I did it. I published four books in one year. I feel as though I just swam the English Channel. What was I thinking? I have no idea. I wasn’t thinking. I was just doing. After years of working full time and futzing around, waiting for the “time to write,” working on my historical mystery in fits and starts, and querying agents, many of whom couldn’t be bothered to reply, I finally had time to write my novels. And yet, I didn’t have an agent, let alone a publisher for the historical mystery series that was burning a hole in my heart. 

So with lots of trepidation and sleepless nights around the timing, I plunged in and decided to try “indie” publishing, otherwise known as self-publishing. I finished a draft of the book I’d been working on for years and said, this is it. I hired a cover designer to do my fabulous cover and to commit to two more in the same series. My husband, Joe, did the interior design and all the technical stuff for publication. I paid a friend to proofread it for me, and we pulled the trigger. 

The Whispering Women came out on Amazon to absolutely no fanfare whatsoever in early September of 2022. I used the money I had saved during all those years of having a day job to hire someone to launch the book for me a couple of weeks later. This service wasn’t cheap, but the marketing expert held my hand and explained the whole process as we went through it. In the end, it was worth the money to have someone else help me navigate the book launch shoals.

This wasn’t my first book. Under the name “Pat MacEnulty,” I’d had four novels, a memoir, a short story collection, and a children’s play published by reputable mid-level publishers, but they had never done much to promote my books, and I hadn’t figured out how to do it on my own. I hoped to do better this time. 

I’ve been told that when you’ve got a book coming out you should spend 100% of your time marketing and zero percent writing. Sounds good in theory, but I hadn’t carved out the time. For me, it was more like 95% writing and 5% promotion, which included posting links on the social media site formerly known as Twitter just like the other two million writers out there and telling my friends on Facebook.

Joe and I had accidentally committed to having the second book come out in late October. We thought we were committing to having the book available for pre-order by then. Once we realized that we’d be put in some Amazon penalty box if we didn’t have the book ready to go by October 25, I got busy. I knew the characters by now and had the basic premise mapped out. In addition, several good friends were willing to critique the book as I plowed through it. Somehow the book got done and proofread.  Joe did his magic, and we had it ready in time (albeit with a couple of embarrassing typos which have since been fixed). 

After The Burning Bride came out, I gave myself four months to churn out the next one. Fortunately, I had already written about 70,000 words of this book during the pandemic. I had to do quite a bit of rewriting and figure out the ending, but again I had a committed writing group who commented, critiqued and cheered me on as I raced toward the finish line. That book, Secrets and Spies, came out in late February of 2023. I should have taken a break at that point and concentrated on marketing, but, of course, I didn’t. 

For some reason I couldn’t stop. I had one more book to write. I had some leftover material from the first book, The Whispering Women, that I wanted to use. This will be easy, I thought.

HA! It was the hardest to write of all the books in the series, and by this point I had worn out all my critiquers with my writing pace so I was on my own. I had to learn to trust myself. Fortunately, the process had become engrained, and I knew my characters well enough that I was able to keep going. Many times I contemplated bailing on that book. After all, no one was begging me to write it. But when Joe and I took a trip West to get a feel for the landscape where Louisa goes to escape New York, I came back inspired. 

The publishing date for in The Butterfly Cage  is three weeks shy of a year since the first book of the series came out.

Now, I’m taking a break from my historical mysteries while I concentrate on some other work, produce an audiobook (or two or three), and try to get the word out about my ventures. When Louisa and Ellen are ready to get back in the game, they’ll let me know. 

It’s been a long, hard year, and I felt somewhat bonkers by the end, but I did exactly what I’ve wanted to do my whole life. Huzzah!