10 years – 26 books – 1 million copies #amwriting #tuesdaymotivation

Back in 2010, if you had asked me what my writing goals were, I would have told you, ‘To be successful.’ I’d have defined success as recognition, which meant being featured in the main media, interviewed on television, winning an award, selling books – lots of books. When my debut novel was released, I was interviewed on BBC Radio Stoke and revealed my dream to sell a million copies because I wanted to entertain a million people. Of course, they were all ‘pie in the sky’ dreams. At that point, I’d only ratcheted a couple of thousand sales and although I was on a local radio station, chatting about my first novel, deep down, I was fearful of bombing as a writer.

Today, sees the release of my 25th book and 14th crime novel. (For the eagle-eyed among you who read the title – the 26th is written and is being edited.)

The second in the DI Kate Young series, A Cut for a Cut, was one of the trickiest books to write because it not only has a twisted plot (you know how I like to keep my readers guessing) but follows Kate’s quest to bring down her boss, Superintendent John Dickson. The two plots are interwoven and it took some juggling to pull the whole book together, but I was thrilled with the results.

I seem to have come a long way since I began writing. It hasn’t been without its pitfalls and believe me when I say, every new release has me sweating for weeks before it comes out. I never sleep the night before a publication day. I’m half-terrified and half-excited about how the book will be received. On publication day, I rarely leave my laptop. I jump from blog to blog, website to website, social media site to social media site, thanking readers who have congratulated me, downloaded my book or reviewed it. I’ll spend every waking hour hunched over my keyboard, thanking readers, reviewers, bloggers who have taken part in my book tours, grateful for their support. Every positive comment lifts my spirits and I shall get to end the of the day sore-eyed and exhausted, but hopefully satisfied that my work is being enjoyed.

And in spite of all the anxiety, I love publication days. It is a day to be celebrated because all the months and months of hard work, not only from me but the entire editorial and production team, has resulted in a book I am proud of and one I hope you will enjoy.

Tonight, I shall raise a glass to DI Kate Young, to Thomas & Mercer, to Amazon Publishing and to you, my readers. Thank you.

There are two A Cut for a Cut book tours taking place over the coming days. If you follow the 10-day tour you will be able to enter almost daily #giveways (There are some fantastic goodies up for grabs) Follow the Instagram tour for daily jigsaw clues which will eventually spell out a message about the 3rd book in the series.

See the banners below for details of the tours and a monstrous thank you to everyone who signed up to them and to Emma Welton and Zoe O’Farrell who organised them.

And as for selling one million books – well – let’s just say, watch this space!

Carol X