Writing My First Book. A Diary. Episode 13: Christmas Update: From Writing to Trying to Get Read

by Chris Harris

It’s Christmas time. It’s boring. So far, all of the writing exercises I planned to do over Christmas have completely failed to materialise. It is the 28^th, and I have 90% of next week off, so I plan to regroup and get my act together.

However, I have managed to input all of my stories into AI and ask for ideas on how I might begin marketing my book. The most surprising answer I got back was that I should be sending it to film, radio and television production companies.

I asked why. The AI’s reply was basically: because the themes you’re writing about are exactly the kind of material film and television are looking for right now.

So naturally, you go to the pub. You have a drink. You start thinking and dreaming about which famous actor is going to play which character in your book. Then of course, in the cold light of day you ask: how the hell do I do that? Suddenly, your alcohol induced visions turn to dust, because you realise the absolute nightmare is just getting anyone to even look at it.

I’ll be publishing an accompanying blog on this particular angle of trying to get discovered, the link will be at the bottom of the page, explaining the (depressing) system better, and why it’s actually quite crazy.

The Problem with a Writing Diary.

Now, I’m going to hold my hands up here and admit something.

This blog, the one you’re reading now, was originally intended for the purposes of content creation about my writing journey.

I have a very successful blog on my other interests. But the likes to views ratio on this one, The Novice Novelist, is… well… off the scale successful. Or at least, it would be, if more people bothered reading it!

And it’s pretty obvious why many people aren’t.

Because the truth is: writing a diary about writing a book isn’t actually that interesting.

It’s vaguely interesting in places. Sometimes, yes. But frankly, there’s just not a lot you can write about. Your thought processes and your internal debates aren’t always fascinating, not even to you, half the time.

But when I started reading the AI material about how you actually get your work seen and read, I realised something: This is the real challenge, and actually, this is where the diary might finally become interesting, because anyone can write a book, but not everyone can get it read by lots of people. That is what I’m aiming to do.

By the way, the irony isn’t lost on me. In my earlier “writing a book” diaries I was espousing the view that I was just going to write for the enjoyment of it, as a hobby, but as the final stories drip in and my nearest and dearest read them, the feedback has been surprisingly excellent. With that encouragement comes confidence… perhaps slightly ill-placed, but confidence all the same. I suppose, as with everything I’ve done in my life, I always want to strive for a high standard, and validation for a high standard tends to come from success. I’m not saying I’m good enough to be successful, not at all, but I am saying I’m going to give it a proper go.

The New Year Plan: Ten Hours a Week to Market It

So, with the new year coming and with the time now arriving for me to actually try and find an audience, this is where the blog diary should begin to heat up. Because it looks like it’s going to be a very long and challenging process.

I’m juggling a ridiculous amount already: maintaining two blogs, three books on the go, and I’m about to publish Issue 21 of my football fanzine. I’m creating a hell of a lot of content, but not enough people are reading it. So I have to find the time and the headspace to attempt to market my work properly.

I feel slightly daunted by it, because it involves joining and excelling on platforms and social media, which are all things I don’t enjoy and am pretty hopeless at, which needs to change, and yup, easier said than done, especially when my efforts so far have been dire. But I think if I can change my attitude from seeing it as a drag to seeing it as an exciting process, then I might be able to switch that around.

I know that from next year I probably need to find ten hours a week to start marketing my work properly.

The truth is, as my editor keeps saying, my output is prolific. Producing the content is easy for me. The speed I write at is fast, and what I think I’ve mastered this year is the ability to create a lot of high-quality work quickly.

So while I haven’t marketed it as well as I’d like, I have established something important, I can create the content, which is undoubtedly the most challenging part by far. Perfection, of course, is being able to make excellent content and get people to notice. That’s where I’m clearly failing now. So that’s my Christmas update.

And here is the link to what I think is a crazy scenario about trying to get your content seen by TV, film and radio.

I can guarantee here and now that this diary will start to heat up as I begin trying to make this work, with what will hopefully be some successes, and what will definitely be a huge number of failures. But I’m also aware this is probably going to be a two-year process to establish myself properly.

So if nothing else… at least I’ll have plenty to write about!

Why Independent Writers Struggle to Be Seen. The Crazy TV and Film Industry No Entry Policy

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