My Advice to Debut Writers

Whether or not your debut novel is the first of many published books or a one-hit wonder, whether your books sells 50 copies or 50 million--a publishing debut is a once in a lifetime experience,

My book was published in June, 2012, and I have but one word for those of you whose first books will be coming out this year--or any year. CELEBRATE!

Look elsewhere for tips on promotion, building social media platforms, dealing with criticism or hype. I'm only here to talk about the PARTIES!

There's a famous saying that goes something like, "It's not the things we do that cause regret, but the things that we don't do."

So I'm glad that I did many things to celebrate the launch of At Yellow Lake. I'm glad that my husband took me out to dinner on the day I found that I was offered a deal with Frances Lincoln. I'm glad that, at the end of a long, delicious meal we stopped off at the Grand Hotel for champagne cocktails (thereby drinking up most of my advance..)

I'm glad that we spent my UK launch date in Paris, making a frenzied attempt to put a copy of my book into the hands of every literate-looking Parisian (there are an awful lot of them...)

 in order to take a picture. I'm glad we spent the entire day and night celebrating, because the 7th of June, 2012, will never happen again, and even if it did, I am getting a bit too old for these shenanigans...
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I'm glad that I was able to launch my book in both the US and the UK. I'm glad I had cake--sweet,  book-shaped cake--at every event!

There aren't many things in the world of publishing that a writer can control, and very few writers are given an experience as wonderful as having a book published. So when your big day comes, my friends, put on your dancing shoes, crack open the champagne and stuff your cake-hole--that's what it's there for!