In the writing phase I always began my days ensuring nutrition was the first part of any writing day. I made a drinks tray of decaf tea with goats milk and some honey to sweeten it, a large glass of a vegetable and fruit juice (I buy mine from Marks and Spencer's rather than make my own but the quality is superb and they taste delicious) and I drink between 9-12 bottles a week, a glass of lemon and hot water and a large container of cold filtered water (I used a Brita fridge jug) and carried that to my desk. I had a large glass cookie jar filled with health bars such as oat, fruit and nut varieties and I also had another jar on my desk with dried banana's and cranberries for snacking. Breakfast at my desk often included a porridge dish with pears or banana's with a drizzle of honey or maybe sour dough toast with avocado and a poached egg (long before it was a trendy menu item!) and was a great way for me to start my day at my desk, which began with checking the previous days writing to ensure the continuation and flow of the plot. As each chapter was finished it was sent off to my team of reviewers and to my Editor James, who was so efficient, that it was usually fired back to me the same day with his suggested amendments and his sarcastic comments about my mistakes (all in good fun - of course). I also considered any comments made by reviewers as they came through to me via email but mainly they were just requests for the next chapter with the exception of Kate who by default became my second editor given that she added valuable advice that complimented James' work as my editor. I tended to re-write as I went along and adjusted chapters when editorial advice was offered for consideration or plot changes came into my head. The final aspect of the writing project was a line edit by me which I repeated twice, before each chapter was then once again sent off to James and Kate for their final edits.
The second phase was the publishing phase and I had already decided via my research that I would be using the publishing company Completelynovel.com. This phase consisted of hours of typesetting conversations, as I wanted my book to be set out in an unusual way and for those of you who have read the book, you will understand why. This phase was a nightmare as I had written my book on my Macbook Pro in ipages and had sent it over to Completelynovel.com in the format requested. They then tried to put it into their editing/typesetting software, which proved so problematic with the pages often coming back to me as pictured below. My draft copy arrived and I made my red pen alterations before sending them page by page to Completelynovel.com. Every time the company tried to re-typeset my amendments it would throw the whole sequence out and any pages 'behind' my amendments would then need reformatting again, which as you can imagine was costly for me in terms of hourly rate typesetting fees and costly for them as a company in terms of time. Eventually after frustrations, tears, re-scheduled book launch dates, fallouts and the near breakdown in my working relationship with Completelynovel.com, I made a decision that although there were still the odd minor issues with the typesetting etc, I could not keep throwing money at the project and I had to be satisfied with where it was at and roll with it. That is hard to do when you are a perfectionist in your work. The lesson for me here is that I will purchase compatible writing software when I send book two to them.
The final phase is the marketing phase which of course I am still in. This phase is very much a work in progress. From a consistency stance my daily routine is to do a social media trawl and or new event posting at the beginning of each day (7 days a week). I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest regularly and I have recently started to experiment with reddit and Wattpad apps too, although the jury is out at the moment on the effectiveness of these latter two as marketing tools. I trawl the accounts I follow for any opportunity to link my book to a statement or image and do so at the start of each day. I consistently ask friends and followers to share and re-tweet my social media events, as using your friends and followers helps to spread the message of the day you are posting and also could encourage people to friend request, follow, enquire about your work and even buy your book. This is known as building your author platform and a strong platform makes for a solid building (i.e.: my readership fan base). I have also consistently handed out business cards, posted signed post cards and my most recent strategy is to send signed copies to high profile media people and influential women. The marketing phase is fascinating and during my everyday trawl of the internet I am blown away by the myriad of new ways that I can try to get my work noticed. I am truly loving the marketing phase just as I loved the writing phase.
I am consistent in my belief in my book and in my gift for writing as a whole and I am consistent in my gratitude for that gift. Consistency in my gratitude to my readers and for their encouraging messages is also a big aspect of this project and I always reply to any messages that people take the time to send me. Consistency in the content of their messages is also very humbling to me and I really do appreciate every one of them. People are consistently telling me they like my book and THAT makes it all so worthwhile. The women love this book which is dedicated to them and the fact that the men write and tell me they love it to is fantastic. It is after all a very relatable book about relationships, betrayal and online dating, which is making people cry and laugh out loud.
This is the latest review from a male: Started 'Exactly 23 days' at work last night. Read 173 pages. It's a fantastic read. Can't wait to get to work tonight!
When I wake up to messages like that from a new reader it really is such a wonderful start to my day. Somebody loves my book and took the time to tell me they did. Wow. I am consistent in my gratitude. Thank you all.
Update:
This is the remainder of the review above:
Well finished Exactly 23 days. You asked me to let you know what I thought. Well here goes! Absofuckinglutelylovedit! Not my usual sort of read but it had me gripped. The ending OMG! Seriously, I read it every spare minute I had over my last 2 shifts. I couldn't put it down. Bit bloody clever you are! When's the next one out. Jayne I loved it. Seriously. Brilliant. It put a smile on my face and a lump in my throat, on several occasions. I've put a review on Amazon and told some of lads at work to tell their Mrs's about it. Well done you. Get back to that desk and pen a new one. NOW. xxx
Exactly 23 days is available from: https://completelynovel.com/books/exactly-23-days Barnes & Noble, Waterstones online, Blackwells, apple iBooks and Amazon
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