Dealing with the unexpected
It’s strange how life has a habit of throwing up the unexpected. Only a few months ago now I thought I was pretty settled in my small cupboard-sized room in West Drayton, looking forward to at least another year living with my eccentric housemates, when all of a sudden things change and I find myself in need of a proper graduate job, and more importantly still, a place to live.
Just when I thought all the work I’d put into my degree would mean I would have a month or two of no work so that I might be able to get on with some serious writing, I find myself now applying for jobs left right and centre, and worrying endlessly about my financial future, and more importantly, whether I’ll have a roof over my head come July 15th. These really are strange times.
As far as my writing goes, you will no doubt appreciate then, that I haven’t actually put pen to paper yet with my new The Darkest Hour trilogy. On the plus side, the first book is pretty much planned out, though I’d like to have the other two planned to a similar level before I embark on the mammoth task of actually writing the thing. At the same time of course, I’m still working on the self-publication project. As things stand I’m just waiting for the opportunity to take a brief trip home so I can sort out the Royal Mail forms for the front matter so as I can use a P.O.Box address in the front instead of my Dad’s actual address. Naturally, I don’t think he’d appreciate having his fixed address in the front of my book, so for the time being I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry. That’s another £65 to add to the cost of self-publication…
After getting the front matter sorted, it’s just a matter of signing up to LuLu. The editing itself is now pretty much complete. It’s taken me quite a while I admit, but considering I didn’t plan to have it done before the end of April as a minimum, I think I’ve done pretty well. My next task is to work on my blurb for the back, and then after that the creative work at least, should be pretty much done with. Only then a task of completing the design-related tasks, format-checking etc and paying for the thing.
It’s certainly not going to be cheap.
I think if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my experiences thus far, it’s that you certainly have to be dedicated to your task. I really want this book to look super-professional so I’m saving up to pay for the top design-package as well as the previously mentioned stuff such as the P.O.Box address. Obviously I’m also going to need to remember to register as being self-employed for tax purposes, and also create some preview pages on the website.
Away from the whole job-hunting and self-publication thing at the moment, I’m still working on other writing-related projects to try and enhance my profile. As I mentioned in the news page, my final ‘A Student’s Life’ article is done, and should go up on the Saturday 17th for web viewing, and will be out in print (for those of you studying at Brunel) after the Easter vacation. Other than my final SL article, I’ve also recently entered a poetry competition and even an essay competition as advertised through the uni on the subject of English as a ‘soft option’. Fingers crossed something comes through for me soon. I’m certainly putting in enough effort!