Yesterday was a most exciting day. I sent the files for my book to the publisher. I'm so excited. It will be a few days before I hear more but meanwhile I'll revisit some of what happened before I pressed the button.

I've written quite a lot of stuff, most recently my book about the End to End. I even wrote a PhD, but this is my first novel. It's better than the PhD as I've given more attention to the details. Even so, I know it will not be perfect. I'm not a perfectionist. But it will do.

The road to publishing fiction is full of pot holes - or perhaps even plot holes. Any would be novelist is well advised to have a robust support network for the ups and downs, twists and turns of the process. In the traditional method there's a whole load of bits I, having chosen the self-publishing route, have missed out. I don't have an agent except myself. Longdendale Press is my own imprint. I have had the help of many people: editors, proof readers, cover designer, readers. I'm thankful to all these people.

I'm also grateful to the software developers who do make self-publishing a possible way forward. Thirty-five years ago I wrote my MPhil thesis on the first computer I owned and thought I'd never need another. Even so, without my techie husband I'd probably still be searching for goose quills in the valley.

There are several reasons why I went with self-publishing:

1. It's quite cheap, so even a woman denied her state pension for six years can just about afford it.
2. I can do it from my own home, so it fits in between other activities like making soup and playing the organ or walking in the valley.
3. I wanted to get the book out. As the 'right to die' debate has escalated I've been aware I need to get the book done. Conversations with friends confirmed this. The traditional process could take many more years: query letters, working with agents and editors and so on. Self-publishing is quicker.
4. The book is quirky: a near-future dystopia set in the North of England that follows the life of a seventy-nine year old woman who is 'surplus to requirements' through the ups and downs of a journey that involves the lives of many saints and uses the remembered bible. I'm not aware of a literary niche like it and I thought it unlikely I'd find one that fitted. Ever a square peg in a round hole, as a self appointed daughter of dissent it seemed better to just go for it, a strategy I've used in many aspects of my life.
5. I'm impatient. Can't wait to see it.

I hope you are too.

Janet Lees, 23.11.2024, Longdendale.