A guest post by Abigail Shepherd
A friend asked me the other day if I thought people would be intimidated by the fact that I’m a published author. I had to admit that I hadn’t thought about it. But I said I hoped not.
Well, I can now tell you that they’re not. I know, it’s weird! I mean, come on everyone, I have a BOOK out! Someone out there has actually paid money to turn my words into a BOOK. But, in my experience, most people have no idea just how hard that can be to achieve. How ridiculously unlikely. Some will even say things like ‘I’d like to write a book if I had time.” Grrrr.
Abigail’s new novel is out in Paperback and eBook now! Check out the link below.
The thing I did find myself wondering about was whether people would feel impressed, rather than intimidated. If some would suddenly get really friendly so I could have all the fun of snubbing them. (Not that I would. No. Of course not.) But that hasn’t happened either. Normally those sorts of people just ask if they can have a free book. Again, grrrr.
So then, to answer the statement made in the title, actually daily life doesn’t change all that much. The biggest change I’ve noticed is that I have an awful lot more to do. For most people, the fact that you have a book out isn’t all that important. And that’s fine. It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter because you know what you’ve just accomplished. Your life-long dream. And your real friends and family will be proud and happy for you. They will unhesitatingly spend their money on at least one copy of your book, probably more. And in my experience at least, the online writing community will always be there to support you.
So, don’t expect to become an overnight celebrity in your community. But do expect to be a hard-working author, with a book to show for it. Oh, and start working on your next one right now. You don’t get to stop writing.
Abigail Shepherd is the 29-year-old author of teen historical fiction novel Victoria’s Victorian Victory. Her other work has most recently been published by The Flash Fiction Press, and Mystery Weekly, and she has a regency romance series, Ask Me No Secrets, on channillo.com. She’s hoping her upcoming novel will encourage teenage girls to think about their futures, set goals for themselves, and insist on being treated with the respect they deserve. Her hobbies include fishing, napping, and drinking exceptionally good wine. She can be found on Instagram and Twitter as @abiwriting and blogs at bewritingblog.wordpress.com
Tibetan Lemonade 
Interesting to see what it’s like from the other side 🙂 I can’t wait to get there! Quite often, when I tell people I’ve written a novel and I’m looking to self-publish, I’ll get the ‘I’ve been meaning to write a book too.’ Three friends (who aren’t writers) have specifically confided in me on how they think they’ll write a novel one day. I mean, all power to them, but I often find it insulting. I’d never tell them that though. I could imagine it would be even more infuriating for you being a published author! Do they have any idea how much work it takes to actually sit down and write a novel? Do they know that I’ve been writing every day for since I was 12 years old? It’s interesting though, the three friends who have told me this are the type of people who think they are either: smarter, cooler, more successful or wealthier than me. Like dead set it’s a pattern. And I’m always too intimidated by one of those four things to tell them to shove it. But I’ve decided, next time a non-writer tells me they are ‘thinking of writing a book too’, I’ll tell them: ‘no offence, but if you were going to write a book, you would have done it already’. LOL imagine the reaction…
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I ask what’s stopping them. They either get the hint right away or rattle off a bunch of reasons (I’m too busy, I have a full time job, or I have kids are all common) and then they smile sheepishly when they realize that I have all those excuses I could use as well.
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Haha that’s a great way to get one over them 🙂 I’m totally going to use that one day. I have a full time job and I’m studying at university – but I don’t have kids so I could get trumped on that point hahaha
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The characters in your head become your children, in a way, so I think that counts.
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So true! And now that I think about it, I have a cat & dog too, they are totally my children and take up so much of my time. Who else has to walk their child an hour each day?? Add onto that my 1 hour of gym in the morning, my 9-5 job, 2 hours of studying in the evening, 30 minutes of playing with the cat, editing & writing for around 1-2 hours before bed, socialising with my friends at least twice a week, plus an hour of social media at lunch, my hiking trips on the weekend – well, I barely have time to cook a meal, let alone watch the all-important Netflix! There’s no way in the world I could fit in a boyfriend or a human child
How do other people do it?
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Congrats on being a published writer =)
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