A summary for you on what to expect in this edition in case you want to scroll down to the interesting bits: current work on laying out paperback books; the anxiety of success; and the progress report with an update on my week-on-week sales and writing progress.
Formatting and more Formatting
This week, I’ve been… formatting. A LOT.
I first had to format my own paperback for Cooking on Gas (you’ll be pleased to hear it’s done: ebook is out on the 30th August and paperback on the 1st September). Then I had a client’s book to format - as of writing this (lunchtime on Tuesday) I’m stalled halfway through while I wait for feedback on a couple of decisions. I also had put on my to-do list a long while ago, not realising this would all coincide time-wise, to redo the formatting on the paperbacks for Boy Under Water, Bloodless, and Don’t Move Out, so they’re next up this week.
(actually, I put this on my to-do list back when I did that writer’s fair and had my paperbacks in my hand. That should give you an idea of how far in advance I end up having to schedule stuff, ha).
Depending on how it goes, if I feel the books look much improved, I’ll then add the whole of the Serial Investigations series and the whole of Crowhill Cove to my re-typesetting list as well. I’m leaving the ebooks as they are, because the less formatting for those, the better - Amazon charges a delivery fee based on the size of the book file, and adding images can literally cost me every time I sell a book.
I do my formatting in Microsoft Word because I can, because I’m old-school, and because I don’t want to pay for software that ultimately doesn’t have as many options as I want to use anyway. The one thing I hate about doing this is that the headers and footers are a nightmare to deal with. Word seems to change its mind on whether a page break counts as a section break every single time I open it. IYKYK. I just spent an hour going chapter by chapter and correcting half of them because they were counting themselves as new sections, but not following the rules of the previous section even though the sections are linked, because OF COURSE THEY DID and I’m convinced people who develop this software are anxious to further the decline of society.
Anyway!
Upcoming paywalled topics for this newsletter include: a deep dive into The Green Knight; something about Love, Simon’s structure; war memorials and what they mean to us (scheduled); how I wrote a narrative non-fiction novel that attempted to be faithful to history; thoughts on pens; Jack the Ripper short fiction (90% done); something about Final Destination (maybe how the characters must become assholes before they die, or why this kind of movie holds such cultural fascination), and some ecocriticism/historicism around Haweswater.
I’ve already scheduled the first post for when we return to essays in September:
The Anxiety of Success
There’s a peculiar kind of feeling that happens when you start to do well.
When I say ‘you’, I probably mean ‘me’, although I don’t doubt that other people have similar experiences. Social media, public reviews, and anything else you might be confronted with in the public eye are terrifying things. They can turn very quickly from praise to criticism, and often, with the nature of instantaneous commenting, you get both at once. Of course, this can only happen if you actually get into the public eye. In many ways, being anonymous is safer: you avoid critique, avoid getting your feelings hurt, avoid pain and anger and threats.
I’ve spoken in a few places before about an experience I had with being doxxed and attacked as a much younger writer - I’m sure it was over ten years ago, now (if you don’t know the story and would like to hear it, tell me in the comments). The panic and fear I felt during that time comes back to haunt me often. I’m pretty bad at handling any negative comments online - they take me right back to that place and I start to feel my chest tightening, my breathing coming quicker and shorter, my heart pounding.
That’s why I feel mixed emotions when a post anywhere starts to do numbers: joy, but also fear. “Wow” but also “oh no”. I’m currently experiencing this with my most popular video of the week - I just refreshed TikTok from when I started this post and there have been 15 more comments - and I love it and I haaaate it. Every time someone agrees with me, it’s like heaven. Every time someone argues, I go to this defensive, scared place where I have to prove that, no, see, I am right, you just didn’t get what I was saying, let me show you how I’m really a good person, I’m only a human, you can’t hate me, please.
I’m working on it.
After all, the only way to success is through that particular gauntlet; and when you get success, you must live inside it.
Books
Okay, you've read the Substack posts (and maybe you're a little bit confused if that's where you started). Wondering who all of these characters are? Thinking you need a refresher on past books?
Each week, I share the one TikTok video that performed best out of the last seven days.
All of these videos are available on TikTok for free, but if you’re a) not a TikTok user or b) just want the best highlights, this is a convenient place to see it.
This week’s best is below, and it’s a response to a follower question about why badly written books do well:
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Note: Changes are in bold, comments in italics.
TOTAL SALES:
Crowhill Cove series (Don’t Move Out, Don’t Go Outside, Don’t Fly Home, Don’t Leave Town, Don’t Check Out, the 1-5 boxset, and Don’t Move Your Desk): ebook - 1,171, paperback/hardback - 48, KU pages read - 838,585, free downloads - 6,304
Kiss The Cook - ebook - 22, paperback - 1, KU pages read - 11,895
Cook Up A Storm - ebook - 20, paperback - 1, KU pages read - 8,697 - No movement this week
Too Many Cooks: ebook - 8, paperback - 1, KU pages read - 3,740 - No movement this week
What’s Cooking, Good Looking?: ebook - 12, paperback - 1, KU pages read - 5,418
Serial Investigations full series (Pre-Substack releases: books 1-12, 2 bonus novellas, 2 boxsets): ebook - 552, paperback/hardback - 117, KU pages read - 435,086, free downloads - 4,825
WRITING:
Cooking on Gas: preorder up, fully formatted and scheduled for sale ebook AND paperback
Crowhill Club: all covers, themes, and titles done, characters created and romances/interpersonal relationships between books set up
Dark romance project: cover design bought, initial ideas on characters, plot, themes - Yes, I just revealed the genre of my mystery project!
YA horror project: cover design bought, research list started
Hydropower: Hiatus/new plot done
Client status: One book in publishing phase
SUBSTACK:
Subscribers: free - 85, paid - 1
Followers: 479
CONSUMING:
Read: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Reading: We Could Be Heroes by PJ Ellis
Watched and watching: Link: Eat, Love, Kill, F Marry Kill, Survivor Australia S4, Charmed S1, Bad and Crazy, Supernatural S13
By the way, please like this post if you enjoyed it and would like to see more! This helps me decide what to do for future content.
XO Rhiannon