Getting to the stage of publication really is like climbing a mountain, you know. The date you sign the Contract is just the beginning of the trek. It's then a long uphill struggle to gain visibility, promote yourself and your book and ultimately sell copies.

Thought I would throw that little analogy out there!

Today I made two big decisions - one blog only AND all of my content gets fed through and pushed out to all other Social Media from one source - my website.

Simplicity and streamlining.

Now I'm working on making the site more interactive. I already have live feeds on the Homepage and today added a slideshow into the header. Let's see what else I can do.

One last thing - "My Blog" now becomes "All Things Writing Travel Photography" - or "All Things WTP" for short!

Don't they look yum, and yes, I'd rather eat a doughnut than file my tax return any day. To make matters worse, I'd forgotten all about it, so, with only 10 days to go, it was a baptism of fire.

Thankfully my filing system has improved within the last couple of years and I had all the documents I needed in more or less 3 or 4 different box files.

It didn't amuse me at the time (but I'm ok with it now) that HMRC sent me the letter in April 2012 and then no reminder until 21st January. I'd missed the 31st October 2012 paper deadline, so my only option was to file online. Actually this turned out to be easy, but how was I to know?!

I took a lot of deep breaths! And then a big sigh of relief when it was all done and dusted.

For help with setting yourself up as a registered writing business, check out my blog post here.

For guidance on the tax return itself, what you can claim and how it's calculated, check out this post.

Depending on the phase of the moon, it takes varying amounts of motivation to get me started on a project. Once up and raring to go, I hit the other extreme and take on too much. The most annoying thing about myself is that I rarely see any of these things through to completion, but that's all about to change. In fact, I've already started this turn around mindset with my 30 Things which handily includes projects I desperately want to FINISH.

I love everything about magazines - the colours, the art work, the clever headlines and bylines, the mostly excellent writing, the glossiness, the fact they are jam packed with information just waiting to be absorbed... So now I want to be a part of all that. I have had some modest unpaid success - and looking back through those little gems was part 1 of the inspiration on this particularly relaxed Sunday afternoon. Part 2 came in the form of Roy Stevenson's article in Writers Forum where he divulges his secret formula for getting a 90% success rate when submitting ideas to Editors. Nothing that I didn't already know, but the key in the article was to give each link in the chain the same amount of undivided attention and not to neglect any of the stages. For example: Don't spend all your time on your query letter / email without properly researching some great facts and figures to whet the Editor's appetite.

I've been documenting my publishing journey where I blog about the highs and lows of my experiences and I'm desperate to attempt paid article writing (yes, one of the coveted 30 Things). So to kick off, yesterday I re-worked an article I wrote for Real Travel magazine 2-ish years ago on Responsible Tourism that got the "OK" from my Writers Bureau tutor. It was never acknowledged because said travel magazine went into financial difficulty shortly afterwards, but I hate to waste good material (and we are always encouraged to recycle as writers) so I cut the thing in half, updated the content and submitted as a column to National Geographic Traveller. I must point out here that you shouldn't wait as long as I have to resubmit to an alternative magazine, but, like I said, I go in fits and starts! Anyhoo, let's see what happens. In the meantime, it's high time I started Assignment 3 of my course (another 30 Things - to make some decent progress - considering I've been "studying" for far too long) which happens to be an open assignment where you can submit multiple offerings for review from your tutor.

I already have a great idea... must capitalise on it whilst it lasts.

Here we go then, the highs and lows of my published year (06 July 2011 to 06 July 2012) and being connected with a rapidly changing industry - and I've gone back through my 2011 and 2012 diaries and made notes so I don't miss anything...

The first thing to say is, I knew Little Child was not about to sell a million copies... not a thousand either... not even 100. One always hopes of course, but thanks to several workshops and networking events leading up to publication, I was brought to my senses in time learning how the publishing industry is a completely different beast to what I remember fifteen years ago. Net result? I was only going to sell masses of copies if I put in some serious leg work. And I mean serious. Like basically doing everything from editing to researching to marketing - myself. Oh, and giving up my full time job.

