On publishing - why my books are not in the bookshops.

Or - why write 10 books when you can write 3?

Yesterday I went to get my eldest from her job to take her out for dinner with the rest of my children - she works in a bookshop. I got upset browsing the shelves, they didn't have my books in stock. I let that go, and looked at the books that they did have - all of them were theoretical, pretty and looked like they were going to help, but really in essence, they were just talking about the work without guiding anyone through it. I told my son how I felt, and he said, "Maybe they are designed so that you need to come back and buy another book?" Out of the mouths of babes (he's 20 so not such a babe really.)

It got me thinking - that's how I've been running my business for 13 years. I never wanted to hook anyone into doing 6 sessions, or a series of sessions, or even into coming back to me unless they want to themselves. One and you're done. And my books too - Energy Healing teaches you energy healing, How to Be Well teaches you how to be well in your daily life, and Heal your Inner Wounds take your hand and guides you to do your deep work. I didn't feel the need to write any more self-help/self-care books because I've covered mostly everything in those three. That’s why I wrote The Inner Compass - because there’s nothing like a story to teach spiritual wisdom.

So to answer the question in the subtitle - I prefer to write 3 quality books and not 10 that repeat themselves. I get bored easily. Did I say that already?

I'm sharing these thoughts because I'm almost finished the final edit of One Day at a Time Diary 2024. It’s been an emotional experience. I've been publishing these diaries since 2018. I've been in the top 10 Irish bestseller list with it, and have had great fun running giveaways, making downloadables to go with it, and reaching a wider audience.

Honestly, there’s nothing like going into a bookshop and seeing your book on the shelf. Or even better, in the window! Really, it’s an amazing experience. Each year I would go to all the bookshops in Dublin city centre around December time with my purple pen to do book signings. So as usual, last December, I went out hopeful and excited, to find my book not in any bookshop at all, bar Dubray in Grafton Street. I rang my publisher straight away, I was very upset and they claimed they didn’t know that was the case. Which, in fairness, the woman on the phone genuinely didn’t know the book was not stocked anywhere. She said it didn’t make sense either, that she would get onto the sales rep. and find out what was happening and get back to me. She didn’t get back to me, and my book was not in the bookshops for Christmas. It did not make the bestseller list, it did not make enough money to break even, and Gill Books did not ask me back to do another one.

They didn’t phone me at all about it. I had to approach them myself and ask what the story was - it was very demeaning for me to do that. It was also rude on their part considering the relationship we had over the years. I already had an inkling of what they would say. I didn’t expect, “Ukraine war, the price of printing, Ukraine war, the price of paper…” (yes they actually did mention the war several times as cause - no idea why.) but I did have a feeling they no longer wanted to do business, with me.

I asked if I could take the diary and the premise behind it and run with it myself, seeing as I was the one that came up with it. It took 2 days for them to come back to me and say yes. So I sat with that for several weeks because I really was left with my head spinning and I couldn’t think straight about it.

I eventually made a solid decision to make my diary myself by hook or by crook. I had no idea where to start, but I knew that I needed the astrology for 2024, as the diary is based on the astrology for the year, so I ordered that, and waited for my next move to unfold before me.

Mark Attwood, catalyst (I really think he needs to put that in his name) asked me to edit his poetry book. I had met Nicole before, in Morocco, when she helped organise his Cosmic Retreat. She was his designer, and we got on a call the three of us to do some work on his poetry book called God Wins. She was working in InDesign, and as the Universe would have it, I had a copy of Adobe InDesign too, because I was doing work with my typesetter on The Inner Compass. Aha! I had a bright idea. Once we finished working on Mark’s book, Nicole made me a re-usable template for my diary, which, I may say, is just perfect. I cried when I saw it. Once I received that, I got to writing. (And Mark’s book is amazing, you should check it out!)

I had my close friend, Robert, who is an editor, edit my script for me. Nicole finished the template and I put my script into the layout and sent it to Nicole for polishing. She sent it back last week and it took me a week to open it because, well, I needed to gird myself. I knew it wasn’t going to be any worse than anything Gill books designed for me, but the possibility was there. What I didn’t expect was how good it turned out to be - so much better than anything I did with Gill Books. I cried, again. Yes, it’s emotional, there is so much energy in this diary every year, that it affects me, too.

I’ve been working through the final edits and will probably be able to order a first-look author copy by the weekend. From Ingram, because Amazon don’t send Irish people author copies of their own work. Because of Brexit this time, not because of Ukraine. Don’t ask - believe me the tech support people have no idea why, either.

All’s well that ends well? Well, maybe not. You see, I cannot put this bestselling, popular Irish diary into the bookshops myself. I asked my husband and he said that he’s already asked - the Irish distributers have the market sewn up. That individual bookshops are captured by the distributors, and there’s no way they’d take any. It’s a hard nut to crack, I may try to do it, but it’s not my specialist area, selling books. I prefer to write them. I have no patience for going door to door selling them - and it shows in my end-of-quarter book sales!! But anyway, I am hopeful that this one will sell because people will come looking for it. And I will be shouting about it, on all my media platforms come November. Stay tuned!