You need to finish it anyway, and find your voice.
It’s just a book.
Leave you ego behind and write your story.
Learn by the process and move on.
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Book Recommendation
Ashes, A Jezzabelle Jones Mystery – By Christie Adams
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This is a totally unedited transcript. I am so busy working on my writing, I apologise but this is an AI transcription service. I would rather give you this now, even though it’s not perfect, than you miss out.
0:09
Okay, Christy here. On Tuesday, the eighth of June, and it’s episode 43 Can you believe it already. This week, it’s about. It’s okay if your first book isn’t a best seller. So you know I’m on a mission to get everybody writing to use their voice, and I’ll be talking about getting your first book out, getting written and getting it out there, my intro, first of all got a bit of a tickly cough grandbabies are always good for passing on the germs, aren’t they, it’s not a COVID cough before you ask, and I’ve been doing a lot of writing this week, I’ve got my editor of my novel out done relaunched, so I’ll come on to that in the book recommendation. I’ve been ghost writing, and I’m really enjoying that it’s quite exciting writing about other people’s characters, and I’ve been doing my ordinary writing as well and blogging and things like that. And I’m just enjoying the writing process at the moment I’m sort of escaping into the characters and really cracking off some serious word counts, which is what it’s all about when you’re a writer so we’re really enjoying that, not getting to see much sunshine, but I’ve had skin cancer scares in the past so that’s no bad thing, and it is beautiful this week in the UK, it’s absolutely gorgeous weather so hope you’re getting good weather, wherever you are in the world. So back to the topic of, it’s okay if your first book isn’t a best seller. And I’ll start with a quote, and I’ve not checked the accreditation on it but it’s perfect is the enemy of done. And it is so true when it comes to writing your writing will never be perfect, just accept it. It’s not going to be perfect, you’re not perfect, we’re not perfect, your writing won’t be either, so get over it is fine. And at the end of the day, if you want to go back like I’ve just done with my book ashes. It’s a Jezzabelle Jones of mystery, and I’ve just gone back re edited it and rewritten it. It’s the same story but I’ve really tightened it up. I’ve changed my style so much in the past sort of two years since I wrote that book. And I’ve gone back and edited it, I didn’t have to do, I could have just left it and worked on the next one, but I have got the sequel coming out and I wanted to just get to know my characters again so I started reading and then as you do when you start reading you pick up sort of issues and mistakes and some of them I can’t believe got all the way through to the publishing process but they did, And it’s fine up llego could be embarrassing but it’s really not at the end of the day it’s just a book, so I’m happy with that, and you learn the same lesson, you know that it’s fine, you can go back and edit it if you want. I know a lot of writers who go about later in second and third editions of books. And your first book is the one that builds your confidence. It helps you overcome your doubt, can you even do it can you even write a book and get to the end. If you are a failure in sort of the top 5% of writers who never get to the end of the book. There’s a huge number of people who start writing a book and just never finished so if you finish your book you’re well ahead of the crowd. You’re finding your voice, and that will change over the years, and you’re releasing your fear, and getting over it and just knowing that you’ve arrived to now, and that you can release a book. Also, you won’t become a millionaire without first book is highly, highly doubtful and especially if you’re independently published which, what I encourage you need a lot of books out there, so don’t expect to make a million with your first book, and if it, you know crashes and burns. It’s fine. you’ll have another one out soon, and people will pick up your back catalogue. And once you start making a name for yourself, your back catalogue is what brings the income in, so it’s not time wasted at all. So do your best work. Edit it reread it, read it out loud edit it again, do whatever you need to do, but accept that it’s just your first book is just one book in the millions and billions of books in the world is fine it’s no big deal, it is to you, and it is to me I’d be thrilled to see your first book out, but in the sense of, you know, global meaning, doesn’t really matter, so you need to get over your ego and just write your book and get it out there. If you’re still unsure, by the very first book by one of your favourite writers, especially if they’re very prolific writer. If you know someone you know Stephen King or whoever, obviously the went through publishers, but if you look back at their very first book and read that and compare it to their latest book, they will be totally different. The style will be different the quality will be different writers develop and learn, and never stop writing they are creatives, they are artists, and throughout their career, they tend not to retire,
5:08
they tend to just keep going right and so it’s something that you develop and you learn and they grow. And don’t expect that first book to be perfect because it won’t be, and it’s fine. And remember that if you get criticised for anything. It’s your book is better than any other book that sat in a bottom drawer not been published yet, so it’s something to be proud of. You’ve finished a book, and you’ve got it published. You’ve got out into the world, and you’ll find a lot of armchair critiques so those people who’ve got that book in the bottom drawer, never had the bottle to get it out there so pat yourself on the back
5:45
for that. And if you do get feedback whether it’s good or bad, take it with a pinch of salt, like say good or bad,
5:54
so put your ego aside, take it on board. Is it valid to say it, give you a learning point, is this something you should study. Is it something that you’ve offended people whether or not actually realised because Shingu sensitivity reader and that’s something quite important and you might need to go back and edit ebook straightaway. But don’t allow your ego to prevent your learning, or your defence mechanism to sort of bite back or and, you know, respond to critics you’ll get trolls on the internet who do nothing more than go round and criticise somebody else’s work. And that’s why I say take it with a pinch of salt. But by the same token, you also have to take the good comments with a pinch of salt as well. Don’t allow them to swell your head too much although Is it nice to get a pat on the back. And like I say, it’s just a book, you’re going to write another one, and probably another one after that and another one after that so never stop learning. Just get that first book written and get it out there, and then you don’t, you’ll never have to be, you know, a new writer ever again. What I do notice, and I want you to be aware of this, is that a huge, huge number of debut novels are not debut novels for the writer. They are often the debut novel for the pen name, you’ll find very very prolific writers who have loads of different pen names, and when they issue a new book in a new genre, or even the same genre, they’ll just use a new pen name and it becomes a debut book. So when you pick up these debut books, sometimes they are the very first book that someone has written and that’s fantastic for them a major achievement if it gets on the bestseller list, but very, very often than not, so don’t be intimidated by that book recommendation, I’m gonna recommend my mind is called anxious, a Jezzabelle Jones mystery by Christie atoms, and is the second edition it’s out now. And if you’ve already read the first one. Why not read it again because I’m sure you forgot what happened. And, and, like I say, I’ve gone through an edit again and is slightly different order but the same story. And my call to action right the first book, obviously, just get it written, you’ve got no more excuses. And if you really do feel that you’ve got a booking you but you just genuinely don’t know where to start or anything that you really want to do or maybe you’ve had a manuscript and you just stuck, you’re not really sure what to do with it, but you want to get out there and start on the next one, then get into a book. I work with people, writers and mid lifers, who need a bit of help and a bit of a nudge, and we can either work on that one goal for a month, or many, many goals for up to three months so if you want the prices and everything that are on my website, but if not, I’m getting in touch and see if we can work together for a month and get something going. Okay, so thanks for joining me. Go get the book written by.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai