Who would have thought that writing a book could bring up so much emotion? 

We all know that creativity is a personal matter. Before embarking on this writing adventure, I thought I knew the territory. I knew that creating is one thing, and sharing it is another. But things move to another level when the book begins to take shape; when it begins to become a reality; to envisage putting your baby into the world …sending it out there alone without the backing of a publisher. You have to really believe in what you’re doing. You have to hold your nerve.

This book – Myg – Adventures of a Rescue Dog was conceived around twelve years ago. It was very short – a page or two – about an ADHD dog who left a trail of disasters behind him. (Now it has grown to a book of twenty chapters!) Through his character I am attempting to capture the qualities of the amygdala which triggers the fight/flight/freeze reaction in our brains.

Then I made friends with Theresa whose child was autistic. She encouraged me to develop the story. Her nine-year old loved it; and there began my journey towards publication. I sent my story to Jessica Kingsley Publishers along with a small pamphlet intended to go alongside it called ‘Help! I’ve Got an Alarm Bell Going Off in My Head!  The fictional story was rejected but the pamphlet was turned into a self-help book in its own right.

Myg has been evolving ever since and has had several rewrites. When I thought the manuscript was ready, I decided to take the plunge and started the self-publishing process. After contacting a few self-publishing companies, I realised that they offer their own packages which are not custom-built. They would use a template to create my cover and would charge extra for illustrations which may not be what I had in mind.

I went solo.

But I was green.

I’d researched many aspects, but I was still green! I didn’t know what I didn’t know, particularly that there is a certain order in which to tackle things… like when you refurbish a house – you fix the roof before you do the wallpapering!

So next I sent my story to beta readers for a test-drive. They were an amazing mix of adults and children. All the responses were very useful including the small minority who were not able to connect with Myg. I must admit I did that human thing of concentrating on the ones who were not full of praise and admiration! I got myself into that well-known rabbit hole of self-doubt. Have you ever been there? I eventually crawled my way out and realised it was important to be grown up enough to expect that Myg will be loved by some and disliked by others – a bit like Marmite (and that does pretty well on the shelves).

Following this I looked for an illustrator and attempted to devise a contract with her which was legally sound. This was much more complicated and time-consuming than I had imagined and I sought help from The Society of Authors.  (This was the beginning of involving other professionals).

I knew from the start I would need professional support with different skills to manage the tasks which were beyond me. But collaboration of this kind is a challenge in itself. Guess what? They begin asking you all sorts of questions about what you want, that you don’t know the answer to!

My wonderful illustrator Gillian Toft needed to know so much more than I had considered, such as logistics of the house where my characters lived, and the town. What would they be wearing etc etc?  I am not a visual person and found imagining these aspects tricky.

How should I know? I just wrote the story as it came to me. I just got it down on paper, letting it evolve, enjoying the process. This tells me something about the kind of writer I am; some people invest much more time in the planning stage before embarking on such a project.  Would I do it differently in the future? Yes, I probably would, at least to some extent.

Once Gillian was already at work, I sent Myg to a developmental editor whom I had booked several months before. Naively I imagined there would just be a few tweaks but what I received back from her was a twenty-seven-page report and my annotated manuscript! My heart sank. There were SO many issues to address. I realised that some of the illustrations would no longer work!  For example, when the editor pointed out that there were virtually no positive female characters, I changed James, the pet psychologist to Jamila!

By this stage I had already employed a book cover designer. She asked a few seemingly simple questions. But they were not simple to me. ‘What size template?’, ‘What font?’ (By the way, did you know that not all fonts are free and many are affected by copyright laws?). ‘How many pages?’ – so she could measure the spine-width.  (I didn’t know because as yet, the inside of the book had not been formatted). I provided a colour image for the front (from the wonderful Gillian) but the format was incorrect; a transparent format was required so that the background could be coloured. How on earth do you do that?

Thankfully my book fairy- god- mother in the form of writing friend Deborah Drake who has experience in publishing, came on board. We met on line in a writers’ forum and have been meeting on zoom for about a year. In May she came all the way from Seattle to stay in the UK for eight days and support me with Myg! She has helped solve all those unanswerable questions. How amazing is that? Yes, really amazing. I’m so grateful. And we continue the work to bring Myg into the world. There is still a way to go but please, watch this space!

I have found that on this self-publishing journey there are so many decisions to make: what colour works best for the cover? What about the blurb for the back? (So far I have written seventeen versions!) How do I obtain ISBN numbers and bar codes? What shall I call my publishing press? It’s absolutely wonderful and exciting to have all these choices, but a tad overwhelming.

I believe I should have had the developmental edit first. Then beta readers. Then further edits followed by the illustrations. More beta readers. Copy editing, then formatting, The cover design would be next followed by further proof reading before we get to the promotion and distribution stage.

But you live and learn. And boy, have I learned! I will be better at project-managing all my future books.

Yes, I am planning more!