As with any topic and debate, unless you have a keen interest in the subject matter, why would you know anything about it? So, quickly coming to the realisation that nobody around me had any of this knowledge, I was keen to explain how the industry was in turmoil - but even then, I had no idea of the potential.

On 10 July 2011 I launched my website as a follow up to my Little Child Facebook page. I started tentatively blogging, dabbling in HTML coding and thinking of ways to get the knowledge out there so I could help fellow aspiring authors and writers.

13 July 2011 saw the Amazon launch (along with other book websites) of Little Child and the eBook format for Kindle came out a day later. That was a highlight for me. I was finally on the giant Amazon!

Now, I'm the type of person who likes all her ducks in a row, so when I got to see the pricing and the delivery details on these websites, I can't say I was happy. The pricing was high and the delivery info. was inconsistent. But I couldn't do anything about either and that was that.

14 July 2011 was the day I started thinking about my marketing plan - not much of which I've ticked off to this day hahaha !!! With the best intentions, I will get to it. It's all about priorities and my priority is not to hard sell Little Child at this time. You will see why as you read on...

19 July 2011 I received my copy of Little Child and I was over the moon, not even caring that I looked ridiculously flushed in the photo I took in very crap lighting (more chuckles). The next day I started researching into self employment and setting up my own writing business.

I signed my first ever book on 25 July 2011. That was another big moment. And that's when I started to realise it's actually the little achievements which are more rewarding and fulfilling at this point in my career.

27 July 2011 my contact at the Publishers was replaced. This was also the day my Agent uploaded a press release to lots of Newswires.

I was understanding my place in the Industry much better and it made me want to work harder - for me and me alone. I knew it would be a steep learning curve - and I also knew it was going to be rocky, difficult and at times utterly soul destroying.

More happy news now. On 02 August 2011 I received my first ever book review - and thankfully it was positive!

07 August 2011 I submitted my Author info. to Amazon for them to approve and upload.

Then I hit a low. I was getting criticism from the people I least expected to hear it from which is hard to chew on let alone swallow. Unedited typos were being brought to my attention and I don't mind telling you now, I felt an absolute fool. I'm a perfectionist and these were tough times.

Good always comes from bad and on the upside, I was also receiving some blimin' fantastic feedback. People who had gone through depression, child abuse, drinking all relating to the story. People who hadn't read for twenty years plus picking up my book because I'd written it. People congratulating me on the rollercoaster pace, the packed emotion, the complexity of the characters... This was feedback I welcomed with open arms. Even if there were negatives, there were positive too.

On 17 September 2011 with the help of a friend, Little Child was featured in an iPaper - newspapers that exist purely on tweets and links - and now I was blogging regularly gaining more and more hits on my website (talking early hundreds, not thousands though).

26 September 2011 I registered as self employed and a month later on 26 October 2011 my writing company Piara Strainge was official.

03 November 2011 I received my hilarious Royalty Statement which wouldn't even buy me a grocery shop - but we all have to start somewhere right!

In the rundown to Christmas I was still blogging, interacting on Twitter, making friends with other Indie Authors with varying degrees of success in Indie Publishing or Self Publishing ventures and generally really enjoying my social media networking and maintenance.

On 27 November 2011, after talking to a friend at work, I got a "30 Things to do before I'm 30" idea into my head and I couldn't shake it. My contract with my Employer was being extended month by month and I knew I had to cut loose, or I never would! So on 30 November 2011 I signed a contract for the last time up until the end of the year. And I felt so good once I made that decision.

03 December 2011 I booked my three weeks in Canada. This was going to be my "get it altogether" time with family and that's exactly how it went down.

06 January 2012 I blogged my initial 30 Things list. Two months late but oh well. I'm not one to hurry.

10 January 2012 I began my "Am I bonkers?" blog series which detailed starting life as a freelancer. Originally I was referring to being a writing freelancer but with the advent of my 30 Things project, I seem to be freelancing in anything and everything!

