helenwritesit I’ve finally found a moment to sit down and reflect on the whirlwind that has been the past week – publication week! ARCs and other copies of A Concert for Christmas have been out in the world for a few weeks already; so in some ways, publication day was like Christmas Day, in that it was really only publication day in name, but all of the lovely things that happen on Christmas day happened on publication day too!
The first similarity is that I couldn’t sleep and I wanted to check social media and Amazon in the middle of the night to see if Father Christmas had been. It was an early morning and then came the flurry of wonderful messages from so many facets of my life: I had messages from old friends and new friends; colleagues and friends from Abingdon Operatic Society; author friends I know and total strangers who happened to see a passing post and engaged with it. I even had a pupil I’d taught twelve years ago get in touch through my Facebook author page to say congratulations and that she’d enjoyed English all those years ago. I had Year 11 boys chatting to me while I was out on duty and promising to buy it for their mums; and I had my best friend, who’s on maternity leave, keeping an eye on reviews and social media from her sofa while I was teaching all day.
After school, I treated myself to pizza and prosecco and joined Jennifer Page for an online author conversation for RNA Learning Presents. It was such a lovely way to spend the evening. We talked about our writing journey, our books and what it was like to get published.
The truth is, publication day was hugely overwhelming. I couldn’t keep up with all the lovely messages, posts and reposts that were coming my way and I had low level anxiety hanging around all day in the knowledge that people were actually reading my book – including friends and family! But, it was also dream come true stuff. It is incredible to hold your book in your hand and to have people bring their book with them when you meet for coffee, just so you can sign it. The whole day was brilliant and I will remember it for a really long time – and if you’re reading this as someone who sent a message or a post on the day and I missed you, thank you! Thank you so much for taking the time to celebrate the day with me – you made it very special indeed.
