Now published, but no fireworks.

News from the coalface.

The second book in my series, Gate in the Shadows, is now published, but for the moment, only quietly on Amazon. I am not making a big fuss.

If you are a writer, maybe thinking about publishing your first book, this might strike you as odd, but bear with me.

There is an absolute ton of often conflicting writing advice available these days, too much advice, but one thing almost all of it has in common is that it is about your book.

Singular.

When I first dipped my toe in the publishing pond, I followed this advice, publicised my first book, Oliver’s Voice, and got absolutely nowhere. This was partly because I am not a great loudmouth on social media, so I don’t have thousands of people hanging on my every word, but even if I did, I have since found out that this wouldn’t make a huge difference. I may have shifted a few ego-restoring books, but on the whole, zippety pop.

It is only from talking with other writers that I have found out that a series works a little differently, and to be fair, this was mentioned in some of the publishing advice I read, but was lost in the noise. I cannot stress enough how important it is to listen to other writers, both those published and hitting the highs, and those just setting out. Listen, and you will learn, and you will learn much more than from classes given by people who make a living from giving classes.

So where was I? Ah yes, publishing a series. What I have learned from a few other writers who have walked the walk is that they did the same as I did, published the first book of their series, then spent ages trying to get their new baby to fly, and it was an utter waste of time, money, and effort. Mentally draining, and most importantly, so pay attention folks, it was utterly demoralising.

What they have since learned is that when starting out as a writer of a series, your best plan is to publish, maybe stop and make a coffee, then get on with the next one. There are a number of theories as to why this is so, which seem to hang around the thinking that a buyer of a series will be wary of buying a book, with the chance they will like it and want to read the next, and there being no next. People who like a series, and I am one of those, steer clear of one-book wonders.

They want to know that if they are going to put in the effort of reading your book, you will at least have the decency to make the next one available.

At this point, we should remind ourselves that somebody buying your book is only the start of the journey. They will then invest many hours of their time reading your book, and they are quite reasonably wary of wasting their time. It is a two-way process, and not like selling somebody a tin of beans. Just as you put in a lot of time and effort to write your book, the reader puts in a lot of time reading it.

The upshot is, that if you try to promote just one book at the start of a series, or even two, evidence suggests that unless you happen to have a big dollop of luck, or are prepared to invest a mighty fortune to promote your book that you will never get back, then it will bring nothing but misery. Don’t think about it, certainly don’t worry about it, just knuckle down and get on with what you are supposed to be doing, which is writing the next book. Your first and second books will toddle along, people will read them, and you will slowly get feedback and reviews. They are not going to die because you leave them to find their own way while you get on with the next.

I hope this is food for thought for anybody in the same boat. If you have one book out there and wonder if it is even worth publishing the second, then yes, it is. So many people write one book, it goes nowhere, and they give up (hence, readers avoid writers with just one book published). Get on and write the next. You have already put in most of the effort to get the first one this far. The next one will be much easier, so you know what you have to do.

Keep the faith.

The hard sell before I get on with editing book five of my series, which is what I am doing this afternoon: If you want to see a real live second book in a series, you can find Gate in the Shadows at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GZZGTK4C

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