11 January 2012 saw technological advancements as I linked my website to Twitter, which then automatically updated Facebook, making light work of my social media antics.

On 08 February 2012 I got 100 followers on Twitter and two days later, I finally had a 30 Things plan of action.

You know that marketing plan I started thinking about on 14 July 2011, well I looked at it again on 11 February 2012 and put it in some sort of order. Think I may have even ticked a few things off!

An unofficial 30 Thing took over for much of February as I eBayed like crazy getting rid of some of my old stuff.

On 04 March 2012 I re-wrote my Homepage making it more anecdotal, a day later I re-categorised the tags on my blog and three days later I bought my domain name for another 12 months, set up Google Analytics, gave my website a design overhaul and added a Live Twitter Feed to the Homepage.

More unofficial 30 Things came next emptying the large guest bedroom for redecorating and re-designing the gardens. Also plans to see more of the UK this year...

On 21 March 2012 I sent my 1000th tweet!

10 April 2012 I received my first self assessment return but no earnings yet hehe

May and early June saw quite a few 30 Things being ticked off plus I slept overnight at an airport for the first (and probably not the last) time due to a very delayed flight, watched an England International at Wembley and enjoyed the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

On 12 June 2012 I returned to my old school and started creating a Children's story with the kids. I also caught up with my first ever teacher who taught me to read and write!

19 June 2012 I finally set up Hootsuite to help me with my social media exploits.

03 July 2012 I set up my Author page on Facebook so I could use Hootsuite to send tweets through Twitter to this new page. I've been scheduling tweets (thanks to Hootsuite) which boosts website traffic and keeps my followers engaged. I also have PhotoInk tweeting on my behalf.

04 July 2012 saw my first celeb follower on Twitter - fabulous!

And bringing us right up-to-date, on 06 July 2012 I flew a Tiger Moth to celebrate Little Child's first anniversary.

So as you can see, not much room for marketing and selling Little Child although I've still got plenty of ideas running through the old brain box - and I will get to it eventually. I'm not measuring my success on monetary value, but instead against the happiness meter. And I'm happy with how it's all going right now whilst I flit from project to project. I may not have sold many copies, my Royalty Statement may be pittance and my Amazon rankings poor, but once I get the bit between my teeth, I'll go for it and we'll see what happens...

Spending the last year studying the publishing industry in depth has been a godsend, equipping me with the knowledge and advice to tackle an industry which is clearly in turmoil as Publishers fight for survival - and writers realise that there are other markets and avenues available within a rapidly changing environment. We've seen an explosion of eBooks and eReaders, the closing of Borders, Waterstones fighting its corner, Amazon becoming a publisher enabling the rise of successful mid-list self-epublished authors, and self-published millionaires taking the limelight.
What will 2012 bring? We honestly don't know. However you see yourself fitting into the publishing picture, the most important thing is to embrace those changes without getting distracted, whilst staying in charge of your writing career.
Stay on top of your game, grasp the opportunities and above all - keep writing.
You need to keep an open mind, understand it's going to be a long journey, and even though I preach on about writing from the heart, have the market and reader in the back of your mind to keep you on track. If you want to grow your readership and ultimately sell lots and lots of copies of your books, you must do your market research and follow the trends.
Update your professional portfolio whether that be as part of your website and blog, or in the form of a hard copy. Look at making your social media author platform more effective (we'll come back to this). Organise old work and look at ways you can re-use it. And keep working on new material so you don't get stale.
I'm hoping to take my writing career to the next level this year. How about you?

