Magazine Article

I was very pleased that West Country Life Magazine published an article I wrote about becoming a writer at 60 and being a self-published or indie author. It came out on 13th August, 2022.

Here it is:

I’ve just published my fifth novel, Life Happens. I can’t believe I’ve written five books, to be honest; I started writing about nine years ago, having completed my MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. I thought I was writing just one book but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I was sixty when I did the MA, so it took me a long time to find my dream career. The title of my book seems particularly relevant to my own life.

I’d always loved books and chose to study English Literature at university in the seventies but at that stage, it never crossed my mind that I could be the one doing the writing. When I graduated, the choices were limited: secretarial work, teaching and nursing were the main options for women. I blindly went down the teaching route and have regretted it ever since. 

Teaching really wasn’t for me – to stand up in front of thirty people every day was more like torture. I know, you’re thinking … but they were children – but if you’re under-confident and quite a shy person, teenagers can be intimidating. I look back and wonder why on earth I wasted so much of my life doing something I didn’t like. I suppose I’d wanted a career and to earn some money and I can’t lie, the school holidays had seemed an attractive benefit (in reality, they make no difference to the job!)

If I was starting out now, I would be able to go into publishing or journalism. Maybe I simply had poor career guidance at the time. It’s all so long ago now, I have no memory of my thought processes but if I could give a young person advice today, I would say, don’t do something you hate. Find something you love and do that, even if it means taking personal or financial risks.

Self-publishing has become a very popular way of getting your book into print in 2022. Ten years ago, however, it was a new concept (there was vanity publishing in the past but Amazon changed everything for writers). I decided to self-published, as I liked the idea of being in total control of my own book and at the age I was, the traditional route seemed too long-winded. Having discovered writing at a late stage in life, I was keen to ‘get it out there’ and not wait for a publishing house’s schedule. Some authors, Colleen Hoover, for example, have been incredibly successful at self-publishing, selling millions of books. I’m not claiming to compete with her, but I’m pleased with both how my books have been received and how well they’ve sold – I’m nearing 10,000.

It was a steep learning curve and I’m still learning every day. I did well with my first book, Aphrodite’s Child, as I found a niche set of readers who had a military background and knew and loved Cyprus. The story was about a woman who went to the island with her RAF officer husband for a three year posting and the drama in her life that ensued. 

I realised that unless I did some social media marketing, the book would sink under the millions of books on Amazon without trace and so I used Facebook to build my audience. I went on to write the Aphrodite Trilogy, with Now is All There Is and Shadows in the Rock as second and third in the series and I found I had a large group of devoted readers. I increased my marketing to Instagram, wrote another book, Love is a State of Mind, that had nothing to do with the military or Cyprus and found that people still bought the book. 

For the fifth book, I returned to Cyprus as my setting. I wanted the island to be all pervasive and become another character in the novel. I don’t know where the story itself came from; I read once that songwriters sometimes pluck a song from the ether as it passes by and that’s how it seemed to me with this. The idea of three lifelong friends and their husbands going on holiday to Cyprus emerged fully-formed; the intricate details of character and plot came together later. 

There are two types of writer: one type plans meticulously in advance and one lets ideas flow as they write; neither method is better than the other but I am definitely of the latter category. When I sit in front of the empty laptop screen, something magical happens: ideas, characters and storylines begin to emerge through my fingertips onto the page. If I’m ‘stuck’ and don’t know what to write, I write anything and just the sheer act of typing, helps. The three female protagonists in Life Happens, Grace, Jen and Rachel, slowly appeared and then their entangled stories blended from the past into the present of the novel. Their lives were now set out for all to read. They hadn’t existed before … and that’s the magic of the imagination.

As I said, I continue to learn much about publishing books. There is help out there if you want to pay someone: to design a cover, to edit or proofread your manuscript and format your book for Amazon and all the other stores out there. I started out trying to do it all myself but as I’ve progressed, I’ve realised it’s impossible. I’ve had help from a literary consultant and a cover designer; I’ve had assistance from Facebook with their advertising and I’m learning about the complexities of Amazon ads. It’s a dilemma with advertising because the more money you spend, the more books you sell, which of course is logical, but you have to learn to strike the right balance. The more books you sell, the more Amazon pushes your book forward to people … the higher up your category you go … but it’s tempting to maybe spend more than you should. 

I love building a relationship with my readers. I get lots of messages via social media and I always reply to comments; I love to hear from people who have read my books. You can’t please everyone and if someone leaves a bad review, it’s important to ‘move on’ and not let it fester. The majority of readers leave lovely comments and they make all your hard work worthwhile. Once a book is published, it has its own life and momentum. You have to let it go.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my late career change. It’s been challenging and frustrating at times but mainly it’s been satisfying. Writing allows you to live through your characters and become someone you aren’t. 

My teaching career, marriage, three children, moving around the country with the RAF, tragedies, illness, deaths have all ‘happened’ to me. 

Life has happened … but I got there in the end.