So. I’ve set up my very first website. And this is my very first blog. Impressed? I am!
I’m really excited about my first book Medar, that was published by Ark House Press in August 2017. It’s been a really long journey: not only the 10 years it took to write the book, but then the five years trying to get it ‘out there’. I had the manuscript assessed by Tina Shaw, then I submitted it for the Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award, and was a finalist in 2015. After that, I tried submitting it to publishers throughout NZ again, but to no avail. However, I was lucky enough to have Grace Bridges (Splashdown books) accept it for an edit.
I’m grateful that I’m a member of the Tauranga Writers’ group. They are a fount of knowledge for all things to do with writing and publishing. I eventually got up the courage to allow some of my chapters to be critiqued by the group: such great feedback and useful tips! I attended manuscript formatting and publishing classes run by the group. At the end of 2016 I decided that in 2017 I would self-publish.
Then in January 2017, I heard an ad on Life FM for Ark House Press. I submitted my manuscript…and they took it! I signed the co-publishing contract in February 2017 and almost immediately started working with their graphic designer to do the cover. About six weeks into the process, I thought crikey! I haven’t had my manuscript properly edited since I made all the Grace Bridges changes. I enlisted Chad Dick (100% proof), an editor who is a member of Tauranga Writers and duly paid for an edit. That delayed the process two months, but I wanted the book to be the best it could be.
I submitted the final manuscript to Ark House in June 2017. They formatted it and sent through the final proof in July 2017. I received my first hard copies in August 2017. Wow, was I excited to finally hold my book.
