Reflections on a successful and surprising 2015!

A year ago, I sat down to reflect on 2014, after publishing my first book that July. I couldn't have imagined then the amazing opportunities that would come in 2015!

It has been a year filled with surprises and success, and I've enjoyed every minute of it!

I have continued on my independent author journey this year and published a further 7 titles (after only hoping to publish 1!).

• 1 YA fiction (the sequel to my first)
• 2 illustrated children's fictions
• 2 adult colouring books
• 2 companion books for the adult colouring books.

I have so many ideas that I haven't had chance to pen yet too. Right now, I have I think about 30 books plotted or planned that I need to schedule to time to actually write/draw!

Of my 8 books, all are top 100 bestsellers or better on Amazon. All are positively reviewed and it's so wonderful hearing that readers have enjoyed my work. I write because I love to, but I publish because I want my books to be enjoyed.

In the case of my colouring books, I'm touched and honoured to hear from those with health problems that colouring my books has helped them cope and recover. You may recall I've had my own health problems this year - so drawing and writing has helped get me through the tougher parts of 2015 too.

A year ago, I was on the cusp of selling my 100th book. Now I'm on the cusp of selling my 4,000th! I know that's not a huge number to some, but it's much more than I was expecting or hoping for - and I'm so grateful to everyone who chose to read one of my titles. This for me, is just the beginning.

It means that I am so so close to what I would deem financial success from writing and illustrating. I have a number in my mind that I'd like to make each month from creating, to justify and enable me to go full time without needing a part time job. So to exceed that number greatly for several months of this year is fantastic. It shows me it's possible, with hard work and time - and luck!

In my personal life, there's been a lot of changes, so 2015 has been quite tumultuous! I finished my 4 year teaching degree in May and recently graduated as the only woman in my year with 1st class honours. I am so very glad to be free of teaching. It was clearly the wrong career for me.

I also changed job/working hours a few times at my part time job and am now (as of December) working a new stable pattern that allows me to have a large chunk of defined writing/creating time each week. Not being at university has certainly freed up lots of time!

My fiance and I (and of course our beloved cats Jet and Pixie) moved house this Autumn too. This is one of the biggest changes of the year, because it totally alters our lifestyle. We have upsized to a good-sized family house further into the countryside that we can grow into in the coming years.

It's in a lovely location and I have a beautiful office space to call my very own, that looks out over my favourite moors. It is a wholesome and uplifting place to be that is very good for my ongoing productivity and mental/physical health (which is really important as sitting/writing is so bad for your health!). I look forward to lots of happy years living and working here. :-)

So 2015 has been a year of transition, from university student to actively planning to become a full time author. This year my eyes have been opened to what I really want to pursue with my life, and that it's possible. I've changed from being quite naive and pottering about publishing, to wanting to make a serious go at it.

It's been exciting to stumble upon and take advantage of the unforeseen opportunities that have arisen. I am so excited to share my 2016 goals with you to illustrate exactly how I plan to achieve that, so stay tuned! :D

Have an awesome New Year's Eve, and let me know how you got on in 2015/what your 2016 goals are!

A Year Of Publishing

So it's July 31st, which means a year ago today I published my first book!

How different ... and perhaps in some ways also the same ... life is today! I hope I've managed to keep the good things and improve in other areas.

A year ago I was a third year teaching student, filled with despair at the career path I'd chosen... and discovered wasn't for me. I'd just stumbled upon indie publishing: this strange but alluring world where anything was possible and the horizons were changing daily.

I published that book - The Tainted Crown - not knowing what was next on the horizons. It's done ok to date - broken even - what more can I ask for? Nothing, only that it's enjoyed. :-) It was always an experiment, if I'm honest.

Now a year on, I'm no longer a teaching student, and am not going into teaching. I still have a day job... for now. One day though, creating will pay my bills. That's a promise.

I have three books out now. The sequel to The Tainted Crown - The Brooding Crown - and an adult colouring book - The Wild Colouring Book.

The fiction sequel was to be expected. It's been an amazing project to work on and publish, especially with my new editor Sophie Playle polishing my manuscript. I'm proud of that project. It's got a long wait to go before I break even but I'll get there! :) Fiction, I've learned, is very hard to make profit (aka a living) on! I have a lot more work to do before that will be a sustainable source of income.

