Celebrating 10 Years of Indie Publishing

September 19th, 2021 marks ten years since I independently published my first ever ebook (which was the first edition of Cycling Widows, in case you were wondering).

It's cause for celebration. Because not only was it a major achievement for me at the time, wrapping my head around the ins and outs of the self-publishing world and overcoming my perceived obstacles, but it's been a challenging road at times since then, too.

In that regard, I'm surprised to find myself with fuel still in the tank and chugging along, even if it's not at break-neck speed... Although, as some say in the author community: this is a marathon, not a sprint.

In case you were wondering: no, none of these are mine. I don't do hardbacks (yet!).

In the last decade, I've self-published twelve novel-length books in both fiction and non-fiction genres, plus a bunch of shorter works, short stories, and bonus reads to accompany my books (and some works I decided to remove from my shelf altogether).

Along the way, I've learnt many lessons (perhaps I'll write another blog on that sometime) and these have led to many improvements - in my writing craft and style, how I work, and the quality of what I put out.

I also entered a couple of international writing competitions run by Chanticleer, and was delighted to reach the finals with book 2 in my Campervan Bushman Mystery Series, Deathbed of Roses, in 2016 and the semi-finals with my humorous travel tale Up a Creek Down Under in 2019.

Lately, I've been taking some time out to reflect on my journey, to reassess where I'm at and where I'm going (oh, yes, and write a few blogs!). One of the things I've realised is that I can't do everything - there are only so many hours in the day, so if I need to do more marketing, it means less writing - it's as simple as that.

I've also realised I need to replenish my pot and explore other horizons from time to time. So going forward, I aim to put some time aside to spend on a few other goals that don't involve my writing world.

Hmm... Wouldn't it be nice sitting in that deck chair right now? What they don't tell you when you book the holiday is that there's a whacking great aircraft carrier just out of shot with noisy jets taking off and coming in to land every ten minutes.

After a few of years clattering away at the keyboard to work on my latest series, I realised it's actually been quite full-on. I've been working a part-time job (black ops - don't tell anyone!) and spending all my other free hours writing. So with my needing to spend more time finding my readers now, it's time to slow the pace on the writing front for a while.

All you fans can rest assured, though... I still have lots of books in the pot that I'm keen to write. And although I've decided to postpone the release of my next book (Wolf at the Door), it will still come out in 2022, and I'll keep you posted and let you know when the end is in sight and we approach a launch date.

Meantime, I hope you'll join me in taking a moment to look back and celebrate ten years of writing books that I sincerely hope readers will continue to love.

If you haven't checked out all my books yet, just click here to nip on over to my website.