23rd February 2022.

My novel is just over a week away from being published, so at this present time I am a phenomenally successful author whose 1st novel is a massive success worldwide. I pick and chose which talk shows to appear on. I write articles for the broadsheets on…the importance of the novel in the 21st century…or some shit! Everything is great!

Naturally everything will change on March 3rd when the book is actually published and out there. I know that. Don’t get me wrong, I still think the story is good, and topical, and I do believe people will enjoy reading it. It’s just getting them to read it, isn’t it.

The bottom line is, I would never have got this far without Eventispress, and Diana from Eventispress. That is a fact!

I’ve provided a link to them on my opening page, so you can read all about them from that. And please do. They are an independent publisher trying to make a difference. I can’t speak highly enough about them. But I’m not going to repeat the stuff on their website here. I’m going to talk about their impact on me.

So, you have had your big idea and managed to convert it into 80,000 odd words. You’ve re-read and re-read. You’ve showed it to a couple of trusted buddies and some truly selfless, almost to the point of altruistic, Beta readers. You’ve hired a copy-editor and you’ve sorted the cover artwork. The way I see it, you now have 4 possible paths you can go down.

1. You can do nothing! Understandable if you’ve got nowhere with 2, 3 or 4, but if not, Why oh why stop here? You’ll forever be that person who spent maybe two years of their lives producing this thing, and for what? So your friends can say you were that person who wrote a book, but nothing ever came of it? I’m sure people have their reasons, and to repeat myself if it’s after getting nowhere with all the listed options, I do sympathise. If not, it’s not a good look, and after all that work.
2. You can go to the big publishers. How many times have I heard that JK Rowling had Harry Potter rejected ten million times before she got accepted. Personally I doubt that is totally the case. She happens to be an exceptionally talented writer, possibly one of the most important writers of modern times. Talent does get through eventually. She was always going to succeed, in my opinion anyway. For anyone whose writing maybe doesn’t reach those heights, this route is going to be tough.
3. You can self publish. Many writers have successfully gone down this path. It obviously avoids the hard work and potential heartache of option 2. And if you get your name out there and your book is good enough, you can succeed. And a massive well done to anyone who does. For me, there are two potential drawbacks to this method. Firstly, if you’re a 1st time author, by God you’ve got to have faith in your book. No matter how many people have given you the thumbs up, has anyone really unbiased and unattached to you in any way properly read it and loved it? And then you’ve got to navigate Amazon’s website, for example. Error – the cover design’s all wrong. What’s an ISBN again? The list goes on believe me. My laptop would have been flung across my front room so many times it would have been unusable. Diana has led me through all this, and I still don’t believe I could navigate it solo. I have uber-respect for any author who goes down this route, and I genuinely hope they find success. Which brings me to what I perceive to be the second drawback, and that is people’s perception. Eventispress may describe themselves as a self-publishing collective, but the important thing is they are a publisher. And I have to say people I’ve spoken to really started to take me seriously when I told them I had a publisher. It means that someone has read your work and is prepared to invest in it with their own time and hard work. That sort of legitimizes your book, well in my experience it does. Nice ladies in lovely quaint bookshops have no problem in giving you the hard line eye while explaining that publishing is a business. You can almost feel the tension in the air. The fairy tail ambience long gone. It takes a bit of time to read a book. Having a publisher makes people more likely to think, maybe it’ll be worth it. It’s not necessarily fair, but I think it’s true.
4. Eventispress, or a similar indie publisher. Make no mistake, if your book is shite in their view, they will politely tell you that maybe you need to re-visit it. They have a reputation to maintain. And Diana, who is Eventispress in my eyes, has her own books to release. Yes, it’s a labour of love, but she is a writer too and writer’s want people to read their books above everything else. And hopefully love them too. She was under no pressure to give my book the nod. Fortunately for me she did, and I will forever be so thankful for her for that. What she has done is led me through the process, empowering me to take the initiative where appropriate. This website was all her instigation. I would never ordinarily have set this up. Never! She had to push me to produce the stuff for my bit on the Eventispress website. I felt a bit of a tube doing it, but of course it’s all worth it if you want to get yourself out there. Remember, Eventispress has been around for ten years or so. It isn’t some flash-in-the-pan thing. Diana will happily tell you that people can make a lot of money from successful novels. Problem is the author isn’t necessarily one of those people. That’s not fair is it, and also sadly not really surprising. Eventispress is non-profit making. You’ll pay for bits that need to be paid for, like those mysterious ISBNs. But no faceless fat-cats are exploiting you. Diana is giving you her time on endless Zoom calls and twitter announcements because she believes in your book. Obviously I am a massive fan. Just check out the website. You may not have heard of the authors, but just appreciate the effort, and the love. And trust me, the books are first class

After all that, it’s still the 23rd February 2022, and I’m still the greatest author who ever lived: just before I close my eyes and drift off to sleep. I’ve done two exceptional things things in my life; getting married and getting a book published. The rest was mainly good, but not like this. And I couldn’t have done this without Eventispress. It’s as simple as that.