Until one has actually written a historical novel, you have no idea of what time, effort and serious thought is necessary to achieve a reasonable result.
Now that my first novel, When Times Were Tough, is ready for publication at the end of August, I have started reflecting on what is necessary to achieve such a goal. This project, my first such undertaking, has taken just over eighteen months to complete, although I don’t think a book is every one hundred percent complete. The three stage editing process has taken me as much time and energy as the original draft, even though the basic story has not varied from my first thoughts.
First, I spent several months gathering historical information on the period, including many first-hand journals and accounts. Having lived in some of the areas of the world included helped the process of trying to paint accurate pictures of the time and place. It was then necessary to compose a broad story outline, including the four main characters and how they fit into that story.
Amazing enough, the first few pages flew off my fingers and it was just a matter of following my instincts from that point on. Using real historical characters and weaving them into the story adds certain credibility to the story, but one has to be careful that such characters are treated with respect. I have used them only where I believe they have added a level of historical reality.
Deciding to publish the book myself has added a layer of complexity, another layer utterly different from the original novel writing process. I can see why many writers do not edit their own books and farm the publishing side of things to a professional.
Marketing a product in an industry without direct knowledge also raises additional challenges. Many thousands of books are published weekly worldwide; getting booksellers and libraries interested in purchasing yours is a challenge and a half. I am not sure that spending big is the answer as the number of users and outlets runs to over fifty thousand. Their interests, involvement and location varies greatly, and it can’t all be covered. Targeting to those interested in your books genre and the physical story line location may make some sense. I am still working on it.
Here are the details of the above mentioned book.
Title: When Times Were Tough
ISBN: 978-0-646-88019-8
Printed and Distributed by IngramSpark
Published: 31 August, 2023
Publishers Email: phil.page@beagle.com.au
When Times Were Tough 