Helen Payton Author

In my last blog I wrote about becoming an author as at long last I had written my first novel. I’m a late developer!

But, of course, to be an author you need something else as well as the published book: you need readers.

Putting my book out there on Amazon and other platforms has been a scary process. Would readers like it or hate it? Would people criticise my baby? Well, at first nobody knew my book was there, so I had no responses at all to what I’d written. Then I started to get a few reviews (about 25).  Further along the line my book was accepted and began to be sold in Waterstones, Barnes and Noble, Apple ibooks and Kobo. One of the most exciting moments of my life was the experience that I’d always had at the top of my bucket list: going into Waterstones in Chester and finding my book for sale there. The icing on the cake was that Waterstones had placed a recommendation under my book that informed customers of, ‘The new novel from a fantastic local author’. I’m not sure I deserved the compliment, but it was gratefully received, particularly since it was completely unexpected. I was so excited that I put the picture on Instagram! @helenpaytonauthor

Then after many months I decided to offer my ebook for free for a short time, was lucky enough to get a featured deal on Bookbub and suddenly I had over 26,000 downloads. Now I’ve got the most important thing for any author: readers. After all what’s the point of writing a book that nobody reads?

It’s been a joy reading the reviews and comments coming in to me via Amazon and in response to my blog. To my delight some readers loved the novel; some were less enthusiastic but I’m all too well aware that all feedback is a gift. Praise is lovely and makes my day but equally I take on board constructive criticism.

So basically, this blog is a big thank you to all you readers out there who are keeping me motivated, who put a star rating on Amazon and who take the time to write responses which are incisive, analytical and often emotional.

Your comments are helping me make decisions as I write the sequel.