Guest Post Chloe Thurlow: An Idiot’s Guide to Self-Publishing

I’m delighted to welcome Chloe Thurlow back to my site today, to tell us all about her adventure in self publishing. This thirteen month long odyssey has led to the production of her beautiful new novel, Katie in Love. (Look out for the giveaway at the end of the post!!)

Over to you Chloe…

An Idiot’s Guide to Self-Publishing

Self-publishing a novel is like walking the high wire between two tall buildings without a net and traffic roaring up at you from below. The experience is an adrenaline rush, exhilarating and terrifying.

Katie in Love is that novel. It took 13 months to write, twice as long as my earlier works, and gave me almost permanent stomach cramps. Giving birth to a book is likened to having a baby and I felt as if I were carrying a small school of dolphins.

Sleepless nights and self-doubt is the staff of life to a writer; so is skipping meals and overdoing the Spanish cava, my drink of choice, less bubbly and lighter than champagne. Oh, yes, and falling over. I don’t have stretch marks but I do have some bruises.

Katie in Love went through four editors, all of whom had different suggestions; editors are such egotists. Picking the bones from their flesh-eating comments left me each time with a leaner manuscript and I came to understand the axiom: the first secret of writing is cutting. You spend 9 hours writing 400 words and then 2 hours whittling them down to 200. Then you open a bottle of cava.

When the big boy publishers take your manuscript it’s like kidnapping your baby. They choose the cover, they decide on the publishing date, the marketing campaign (if any) and when you want to speak to someone, they are always on holiday in the South of France.

The covers of my other books have pictures of girls like photos in an old album of people you can no longer remember. Self-publishing Katie in Love meant I could choose the image. I went to the Shutterstock library and almost went blind studying more thousands of head shots. Having created Katie, I knew exactly what she looked like. Finding her in the crowd was intense and incredibly satisfying. Look at the illustration. That is Katie.

My friend Polly Playford designed the cover. The blurb on the back cost another few bruises but, then, that’s what writing is, a battle to reach an impossible perfection. Marketing requires ceasing all other activities: no writing, no chatty phone calls, no lunches with mates. Marketing means being at the laptop 24/7 begging for reviews and asking nice people like Kay Jaybee to give you some space on her website.

What’s Katie in Love about?

Katie Boyd likes sex with strangers. No strings. She isn’t looking for love and doesn’t know if it’s what she wants when the feeling slowly starts to tingle and surface after that first night with Tom Bridge. Katie is a party girl drifting through the hip clubs and London party scene. Tom’s intense, caring, in the bedroom and in his concern for others. Katie’s world is turned upside down as she sets off on a journey of self discovery and change. In three weeks, Tom leaves for Sri Lanka, where he runs an orphanage, and Katie must decide whether to return to her old life or follow him into the unknown.

Present day relationships are as complex as the quickly changing world we live in. In Katie in Love, I set out to explore the intricacies of love, romance, desire and erotica set against the hopes and fears of contemporary life, a book for our times.

Now I hold the book in my hand and the digital version is ready to slip into devices everywhere, self-publishing Katie in Love turned out to be a worthwhile experience. I have crossed the high wire. I am safely on the other side. All that’s left to say now is: Please buy my book –

Link for Amazon downloads – http://bookgoodies.com/a/B00S1SMMIG

Link for Amazon books – http://bookgoodies.com/a/1503014908

The book that it currently in my hand, which is rather beautiful, is FREE!!! If you would like it- then please leave me a lovely comment below (including your email address) and I will pick my favourite on 28th March, and send you Katie in Love.

Bio

Chloe Thurlow is the author of six novels including the best-selling The Secret Life of Girls (Xcite Books). She has a lively blog at www.chloethurlow.com and is, at present, on good terms with her Mother.

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Many thanks for coming by today Chloe!

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Chloe’s latest novel!

Happy reading,

Kay xxx