April Showers of Appreciation

As many of you know, my self-publishing journey began in 2012. It wasn’t planned. I was collecting the usual mound of rejection letters from agents and preparing to paper many a wall with them when the kernel of self-publishing took root in my mind. Once this occurred it was then up to me to navigate this large and daunting world. Very much under the impression I was taking on this monster completely solo, I was astounded to discover many a helping hand.

The first of these was my wonderful writing friend Sydnee Blake who gave me the opportunity to participate in an Emily Benet blogging workshop. I was terrified, convinced that setting up a blog was well beyond my scope. Furthermore, what would I have to say to the world? How wrong was I? Here we are 7 years later and I haven’t yet run out of things to say and share. Sydnee, you opened floodgates in me I wasn’t even aware were there. Emily, you gave me the confidence to fight a fear of technology I was certain was beyond me.

Emily’s blogging workshop set all sorts of other things in motion. I was urged to join The Alliance of Independent Authors [ALLi] if I was determined to pursue this going-it-alone business. Now the helping hands came thick and fast. A special shout out here to Ian Hooper for his patience with a very frazzled me as I attempted to tackle Amazon’s Tax pages. To say I was terrified of the task is putting it mildly. But Ian saw me through it with step by step instructions and screen shots to aid my individual special needs. To you Ian, this may have seemed a small thing to do for a fellow indie author, but to me it was a gift from the gods.

ALLi has since provided this bumbling self-publisher with continued succour in the name of Melissa Addey and Joanna Penn. As well as writing both fiction and non-fiction, Melissa runs very handy writer related workshops at The British Library. I’ve attended several in a bid to become more of an authorpreneur and less of an authormess. Thank you Melissa for helping me see beyond the writing of the books so that I work smarter rather than harder on the bit of self-publishing I least enjoy.

Joanna is the person who I believe coined the word authorpreneur and it suits her perfectly. She regularly shares a mountain of FREE information via video and cheatsheets. I practically use these on a weekly basis for some aspect of admin to do with my website, social media and mailing list. Without her generosity of spirit I’d be forking out tons of cash for services which can be done for free or at minimal cost. Thank you Joanna for paying-it-forward.

Quietly yet stoutly supporting me behind all the ALLi boffins are my core group of friends.
I simply cannot do without them.They are:

My Sheffield bestie – Bev who I met on a writing holiday in Skyros

My London bestie – Chantal who has accompanied me to countless tango sessions, shared meditation hours and become a Scrabble junkie due to me

My Irish bestie – Dervalla who I met on a painting holiday in Italy many moons ago and who I’d very much like to see more of in person

My Ozzie bestie – Mands, a childhood friend who still gets me even after all these years

My cousin bestie – Michelle, who is always rooting for me and ready at the end of the phone to listen to my woes or cooking up a tasty treat to tantalise my tastebuds

These ladies are an invisible yet ever present bracelet of diamond emotional support. Ladies, I salute you. You keep my soul flying high.

Equally as important as they, are you. Much appreciation for having signed on to my mailing list, reading and commenting on 1^st drafts, sharing my work with friends and family or taking a moment to write a review or email me.

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