When
I started publishing my work over a year ago now, I fumbled my way through the
first Amazon experience over the best part of an evening, pouring over the
instructions, or ‘destructions’ as they are called in our house, without the
slightest idea of what I would potentially unleash.
I
kidded myself that if my mother bought my novel, which
she dutifully did, lavished me with a bit of praise, also done; that my publishing experience would be complete and I
could go back to my paid job happy. My mother’s pride in me was precious,
because who doesn’t want their folks to have something smiley to say about
their offspring, but what I didn’t expect was to also get bitten by the
publishing bug, the marketing monster and the social-media fiend. What I didn’t
think a techno-moron like me could achieve, was friendship with all three.
A
year on and eleven published books later, some of them in the top 100 within
their categories and I have just made my first book trailer for the latest
offering, Blaming the Child for a
competition on Authors Cave.
If
I have learned anything during this haphazard experience, it’s that you can
teach an old dog new tricks. And it’s
probably that which has been equally
edifying and challenging over the last year, in addition to working outside the
home for proper money and expertly neglecting a husband and children in it.
I
have gone from being an occasional Facebook participant who could just about
upload a photograph for family and friends on the other side of the earth-ball
and let me tell you, I resisted that for long enough, to a reasonably competent
computer and internet user. Yes, some of
my photos are still showing sideways on Facebook but now you're being picky.
I’m
not joking when I admit to being a techno-moron. They made that phrase up just
for me. I have been called a PEBKAC behind some poor IT guy’s hand on many
occasions in my place of work (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair) and I
met my husband when I spectacularly pulled the network down at the local County
Council offices, not once but twice. He was the gorgeous young-gun in IT who spent two
weekends fixing up my mess. And he still
married me five months later! You think he would have known better but
he’s still here after two decades, responding to my cries of rage when I
accidentally go into Chrome instead of Internet Explorer and can’t find any of my favourites.
When
we agonise about sales figures (I only check once a week because I am too
compulsive and know it) and marketing miseries and the drain of social media on
our precious time, do we ever stop and think about how far we, as authors have
come?
I have an author Facebook page, http://facebook.com/ktbowes
and a Twitter account with real followers @hanadurose
and a Google+ page https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KTBowes/posts
and my very own blog, of which I am particularly proud. The Library Corner http://ktbowes.blogspot.co.nz/ is my
personal counselling session. I can rant my head off there and then delete the
angry comments afterwards. See, total control.
So,
my piece de resistance is a book trailer.
It
was not pretty, I won’t pretend that it was. There was lots of sighing and
huffing when things didn’t go right. I did have help (thanks youngest daughter
and husband - again) but I did put it
together myself. I fully appreciate that when it is uploaded onto the world
stage, there may well be hearty sniggers and comments of, ‘Look what some
five-year old has done,’ but I will forever be proud of it. I feel like an
elated child, running home with their best drawing only to have mother turn the
scribble the wrong way up, only now, I don’t have to wait to be given
the ice-cream reward. I can open my own
freezer and eat the whole damn carton!
For
today at least, I will celebrate my success instead of eyeballing my potential
failure and after he has uploaded my extremely professional and entirely
original book trailer to the ether, I will gaze fondly on my poor technical
specialist and make him a cup of coffee before the men in the white coats
arrive to cart him off to the funny farm. I think he is probably overdue a rest
from my technical hysterics.
My
grateful thanks also go to NZ band, The Heart of Katherine, who let me use
their track, My Salvation as the backing music for my offering. They will be
incredibly famous one day, far more so than me and I will always be able to
look back on my book trailer fondly, knowing that somebody great gave me
permission to use their stuff.
I
might even screenshot the lovely message they sent me, because yeah, I can do
that too now!
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