What writers can and can't control

Here are some of the ways you can maintain the momentum that spurred you on when writing and collaborating with your publisher in the weeks and months after publication. 

Savour the moment 

Getting a first book published is a great achievement. You should be proud of what you have done: it will have been the culmination of much hard work and periods of self-doubt. 

Reward yourself 

Once the excitement of post-publication PR activity – if you were lucky enough to get some – has subsided, take time off . Make use of the final stage advance due on publication to treat yourself. Encourage moments of idleness: it will remind you that life before writing and adhering to publishing schedules could be calming and rewarding too. Allow your mind time to rest and to wander – who knows what new plotlines, characters or lines of dialogue might get drafted. After a period of introspective concentration on your book as well as the multiple rounds of draft scripts and proofs, it’s time to reacquaint yourself with the outside world. Catch up with other people’s books you wanted to read but had scant time to devote to. Get re-involved with the community around you: it’s where inspiration for your next book or the one after might come from.

Stay positive

You’ve reached a significant milestone by being published. Keep in mind the warm glow you experienced when you first held an advance copy of your book; it’s particularly important to do this when you get demoralised if sales are sluggish and below what you and your publisher had hoped for. Continue to aim high with your writing and your submissions: they will be better as a result.

Don’t spend your post-publication waking hours worrying about what you can’t control, such as: 

Poor sales

It’s not your job to sell your book: that’s what your publisher does. Unless they have been particularly indolent, your book will have been launched with all the sales, marketing and PR activity that they think your book warrants, and that their often slim resources allow. If your debut has not flown off the shelves at Waterstones or been picked up by BBC Radio 4 ’s Book At Bedtime then that’s normal. You have to remind yourself that it would be exceptional if it had. It doesn’t mean your book isn’t a good one or that you should hang up your writing boots, it’s merely a reminder that most books sell in small quantities and debuts from a complete unknown are even harder to sell. Celebrate when you get some good news and hold firm to your belief that writing is what you can and want to do.

Bad reviews

Don’t expect everyone who reads your book to love it. Avoid trawling the web for mentions of your title or taking twicedaily peeks at Amazon rankings and reader ratings if you think you won’t be able to cope with any negative commentary you see there. You might be surprised by how enthusiastic and encouraging readers, book bloggers and other writers can be. If you think it will help your mental well-being, nominate a friend or ask your publisher or agent to forward reviews and mentions. These reviews are important to help promote your title immediately after publication and can be added to the book’s description and metadata that feeds through to your publisher’s website, Amazon and other online stores. One of the delights of being an editor is seeing how well an author’s book is received: it proves they were right to back it. Your editor would usually pass on a good review and help to contextualise or make a less favourable one more palatable. Your agent is likely to include them on their site alongside a mini profile of you and your book. You have suddenly become an important asset to them: they too backed a winner. You may find yourself sitting digitally alongside well-established, prolific writers held in high regard: which can be a positive boost to any new author’s ego.

Don’t give up your day job is a much-vaunted piece of advice. For obvious reasons, even if your first book sells well beyond anyone’s expectations, it’s a good idea not to jettison the regular and reliable income stream that your ‘real ’job brings in. You could start to think about how you might adapt your working life to accommodate more writing time – for example switching from full to part-time, if that’s what you want to do – and plan how you might make proper money from a life in books (if that’s something you think you would find fulfilling). [...]

Be proactive 
Do you remember how self-motivated you had to be to write your first book, the research you had to do about which agents to approach, the numerous rewrites of the submission pitch you put together? You may now have a publisher, an agent and readers, but they are busily supporting other authors and will be distracted by the next raft of debut novels queued up behind your own. Editors are business people and have to keep moving things along the publishing conveyor belt. It doesn’t mean they want to stop communication with you, but you may have to make the first move. Let them know of opportunities that arise where your book might get a mention, update your publicity contacts with potential leads, write some blogs and continue your own promotional activity. When you are ready, put all your energies behind producing the proposal, synopsis and draft chapters for the next book you plan to send your editor.

The Writers' & Artists' Guide to Getting Published is available to purchase now.