Month: February 2019

It started nearly a year ago…

My crowdfunding campaign for The End of Magic started on 14th February (how romantic!) 2018and the first pledge was from my aunt Marion. I got ten pledges on the first day… no day after that was ever that easy again! Almost 90 days of crowdfunding to reach my target, then months in the edit, copy-edit, proofread, cover design and then signing off on it and a few sleepless nights where I was sure there would be some disaster like all the pages being printed upside down.
And then last week, this happened…

My best George McFly impression…

It’s one of those moments that writers dream of and for me it became a reality and I could not have done this without the amazing support of everyone who pledged and spread the word.

I’d become used to seeing the words on a screen and so to finally get a copy in my hands and see the ink on the grain of the page was really special. And then, my social media started going crazy… 

You lot are amazing…

I’m completely overwhelmed by the amazing support I’ve had from you all. I really mean it. There’s so much crap going on in the world, but you’ve proven again and again that there are communities of readers and writers and creators who help each other out and bang the drum for new and shiny ideas.

I thank you all again, and I really hope the book lives up to your expectations.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all my years in bookselling it’s that the launch day is just the beginning. I’m going to be on the sales, marketing and publicity warpath for the foreseeable future and anything you good people can do to help spread the word would be much appreciated: pop a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or social media… let your local library or bookshop know that it’s out… stop random strangers in the street and badger them until they– Actually, you can probably skip that last one…

Whatever you can do, thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re all blimming marvellous and I really hope you enjoy the book and I promise to stop banging on about it…

Till next time…

Mark

PS. Don’t forget, there’s a launch at Harbour Books on 15th Feb at 6:30– there will be cakes, wizards and I’ll be donating a pound for every copy signed and sold to Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy!

Five Things I’ve Learned In The First Month Of Freelancing…

How the hell is it February already? As you may know, I left my day job just before Christmas and am now unemployed/a freelance writer, depending on your definition… I mean, technically I’m unemployed as I haven’t actually earned any money this month, but I have been working my buns off putting stuff in place that should payoff further down the line. Here are five things I’ve learned about the freelance life in the last few weeks…

Get Up, Get Dressed

The temptation to stay in bed, especially at this most miserable time of the year, is overwhelming. But I have a son that needs to get to school and we live in the middle of nowhere, so I’m usually up at six am to get him to his bus stop and I’m home, showered, breakfasted and ready to work by seven thirty. A lot of people joked about me working in sweatshirts and jogging bottoms before I left Orion, but while I don’t go as far as wearing a suit and tie I make sure I’m fairly presentable just in case the postman arrives early. I wouldn’t want him seeing me in my nightie and curlers.

The routine I’ve fallen into is writing all morning with social media turned off (except for tea breaks where I have a sneaky peek at Twitter and FB) and then other admin stuff in the afternoon. It works pretty well so far and has proven to be fairly productive. I thought I would have plenty of spare time, but the days are very, very full.

To Do Or Not To Do

I’ve always been good with “to do” lists and planning my day, and this is a skill that’s served me well working from home. I have a daily list, which I hardly ever get through (and that’s fine, anything not done just gets carried over) and I have a big whiteboard with what I want to achieve during the month. Again, I missed the target on a couple of those, but I was being a tad overambitious anyway. But you can’t beat the satisfaction of drawing a line through them when you’re done. NEXT!

Get Off Your Butt

I was fairly sedentary at Orion, but I did have to walk from the station to the office and I would take an hour-long walk around London on my lunch break. I have an app on my phone that tells me how many steps I’ve taken and how far I’ve walked during the day and if I’m at home writing I can walk less than a mile! Not good.

Luckily for me there is an excellent coffee place a couple of miles away with a walk that takes me across some beautiful farmland, so I try and walk there after lunch each day to save my expanding backside. I think I’ve actually lost a bit of weight, but that might have more to do with the fact that I’m no longer sitting next to where everyone used to leave the snacks in the Orion office.

Hustle

This is the bit I need to get better at. I’m currently following an online course on digital marketing, I’m writing and prepping stuff for the podcast and that is taking up a ton of my time. What I’m not doing is looking for work opportunities. I’ve never had to do that before and it’s becoming very clear that the world will not beat a path to my door. What is pleasing is that when I’ve carved out the time to do shake the tree for work, it’s always been a positive experience. More on this next time…

Know When To Stop

There is an anxiety when you don’t achieve everything you set out to do during a working day and the temptation is to keep working until it’s done. I had a little moment last night when a couple of emails pinged in and I knew I could get these things done in about twenty minutes… but it was the evening, I was with my family and one of the joys of working from home is that we all eat dinner together and have a lot more time with each other. I marked the emails as “to do” and left them till this morning. Got them done first thing and no one died. Knowing when to stop is the biggest lesson I’ve learned this month.

Oh, and I’ve got a book out…

The other thing that’s taking up my time is the imminent release of The End of Magic! I’m planning a launch, I’m hustling for publicity and reviews and I’m driving to book stores, handing out samples and posting reviews copies… It’s all go. Which reminds me – a huge thank you to everyone who supported the book by pledging at Unbound and then posted their photos online. It’s been quite overwhelming…

Till next time!