Eleven years ago (According to WordPress anyway – I count it more like thirteen.) I started blogging here; this was my first Post – The Tiger Princess’s Guide to her particular brand of Jargon... just in case you want to refresh your memory.

It’s changed a lot in that time and I’ve changed a lot in that time… not just the spelling of Tiger either! However, one thing hasn’t changed.

I’ve not stopped writing.

I’ve threatened it a few times, ranted about writer’s block, the iniquity of publishing, the lack of sales… etc, etc… but I have never stopped putting words to paper / screen.
As a result, I have a backlog of books to publish and my determination to get them out there and let other people read them has resurged this year.

I’ve swapped from Smashwords to Draft 2 Digital for retailers outside of amazon; the interface is much better and easier to use, even though I’m still getting used to it. Once I had moved all my current books across – it took me two days and I had Puff hanging on my shoulder all the time, berating me for not actually writing…

The first thing I have done after this change, is to set up the publication of “Hat or Tiara”, which is the first book of the Dragon Flower Saga. I created the cover myself and with the help of various pieces of software, edited and formatted it myself.

I think it looks pretty good to be honest!

Here’s the Blurb:

Louisa is a simple girl. She loves to draw and design and has never wanted anything more than to work in her mother’s hat shop. Her talents, however, dictate otherwise.

Between her mother’s ambitions and the visiting Royalty, Louisa finds herself in some tricky situations, and has a lot of fun along the way.

Will she win the heart of a Prince and become a Princess? Or will she ignore what her heart tells her and seek her own fortune?

Yes, I know, it reads like a YA book – and as the MC starts out at a young age, it could be a YA book… for the older end of the age group. The story covers various aspects of human interaction that may be considered by parents to be unsuitable for younger readers, and my plan for the series is to follow the MC as she grows up (rapidly) and discovers things about herself and her family, so yes, there will be a few more adult things happening.

The book is currently in Pre-Order Mode; something that I’ve never done before. It’s quite exciting!
So whatever e reader you use, whatever e reader software you use, you’ll be able to get it.

If you go to https://books2read.com/b/bwKADe you’ll find the non Amazon retailers.

If your preference is for Kindle, then you need to visit, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hat-Tiara-Dragon-Flower-Saga-ebook/dp/B09RJM4RPQ

The book is due to go live on 11th February – next Friday – and you can pre-order it up until then; that way you can get it drop into your e reader on the day without needing to worry about searching for it…

I’m hoping that it does well!

As far as Print and Audiobook are concerned, I will be doing a print book later in the year – possibly through Amazon only, possibly through Lulu or D2D. The cover for a print book is a lot more complicated and needs more thought.
Audiobook is another game entirely – especially as I intend to record the audio myself! I’ve always found author narrated audiobooks good; it’s like the author is sitting in your living room reading you a story!

And yes, I’m old enough to remember Jackanory; I loved that show as a kid.

Talking about listening to me talk and read, I am planning on continuing the Podcast. It’s probably going to be a little erratic on the timing of the episode release; I’ve learned a lot about making them, and I still have to get more equipment to make it sound really good, but the flip side to that is that the equipment will also help me to make audio books.
It will also mean that I can narrate for other people; thus adding an income stream to my current efforts.
I’m planning to become self employed if possible; but to do that I need to have a regular income stream from my publishing projects – I don’t want this to be considered just a hobby any more.

Now comes the thing that I hate doing – asking for help.
I need your help to make my publishing move forward to the point I can do that.

To do that I need sales and readers. So the first thing that needs to happen is for word of my work to spread near and far. If you see my book posts on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Tumblr, Twitter etc, please share them!
I’ll put a list profile links for the social media I am on at the end of the post.

If you want to help me in a more practical fashion, you could join me on Patreon, which is a more generalised way of helping; a click on whichever tier of membership takes your fancy and I’ll get a small amount of money every month.

Buy me a cup of tea on Ko-Fi – where you’ll see my page is more geared toward my illustration and children’s book publishing exploits – and you can choose to donate once or monthly toward buying equipment and software to help me with those projects specifically.

If you really, really want to help me practically, you can buy something off my amazon wishlist – https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/2LH5ET94A94ZI – which is aimed at the Audiobook / podcast end of things.

And of course, the main way you can help me is to…