Word of warning: the excitement contained in today's blog post will not be understood by anyone who doesn't have a dream and doesn't have a clue about the changing face of the publishing industry.
So what happened...?
I received my first ever Royalty statement yesterday!!! The content doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact I managed to sell any books at all considering the rather high price point for a paperback - and the fact that millions of people every day all around the world are self publishing their books at a fraction of my price. It's not a mega amount and certainly not enough to retire on or even buy a week's worth of groceries with, but it's a start and I am very very happy.
If you have had a similar experience recently, don't let anybody take that moment of triumph (however small) away from you :)

On another note, tomorrow I will mostly be hungover with pre birthday drinkies taking place tonight... but on Sunday I shall be sharing my 29 most memorable travel experiences to celebrate my 29th year. Check back with me then ;)

I'm going to turn geek on you and talk about metadata and SEO for the next 10 mins or so. This is going to be in the context of writing for websites - headings, webpages, page content. In its simplest form, metadata is the key words and phrases that describe the content of a page - and this helps your search engine optimisation (SEO). You use metadata in page content but also in HTML coding, so it sits in the background of your website and search engines like Google scan the coding and words to place your website in search results. The better your metadata within your website, the better your SEO ie. you'll be ranked higher up in search results. I'm just getting started with metadata. All I've done so far is add a tag line for my complete website, something along the lines of "Piara Strainge's website about writing" - probably needs more work! The next step will be to tag line each individual webpage. Then I'll go through the content on the pages and tag line headings and key words. You have to think about your website in different stages - firstly as a whole entity, then as pages with different topics being covered. If I come across any great non-technical resources online to help us, I'll be sure to post them for you!

Just before I start this post, a quick update on my Twitter experiment. You know, the one where I asked is it really as simple as following more people to gain more followers for yourself - well, slowly but surely I think it's working, but so far my ratio of following to followers still seems far too high (not in my favour). Never mind though, I'll keep at it!

I want to talk today about errors in the Print on Demand publishing model and in eBooks and the reasons why this happens. Authors frequently take the blame for badly formatted and poorly edited work and I've found myself defending, well, myself. There's nothing more demoralising, trust me. But enough of the self pity. Starting with the book production process - typesetters take the author's word processing file (which has been electronically edited) and import it into a page layout program such as Adobe InDesign or Quark. As soon as the import happens, the file is stripped of all the author's formatting. They then turn the file into attractive book pages as per the publisher's design specifications.
At this point, all connection with the author's original file is lost. Any changes made now are created solely inside the page layout software, NOT in the Word document as well.
From these page layout docs, typesetters generate PDFs to send to the publisher as page proofs. The publisher and author - or in my case, just the author - mark their corrections on the PDFs and send them back to the typesetter, who makes the changes. From experience I did 4 or 5 rounds of proof corrections, but worryingly I kept picking up on new errors each time. In the end, I had to say enough is enough, or I'd still be editing today...
Therefore the final PDF that goes off to the printers is often quite different from the author's original Word file!


Now, if the publisher decides to produce an eBook, the process starts over because currently the page layout files used for the book are too complicated and inappropriate for eBook production. This means going back to the original Word file from the author - and because this document doesn't reflect the editorial and proofing changes that the book underwent during the page layout process, the author's Word file that winds up as an eBook is often full of errors.
Talk about going round the houses and making hard work of it all!

I know I've been slack with blogging about the MJ gig, but I promise you'll hear all about it by the weekend. I'm just trying to sort out in what order to tell you about piranhas, the Onion man and a drunken Scot. Yes, you did read me right ;) They will all feature, but not necessarily in that order...
There's so many exciting things coming up on the website so keep checking back! Apparently I should have started marketing myself 3 years before I wrote my debut. WHOOPS! Who knew, eh? I can see how that would have been mighty useful. It takes many hours to maintain your website and do the social networking thing on a daily basis when all you want to do is write and work on your next big project. I love it because it's new territory for me, but I seriously need more hours. The way I tackle it at the moment is to set myself a target of 1 marketing thing per day, even if it's just an idea. If I'm thinking and reading about publishing, that still counts. Like I said yesterday, Twitter is awesome for this. You get headline news to dip into, but never swamped with information. I also enjoy the daily writing prompts!
BUT BUT BUT BUT
At some point (very soon) I will have to get down to some serious "in the zone" writing and plotting - not just for Tainted, but for the overall marketing strategy - and I'm really looking forward to that.