Jon Rance: My Route to Publication

Jon Rance, the author of This ThirtySomething Life and Happy Endings, talks about his route to publication…

Whenever I talk or write about my route to being published, I always end up using the same words. Unusual. Different. Unconventional. When you think about getting a publishing deal you generally think about someone having an agent first and then the book being shipped around various publishing houses until the inevitable bidding war results in a large three book deal. This generally isn’t true either, but I didn’t even have an agent and I wasn’t really looking to get a publishing deal at all. I guess I should start at the beginning.

I started writing properly ten years ago. I wrote four full-length novels and followed the traditional path of trying to get an agent and failing each time. It always felt a bit strange though. I would spend a year and a half pouring my heart and soul into a book and then I’d send off thirty letters to different agents, wait for the rejections to come back before starting all over again. It’s a strange thing to do. So after I finished writing my fifth book, THIS THIRTYSOMETHING LIFE, I decided not to approach agents and instead self-publish it.

The truth was I was tired of rejection and I wanted people to read my work. I had four novels sitting on my computer that only my wife and I had read. I had worked so hard on them and yet no-one had ever read them. So after I was finished THIRTYSOMETHING, I uploaded it to Amazon and off it went into the big wide-world. I was a published writer (sort-of) and people could finally read my work.

If you’re expecting something incredible to happen now then look away. The book was on Amazon for over a year and it had sold maybe 500 copies. Still, it meant that 500 people (some of whom I didn’t even know) had read my book. I was chuffed. By this point I’d almost finished my next novel, HAPPY ENDINGS, and was getting ready to self-publish this one too. I was in bed one night and I started doing some research into marketing and I got the idea of doing the free promotion of Amazon. The next day (without any proper planning) I did the free promotion. For five days my book was going to be free. I spent a lot of time promoting this on Facebook and Twitter, but that was it. I was amazed then when suddenly I found my book racing up the charts and sitting quite proudly in the top five on the free Kindle chart. On the fifth day the incredible happened, it got to number one. I was gobsmacked.

Of course, after this small triumph I wasn’t expecting much else to happen. So I was even more surprised when actual sales took off. It was priced at a very competitive £0.79p, but I was going against established authors with countless books and publishing companies. Price was all I had to level the playing field. I won’t bore you with the details, but a few weeks later and somehow I had reached the top ten on the paid Kindle chart. I couldn’t then and still don’t quite know how this happened, but it did. Then out of the blue I got a Twitter message from an Editorial Assistant at Hodder and Stoughton – the huge, big-time publishing house. She loved the book and they wanted to publish me. It wasn’t quite that simple and involved weeks of waiting around and she had to get me through the dreaded new acquisitions meeting and get top brass to approve it and sales and marketing to get on-board with me, but eventually I got a two book deal.

Getting published is a long and usually difficult road, but it does happen. I never thought it would happen to me. I hoped and dreamed, but the reality always felt so far away. My story is definitely unusual, but I think as times goes on it won’t be. The Amazon chart is already becoming the new slush pile. I’m just thankful it happened to me, but whenever people ask how I always say the same thing – I don’t really know. It just happened.

Happy Endings and This ThirtySomething Life are both available to buy from Amazon.

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.