The Wild Colouring Book was a total wild card. I never expected to produce anything like that! But I'm so glad I did!! It's been such a fun project - fulfilling in a different way to writing. And to be honest, for a year when I've been really ill, too ill to write, drawing for that has kept me going.

It's given me my first real taste of success too. I appreciate every sale... because I know I'm so lucky that anyone chooses to buy something I created! But the sheer amount of success has overwhelmed me. Wow. To date, it's sold over 500 copies in under 2 months. With no marketing or advertising budget. Out of 28,000,000+ books on Amazon, it's reached rankings of 382. And its a top 25 bestseller in self help books.

I've had nothing but praise for it - and it's beyond amazing to hear that not only are people enjoying it for a creative past time, but that it's helping people rehabilitate in hospital, and helping them through periods of depression and anxiety. Like... wow. What a privilege, that I can create something that goes on to genuinely help people. Wow. That's humbling.

So standing here now, 1 year on and 1 year into this publishing malarkey... I'm so grateful. And so determined. I've come so far - further than I imagined and in a different direction than I first thought - but this is only the beginning.

I look forward to taking stock next year on July 31st 2016! Where will things be then? Who knows...

Onwards and upwards! :)

Meg

Ps. I'd love to hear what you're up to - reply or connect with me on social media. What goals are you aiming for in the next year or so? How are you getting along?

The Brooding Crown is here!

Soren has defeated his usurping uncle and the semblance of peace has returned to Caledan, but surrounded by the twelve noble houses of Caledan, King Soren can trust few. In the shadows, treasonous thoughts grow. When news of Zaki’s presence in Roher reaches Soren, can he ally all of Caledan to his cause – and keep them?
Zaki has not given up on his plans to regain Caledan’s throne. First he must prove himself to Harad, the mighty king of Roher, but Zaki will stop at nothing to gain the support of Roher’s army, march on Caledan’s borders and take back the throne of the dragon kings.
War returns to Caledan, but a greater threat looms. The pact is broken. The Eldarkind are fading. The dragons war amongst themselves. A power too terrible to name grows in the North, and He seeks revenge. Only Eve stands in His way – but can she stop magic as old as time?

 

 

IT'S HERE!!!

I'm so so excited to finally share The Brooding Crown with you! You can pick up your copies here...

Kindle
Amazon UK
Amazon US
(The Brooding Crown is available on Kindle in all Amazon territories worldwide)

In print
Amazon UK
Amazon US
(The Brooding Crown is also available to order on Amazon EU stores, and through bookstores and libraries using its ISBN number: 978-1514382288)
 

~

I hope you enjoy! Please do let me know what you think. :-)

Bye for now,

Meg

 

 

The Brooding Crown first draft is complete!

 

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Hi folks! Yes, at last, the second book of Caledan has taken form in its entirety! Only a first draft for now, so the process is very far from over, but the biggest step of all - getting it down in complete form - is done and dusted as of Friday 13th February 2015.

For the first time, I recorded detailed data about when, where and for how long I wrote, plus word counts. It was a very valuable exercise that allowed me to understand my writing habits lots better!

I planned this book in a heck of a lot of detail - you can see the stats above! 24 hours over 16 days. I was astounded to have written 30k of planning - yikes! It's set me in good stead, though. I would have forgotten all those good ideas, had they not been written down!

For book 2, my hourly word count was decidedly average: a solid 1,000 words an hour or thereabouts. This frustrated me, as on book 1 and in some places on book 2, I peaked at 2,000-3,000 words per hour. But mostly, I worked in the range of 1,000-1,500 words an hour. Hmm! I expected to be much faster with the meticulous and detailed planning I did.

What surprised me most, however, was the overall time it took to write. It felt like a long process, but it only took 50 days (though spread out since last August 2014, and mostly written from January onwards 2015). That doesn't seem so long.

Condense all those hours sat at the keyboard... and it only took 81 hours. That's it! Really not very long! Not even 3 and a half days to write a full length novel. A huge part of me wishes I could do that in one sitting!

So what's next? Well, nothing Caledan related, strictly speaking! The manuscript needs to rest - aka I need to get my head firmly out of Caledan, so that when I come to editing, I approach it with a fresh mind to fix the many inevitable icky bits.

