… since History Maps has been available to buy. So, how have the first six days been?
Busy! But also, weirdly relaxing. People say publishing a book is a bit like having a baby and I’ve had five of those, so I do feel qualified to say – it is! A bit. On an emotional level, it’s very similar. Actually getting ready to hit publish last Tuesday evening was quite agonising. And the weeks before that were increasingly uncomfortable.
Hmmm. Why would that be? Something about psychological blocks, I think. Something along the lines of my brain saying, “Who do you think you are, publishing a book? You’re not allowed to do things like that!” Something about knowing one’s place and keeping to it, and other such old family traditions that tried to keep us safe and relatively content. Deep-seated, trauma-based, generational laws and lessons, etched onto the DNA, forbidding us from taking risks with things like public exposure.
It makes sense! But it isn’t really necessary now, in the age of the internet. And anyway, it clashes with other, similar family rules, like: Do something memorable with your life. Make the most of your time. Work to achieve your ambitions. Make good use of your talents.
So this leads to cognitive dissonance, which – we all know – is an uncomfortable thing, and that’s how I was feeling before I had the baby published the book. It is different from giving birth of course, but not least because after a certain point in the pregnancy, you don’t have a choice about giving birth, whereas with a book, you can pull it at any point up to hitting ‘publish’.
And I very nearly did pull it. I have before, about six times in years gone by. Those nearly-books are all still here, lurking on shelves somewhere around the house. I was absolutely determined to publish some of them, but opted out at the last minute. I would have opted out this time, without the support of my lovely husband, who by now knows what kind of help I needed to push through that stage and gave it.
So since then, I’ve felt quite light and free, and enthusiastic about things again. Not overeating so much. Actually wanting to work.
I’ve been making videos, which is a weird experience, but you get used to it. And I still have a long list of jobs to do for publicity, like Youtube and X (Twitter) and various other things. I’m plugging away, and will keep doing for a few months until the next book comes out, then it all starts again. I’ll find ways of streamlining it all, so that I’m posting roughly the same thing in different places. People will be sick of the sight of my face and the sound of my voice, but if we sell enough books, I’ll shut up and go away 😂
And we must must must get the Audible version out. We’ve got the files ready, all sound engineered. I just have some last things to do with them, like recording an intro and so on, so we need to get that done.
And there’s an issue with the hardback cover, and Amazon not liking the one we’ve got even though the paperback one was okay. I’ve got a proof coming from France today, so I’ll maybe know from that more about what’s going on with it.
But generally, it’s all good. My TikTok for tomorrow is about how everyone should write a book because it’s so easy. And it is.