Hello!
It’s been a little while since I last wrote here, partly because I have been taking my year of self-care seriously and spending a lot of time on my yoga mat, out for stomps across the fields or recently with sand between my toes.
This month, I had a week away in Wales with my family and, for one of the first times ever, decided to leave my laptop at home. I didn’t even bring my ‘book notebook’ (the notebook I’m currently using to plan out my next novel) and let myself completely switch off. I swam in the sea (cold but invigorating) and played with my son and went for walks with my husband, and it was heavenly.
That’s not to say I haven’t been working at all. I have some exciting book-related updates to share with you:
I recently saw the UK cover of my next book This Book Made Me Think of You and I love it. It’s different to any of my previous covers and I can’t wait to share it with you.
I’ve been busily working on proofreading the book and reading it again (and again, and again!) reminds me how much I loved writing this book and how much I hope you’re going to love it too.
For any German readers: you’re actually going to be able to get your hands on a copy first as the book comes out in Germany in October this year, published as Das Jahr voller Bücher und Wunder.
If you’re based in the UK, my book The Lifeline is currently on sale on Kindle for 99p until the end of May. It’s my follow up to The Lido, but can be read as a standalone too.
I have now started work on my 7th novel! It will be a while until it’s published but it’s exciting to be getting to know new characters. I’m trying a new approach this time of planning out the entire plot before I start writing (as opposed to having a loose plan but winging a lot of it). It feels exciting to be trying a new process - I’ll let you know how it goes.
And now, I wanted to share a glimpse behind the scenes of life as an author, by telling you some things you might not know…
10 things you might not know about being an author
Most authors have jobs in other fields
A career as an author comes with ups and downs and most of us do it for the love rather than the money! I was working full-time in marketing when I wrote my first book The Lido.
We earn money every time someone borrows our books from a library
In the UK and Ireland authors can sign up to a scheme called Public Lending Right (PLR) which pays us a small amount every time one of our books is borrowed at a library. So never feel guilty about borrowing a book from a library instead of buying it!
Authors love libraries because of PLR and for everything libraries and librarians do to get our books out there with readers, and in making reading so accessible.
Most of us don’t know exactly how many books we’ve sold
Unless you’re self-published, most authors don’t have detailed access to sales data, especially if our books are being sold in lots of different countries.
You don’t have to have any training (but it can help)
I didn’t do a creative writing degree. I learnt how to tell stories from reading them and from writing all the time.
That said, I have since learnt so much in my role as a writing coach at an online creative writing school that would probably have made my life a lot easier earlier on in my career. And lots of writers find some kind of course helpful for accountability.
But there’s so much that you can learn about writing from reading - and just trying it out!
We’ve all done book events where no one turns up
Or someone falls asleep (in the front row!). Or have had events cancelled due to low ticket sales.
Touring is a fun part of being an author as it can mean meeting lovely readers, but it can also be very humbling!
We love it when readers pre-order or leave reviews
Something I didn’t know before becoming an author is how much pre-orders and reviews mean to authors. A high number of pre-orders ahead of a book’s release can convince bookstores to stock a particular book - and if a book is stocked in bookshops it is more likely to find its way to readers.
Online reviews also help readers find books, so authors are always very grateful to readers who take the time to write them!
We have our own union
The Society of Authors is the UK trade union for writers, illustrators and translators. Recently, they have been doing a lot of work on the use of AI and protecting copyright for creatives.
There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in creating a book
Writing a book is just one step in the publishing process: there is a whole team involved in taking a manuscript and turning it into a finished book. Editing, proofreading, cover design, marketing and publicity…
This is why there’s quite a lag between an author finishing writing a book and that book being available to buy. From my experience, it’s taken between one to two years between finishing a book and it being published.
We get sent free books
One of the perks of being an author is sometimes being sent early copies of books to read before they are published, known as ‘proofs’ or ARCs (Advance Reader Copies). I’ve given lots of quotes for books this way, although unfortunately, I don’t have the time to read everything I get sent.
It’s hard work (but extremely fun)
When I’m in the thick of it with writing a novel, it can feel really mentally and emotionally challenging. Coming up with ideas, solving plot problems, creating complex characters… It really gives my brain a workout!
Then there’s the emotional side of it: grappling with self-doubt and confidence, dealing with bad reviews, juggling a job that is hard to switch off from alongside family life.
But for all the tough parts, it still feels to me like the best job in the world. I love having a job that challenges me, that is creative, flexible (within reason - I still have deadlines!) and that essentially means getting paid to do what I would happily do for free.
Do any of these surprise you? Do you have any questions about being an author? I’d love to know, and will do my best to answer!
What I’ve been reading
Some recent books I’ve read and loved…
We All Live Here, Jojo Moyes - A moving, relatable family tale about a woman whose life is falling apart around her.
Bookish: How Reading Shapes Our Lives, Lucy Mangan - The perfect read for any book lover, this non-fiction book follows on from Lucy’s Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, charting the course of her reading life as an adult. Packed full of book recommendations.
Swept Away, Beth O’Leary - Brilliant, original characters in this high-stakes romance about a couple who get swept out to sea after a one-night stand on a houseboat.
Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry - A new direction for Emily Henry in this intriguing love story/mystery in the vein of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Piglet, Lottie Hazel - Unsettling and tense but extremely readable. A good one if you’re in a reading slump.
Consider Yourself Kissed, Jessica Stanley - A portrait of a relationship as it weathers the storms of politics and the pandemic in the UK between 2013 and 2022.
The List of Suspicious Things, Jennie Godfrey - Set during the time of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, a teenage girl sets out to try and catch the killer, with wide-reaching consequences for her local community. Really moving, and I loved the different points of view. And this line hit me in the heart: ‘…and I realised, just for a moment, that it was possible to come back from the worst thing that had ever happened to you.’
Currently reading: Broken Country, Claire Leslie Hall - I’m already hooked on this dual timeline, tense love story which I’m especially enjoying as it’s set in the North Dorset countryside where I grew up.
If you’d like any more book recommendations, you can shop my curated reading lists at bookshop.org here…
Wishing you happy reading,
Libby x
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Loved reading this list!
Thank you, Libby. What a great idea to pay authors from library checkouts. Do you happen to know where the funding for that is coming from?