My book has been out for a while and the process of marketing is... daunting. It really is as hard as I thought it would be, as every single indie writer had said it would be, as the general public assumes it would be... I wasn't the one exception, the lucky one, the one who managed to get it right.
But I have published a book. I am a writer. I do what I love to do. And that matters.
Busy editing my second book (which, actually is the first book I've ever finished!), it is easy to somehow forget about the first one. It is done, the files are saved and backed up, the paperback proof is in the box (because I can't open it and find yet another coma or word out of place!). But the interesting thing is: I still think about my characters.
The book is called Grey Rainbow and it is a mixture of what I know: communism, growing up during its end, life behind the iron curtain and life after the iron curtain, family dynamics, Austria. I took what I know and created a story inspired by it, but it is not a book about me, my characters are fictional. But, the main character has lots of me in her. Of course she does, she grew up in the same town, had a difficult mother (not the same like me but similar), found out that she doesn't belong where she was born, has endless curiosity, is independent and strong... So, I have a bond with her. And because of her, I believed in the book and in the story and have decided that it would be my first published book. Because it felt right.
I tried literary agents, but had no success. Women's fiction is tricky. It is very vague. It is big. Women love to read and love stories. BUT. If you are writing women's fiction in Britain, it should be British. I have read many articles about how difficult it is to bring foreign stories to the UK. People don't read many translated books. Sure, there are plenty of stories, plenty of good material here. But the whole world is outside. OK. There is Ireland, USA, India. Also, lately, Africa. Let's say, there are the historical ties, the places that click, places that are not too foreign.
Is a book that happens in the early 2000s current or historical? Who knows. It is yesterday to me, not remembered by many. Europe at the time isn't too interesting, not for Britain. I wrote my foreign book about foreign people in English, but it was still too 'not what we are looking for at the moment' for the traditional houses. Of course. It was written by someone who doesn't really belong here or there, who had never really belonged anywhere. Which makes me a perfect indie talent, right?
So I set to work and self published. Because I can't make my Petra - the main character of Grey Rainbow, different. She is a Czech girl who stubbornly went against the tradition and did her own thing, found her home in Austria, opened her own business and found love she didn't look for. I can't cut this story different, make it more marketable. I don't even know how to market it properly. What book is it most similar to? Well, I don't know. I don't write what the market wants, I write what I feel. Which agent or publishing house would fit best? Who am I to know? My name is unknown, I don't have connections, I didn't live in the UK until 2007. It is my home, but in the eyes of many people, I am not from here. So how do I get my foot in the door? I just build my own entrance.
The book is out. The pandemic will be a memory of editing, editing, proof reading and more editing. The frustration that was cover art. The discovery of the fact that to create an eBook wasn't easy, but paperback was way harder and I should've really started with that one. And the day that I pressed the final Go For It button and declared myself and author will also always flutter in my mind when people talk about the pandemic and lockdowns in the future. The world didn't care. I did. And I became a writer.
And then it was quiet. It still is. But the book is there. And I am busy editing the other one. But my characters keep coming back to me. I think about them. About how they are now. What are they up to. I offer possibilities. I worry that I am too cruel. I remind myself that such thing as happily ever after doesn't exist. Spoiler alert (sort of): we leave Petra when she is happy, because she is in love. She is in the phase of a relationship when you think that it will always be that good, because this is it and the rest of the world got it wrong, but you found gold. But it must change. Yes, of course they are still together. But I have to throw things at them, they can't just hold hands and smile today, since 2003. My mind offers ideas, situations, solutions. I see them how they are now. I even wonder how they would cope with the pandemic. Not how I would write about it, I think about them like I think about other people I know.
Do I write a sequel? I didn't plan it. But the characters, to me, are very real and special. They made me a writer. I lived with them for a while, thought about them a lot (not as much as about dear child but definitely more than about husband). What happens to character when the book is done? You either write a series, or you keep thinking about them, don't you? Now there is a question for the writing community!
Anyway, the book is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grey-Rainbow-Lucinda-Real-ebook/dp/B08PPNYRS8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=lucinda+real+grey+rainbow&qid=1623944002&sr=8-1
Check it out and have a great day!
