Ten years ago, on the 6th April 2014, I first hit the publish button. for the first time. I had poured my soul into A Bright Power Rising I was about to publish for the guts of twenty years before that. Every step in the publishing process had been painful, delayed and victim to error. Already I had discovered that the original cover that had a glaring typo everyone had missed and had it amended. I always envy those new authors who unbox their first copies of their first book in floods of tears. I didn’t cry, but if I had, it wouldn’t have been from joy. In truth, I was anxious.

I am now on the cusp of publishing my fifth novel and that worry is now in the past. Here are ten lessons I learned from ten years of self-publishing.

(1) Fear is your greatest enemy, but sometimes that nagging doubt in the back of your head is your best friend.

(2) Learn from your mistakes so you can leave space for new ones to keep things interesting.

(3) Be grateful to those readers who love your work. Not everyone will like it and that is absolutely fine and normal. 

(4) Don’t comment on reviews. That has always been my policy from day one and I have seen nothing in ten years that has made me change my opinion.

(5) The demon of typos, Titivilus, always wins in the end, but do your best to conceal his victory. The industry standard is one error per page. Aim at zero errors but don’t expect to achieve it.

(6) Even things that can’t go wrong occasionally will, but sometimes good things just arrive out of the blue with little or no effort on your part. In short, luck plays a massive part. All you can do is to maximise the possibility of it finding you.

(7) It is important to be patient but don’t confuse patience with passivity. Keep moving.

(8) Every book and story poses its own particular challenges. Overcoming these obstacles is just a natural part of the writing process.

(9) Equally, sometimes it is better to recognise a story doesn’t work and walk away. The central concept may be flawed or you don’t emotionally connect with the story. Again, this is a natural part of the writing process. 

(10) Don’t forget to enjoy writing and publishing. Celebrate the successes.