He exposed my fragile ego

This week I interviewed an author who revealed the fragility of my ego.

Don’t get me wrong, Vaseem Khan is a delightful guy and a hugely talented writer.

But he reminded me how hard it is to get traditionally published… and why I never tried.

Vaseem, who is about to launch his new novel, The Man with the Golden Compass, told an audience at the Maidstone LitFest that it had taken him 20 years to find a publisher.

Twenty years!

Can you imagine how thick his file of rejection letters must be?

It’s exactly the reason I’m such a proud indie author who publishes his own books.

That level of rejection would have floored me.

I’d have given up trying in six months, never mind 20 years.

Those rejections weren’t because Vaseem is a bad writer.

How can it be when he’s picked up a ton of awards?

Even the one and only psychological thriller he’s written was shortlisted for a major award.

Meanwhile, I’m on my fifteenth thriller and still waiting for the Crime Writers’ awards team to get in contact.

But let’s not dwell on that.

I have one small ask of you.

If you’re not already following me on Amazon, why not?

It’s easy to do – just find the image of me on the sales page of any of my books and click the FOLLOW button.

Then you’ll never miss when I have a new book out.

And I promise, there is one coming soon.

The Thriller Couple

We survived.

Just.

Actually, our self-publishing workshop as part of the Maidstone LitFest was fun.

People were engaged and had lots of questions.

And neither of us fluffed our lines.

At least, not that I can remember. It’s all a bit of a blur.