I'm also on the hunt for a new editor once I've self-edited to help me really polish it. That should happen at the end of May-early June. I'm aiming to publish late July-August this year. :-)

Also got other projects to work on too! I am starting on my accounting/finance for authors series shortly, so you'll be hearing lots more about that. This month I also have two short stories to draft for an adult fantasy/dark fantasy/urban fantasy/sci-fi collection this month. One is done, one is still to do!

...And of course there's my dissertation for university and an assignment set too. But hush about those - the less said the better. I am avoiding university work at all possible costs currently!

Anyway, hope you're well!

If you fancy keeping up to date with book 2/my fiction works, sign up to the newsletter today!

That's all for now - don't forget to let me know how your writing is doing, or what you're reading now!

~Meg

#MegsNoWriMo 50,000 Word Challenge Complete!

I did it!! I completed #MegsNoWriMo, my own version of #NaNoWriMo, as I wasn't able to write last November. Yay! I'm over the moon. :D

Here are my daily wordcounts, if you're interested.

I've learnt a lot about my writing habits during the challenge and I've thoroughly enjoyed it! My main takeaways from it are:

1) I now have a habit of building writing into each day.
2) I learnt that I am a very inefficient writer currently (a lot of butt-in-chair time = not very much writing) - I need to and intend to address this.
3) Breaking big goals down into little chunks really does make it manageable. The words fly by!
4) That NaNo is a BRILLIANT excuse to crank it up a notch!
5) I learnt more about my ideal writing times. Early morning, late afternoon, late evening. Weekdays. I struggle to find time to write on weekends at all too, which I didn't realise before.

The most satisfying part is not having completed 50,000 words surprisingly, but seeing how very close to completion The Brooding Crown is. I know I set myself the 50k challenge and was determined to succeed, but it was impossible to imagine getting to far with it, in a way.

If you're thinking about giving NaNo a try - even if it's not in November, I urge you to do it! It's a thoroughly rewarding experience. :-)

I look forward to doing it again in November this year. ;-)

- Meg

#MegsNoWriMo reaches 50,000 words on The Brooding Crown

Happy to announce that I just reached that magical point; 50,000 words on draft one of The Brooding Crown, The Second Book of Caledan, woohoo! Just over halfway done with the first draft, hopefully!

I would do a video diary, but I am too tired today so here, have a blog post instead haha.

Also managed the most successful day of #MegsNoWriMo too, writing over double my daily word target of 1,700 words, for which I am glad, as I was beginning to fall slightly behind and become frustrated with myself.

This is despite being glued to the news today for hours, watching the deeply disturbing events unfold and play out in France. I don't tend to delve into real life/world things in my writing social life, but I am so very glad to hear that the situation is now resolved with minimal loss of life. My heart goes out to those who died for free speech. As a writer, in a community of creatives, we all rely on being able to speak, write and create freely without fear.

So. Today feels a writing success, but tinged with sadness at the loss of life that could so very easily have been any of us in any city across the world.

Definitely a lesson to take each day as a blessing and live with joy, not fear in your hearts.

Take care,

Meg

Celebrating 1st 100 sales of The Tainted Crown! + #MegsNoWriMo Day 5

Big news! Yesterday was an amazing day!

Not only did The Tainted Crown sell its 100th copy... beyond my wildest dreams... it also sold its 200th copy! Wow!

I woke up this morning and checked my sales stats and assumed I was mistaken...! But apparently not. Yesterday, 120 kindle copies of The Tainted Crown were downloaded. It's rank has jumped to #22 and #23 in its 2 Amazon categories.... Just wow. Cannot even express how blown away I am by this amazingness!

Thank you to everyone who's shared and downloaded a copy - I really hope you enjoy it!!

Here's yesterday's video diary - before I found out that downloads yesterday exceeded my wildest imagination!

Meg 

p.s. don't forget, The Tainted Crown is free to download until Wednesday midnight!

Update - Wednesday 7th January

Thank you to everyone who downloaded a copy of The Tainted Crown! In the end, I also sold my 300th copy on Wednesday 7th January, which was astounding. I'd never expected to have any downloads at all, especially for such an unknown book, at such short notice.So to receive several hundred and reach the top #10 bestseller spots in three of my Amazon categories was mindblowing. Thank you for helping me get there! I really hope you enjoy the book! :D