The Bowes Library Corner: *The Special Snowflake type of writer*

It’s hard to accept as a writer that the product of my imagination is not near perfect. It comes as a bitter blow when I actually bother to stop and listen to what my critics say.

When I first published, I was of that special breed which author Amber Dalcourt would term, ‘a special snowflake.’ I still love that expression and only wish my unique perfection was still embodied within that blissful state of oh-I’m-too-damn-wonderful-for-this-world. The first person who dared to criticise my small and flailing brainchild was spawn of the antichrist and online-shunned in all forms of social media. If only life could have stayed that simple.

Now if you’re in the game of spilling your guts onto paper or laptop for the heck of it, then scribble or type away. If all you ever expect is five star reviews and fan mail, then enjoy the adulation of family and friends and when you run out of those, let your book slide quietly to the bottom of the Amazon pond, to be given away as tombola prizes and the $5 Secret Santa every December. You go for it. And all the very best of luck to you.

I stayed within my cone of wonderfulness for a short time, until joining Book Review Depot not long after my first novel went live on Amazon. They were a game bunch, reviewing honestly and sharing criticism in genuine banter and positivity. Then came the first private message. ‘Your covers aren’t that great, love. Maybe pay someone.’

Gulp. Time stopped and I stared at the lovely photograph of my reluctant daughter standing at the fence in our paddock, surrounded by a bottle green Publisher margin my husband slapped on and a curly font you had to turn sideways to read. What was wrong with it? My chin wobbled and the bottom lip shot out.

You can stop laughing now...

I think I sulked for a day and then looked at the cover again. Yeah, fair do’s. It was a bit crap. I started experimenting and probably made it worse for a while. I remember the cover of The New Du Rose Matriarch even made me cringe for a bit there. Thank goodness I didn’t know anything about hashtags or SEO. Believe me, I couldn’t cope if I did a Google search of my author name and that popped up. It was the stuff of nightmares.

Then we got into plague words. Yep, I used them all. Then grammar, then adverbs, then overuse of the word -suddenly...ok, ok, I’m ashamed! I got PhotoShop. I started buying stock images. I listened to people. I asked their advice and yeah, I did sometimes cringe when they told me stuff I didn’t want to hear.

I’ve spent the last year writing at the same time as editing all my previous works. Being very obsessive compulsive, what gets changed in one, happens in every single one. With twelve novels to my name, I’m concerned about what will happen when I have fifty out but I’ll worry when I get there. Having got to the end of them all, someone mentioned an online writing tool. I put a single chapter of my work in progress through it and the alarm bells went off at the overuse of ‘had’ and ‘that’ so back I went again on the editing rampage.

When I wondered why my third teen book wasn’t doing so well when all the others were jumping out of the gate at an incredible rate, I asked an author friend. Demelza Carlton’s novels are international bestsellers and her pedigree is sound. So when she suggested my title of ‘Blaming the Child’, probably wasn’t relating well to teens who firstly, don’t like to be thought of as children and secondly hate the idea of blame, I had to give it some serious thought. The irony was that my husband, who doesn’t usually comment, said the same thing just a matter of hours before. So I wheeled in my teenage daughter. She postured and thought for a moment. “Yeah,” she concluded, “I wouldn’t go for that.”

At first it was painful. That darn book is listed in every single one of the other eleven. That’s a lot of changes over quite a few sales platforms. I slept on the idea overnight. When I woke, I brainstormed a bit. I chatted to other people and tossed a few suggestions around. I asked my teenager again and started changing the cover. “Na,” she said. “That’s not right. I like this better.”

It’s taken me all day to make and upload the changes. It involves so many areas I’ve had to fiddle with. But it occurred to me as I finished that instead of feeling depressed, I should feel proud. The special snowflake has melted. I’m not quite sure what that makes me; a transparent drip maybe? But it sure blesses my work, accepting the input of other people.

Not everyone is out to get me, I had to learn that early on. When more than one person tells me something, then the old adage applies; they can’t all be wrong. There are always trolls around, dishing out one star reviews like confetti, it’s an inevitable occurrence, like nits in schoolchildren. But when a few people point out something irritating or distracting in a review or forum, for goodness sake get rid of the cause. Don’t leave it to fester there and collect more negativity. Deal with it!

So after much fluffing and primping, my re-released teen book, the third in the Troubled Series.

‘A Trail of Lies.’ Buy it and enjoy!