I slowly transitioned off keto, steering away from low carb by reintroducing carrots, bananas, mangoes and small amounts of potatoes, rice and pasta. By small amounts, I’m talking a cooking spoonful – max! I kept the weight loss off, with a fluctuation of only around 2lbs to account for water weight and managed to maintain my weight loss through October and November 2020. But then, the Christmas holiday happened…
Staying low carb over the holiday period was tough and I admit my sugar addiction got the better of me. I indulged in the chocolates that I’d gotten for presents – without sharing 🤦. Over Christmas I gained 3 pounds. January 2021 hit me with a depressing reality. So I decided to embark on Keto round 2.
Keto journey 2 – sweeteners and weight gain
This time, I didn’t want to deny myself the sweet foods that I realised I had missed so much, but knowing that sugar isn’t keto, I researched alternatives. I discovered to my joy the existence of sugar alcohol sweeteners. The info said they have no effect on insulin response and are zero calories. Hurray! That was my solution, right? A way to have no-cheat-treats, right? So I started baking keto buns using erythritol and using toppings with skinny syrups. Over the course of 8 weeks from 3rd January 2021 to 12th March 2021, I did strict keto of under 20g carbs a day whilst using zero carb sweeteners. To my horror after 8 weeks instead of losing weight, I had actually gained a further 3 pounds, putting my total weight gain at 6 pounds since Christmas. To say I was down was an understatement!
Sweeteners, FODMAPs and SIBO…my descent into gut health hell
Weight gain in March this year was the least of my problems. I did research about why I gained 3 pounds from using sweeteners on strict keto and discovered that certain types of sugar-alcohol such as sucralose (common in diet syrups) can cause an insulin response from the sweet taste triggered by receptors in your tongue – insulin as we know causes the body to store fat instead of burning fat. I’m not sure I can blame erythritol for my weight gain as I had to quit using it after 1 week as it gave me diarrhoea – I only continued with the sucralose for the duration of my 8 week second keto journey, putting diet syrup in my coffee and tea, etc. Added to my weight gain misery from sweeteners was the fact that I didn’t realise sucralose is a high FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols) food. For anyone with medical IBS, you’ll understand the pain I’m talking about from all the gut distension high FODMAPs can cause. For me this led to further gut-health trouble: it set off my SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). Keto is an awesome diet for lowering bad bacteria in the gut, which feed on primarily carbs, particularly sugar. The bacteria in my gut – both good and bad – were probably throwing a celebratory party at all the sugar-alcohol I was giving them through sweetener use. At this point I was in such pain and depression over my gut health issues that I started bingeing on chocolate and baked treats again as a source of comfort, adding on a further 2 pounds – bringing my total weight gain since Christmas to 8 pounds.
Antibiotics and probiotics paving the way to keto journey 3
For any IBS/SIBO sufferers out there reading this, you’ll understand that sometimes the only course of action is antibiotics. I completed a course of Ciprofloxaccin then began re-colonising my gut with probiotics geared at SIBO sufferers: Bacillus Coagulans, Saccharomyces Boulardii and Lacto-Bifido strains in addition to taking my regular Betaine-Hydrochloride tablets and digestive enzymes. Once I threw all the sweeteners in the food compost bin and was sure my gut had recovered from the double-whammy of insulin response/weight gain and sweetener-induced SIBO attack (this took 2 months), I felt ready for keto journey 3.
Keto journey 3 – lots of vegetables and no sweeteners!
Putting on 8 pounds wasn’t what spurred me to go back on keto; the issue was that I didn’t want to slip back into old habits that caused me to gain 3 stone in the first place. I knew I had to tackle my sugar addiction once and for all. During May I spent 3 weeks cutting out all refined sugar and generally going low carb to reduce cravings. It was tough! I went into full withdrawal, getting the shakes, feeling cold – and even emotional at the idea of not being able to have my sugar ‘fix’. I didn’t lose any weight, but honestly wasn’t trying to – I just wanted to control my cravings so I ate large amounts of fruit as a temporary substitute. On 1st June I switched to strict keto again, but unlike my keto journey last year, I decided to lower the amount of cream and bacon I was eating and instead eat plenty of salad vegetables. In 7 days of eating less than 30g carbs/ 1100-1300 daily calories, I’ve lost the 8lbs I had gained since Christmas. I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I’m going to stay on keto now not to attain a specific weight loss goal or body measurement, but until my clothes don’t feel tight and my paunch is a little less pronounced!
It’s funny that in reflection, when I was in my twenties as in 2010 (pictured) I was a UK size 8 and within a decade by my mid-thirties had become a UK size 16. My waist size in 2020 (35 inches) was the size of my hips in 2010 and my waist size in 2010 (24 inches) is the size my thigh is today – that’s some reality check! Now, in my forties I’m comfortable at a UK size 12. But it’s all about balance. Keto keeps me on the right track with my health, but more importantly it’s a diet that works for me. I’m a firm believer that everyone needs to find a diet that suits you as an individual and works for your lifestyle.
Would you believe me if I told you that I’ve loved horror novels since my early teens, but only last year began earnestly writing a horror novel myself? About time, you might say – and you’d be right!
As you’ll know if you’ve read my earlier posts, novel wip#4 is a supernatural/psychological horror, which I’ve been scaffolding up from a short story I wrote last year in lockdown. I’ve been steadily building this up to book length since last November. It’s slow progress, but I’m learning a lot on the job.
The thing about writing horror is finding the right balance between making a scene or chapter frightening enough without overdoing the fear-factor so that it becomes cliché, or boring. Or worse: cringey.
Today was a challenging, but rewarding writing day. Basically I wrote my first scary scene, hopefully with as much description as possible. It’s tough trying to describe a ghost, especially a malicious one! Hopefully the scene is scary not cheesy…
At 54k words (or thereabouts) into draft 1 of novel wip#4, it’s also a long way into the story before the sinister central character makes an appearance. But I’m hoping that when this draft is done and I read through it, the build up of suspense beforehand should pay off when the malign spirit finally makes its grand entrance.
Any other writers out there who have waited until quite far into their story before introducing the main protagonist in all their wicked glory?
Leilanie Stewart 