Ellie’s Next Chapter Timeline
It’s easy to talk the talk, isn’t it? But just so you know I’m absolutely walking The Next Chapter walk beside you, here is my timeline of my Author Next Chapter.
Timeline
2011: After years of hearing ‘one day I really must write that book,’ my lovely, if-not-a-little-weary-by-now husband says ‘just write the damn thing.’ So, I did.
2014: My book is written. At first it’s called PMTV, but I later change the name to The Pink Coffee Shop. I send it off to agents – fully expecting them to say ‘Here’s your amazing book deal.’ They didn’t. The rejection emails flood in.
2015: One agent asks if I would be prepared to re-write it in the first person? You bet I am I tell her. I rewrite the whole thing.
2016: A year later I send it to her, thinking this is the moment. She tells me she only represents children’s authors now… Much cake is consumed.
2016: I decide to start a new novel. I write The Secrets of The Gin Club (which later becomes The Secrets of The Coffee Club)
2017: Send new manuscript off to agents. ‘This is it,’ I tell myself. It wasn’t. Some didn’t even reply this time. Some did, but it was still ‘no.’ Meanwhile, I start my 3rd novel – The Juggle.
2018: We had an awful moment in our family, which made all our worlds stop turning for a bit. It gave me a little space to stop and think what was I doing? I missed The Pink Coffee Shop and my character Rosie. So, I went back to the beginning, deleted the book and rewrote her story using everything I’d learned.
2019: I sent off the manuscript again. More rejections.
2020: I began to think there has to be another way. I had a conversation with a good friend who works in self-publishing (James Blatch), at the same time I listened to many inspiring interviews of authors who’d taken this route. There was another way.
2020: I set up Flowerpot Publications, and self-publish The Pink Coffee Shop.
2020: I also heard having a podcast was a good way for readers to get to know authors. I realised if I’m struggling with ups and downs of navigating a Next Chapter, others must be too. What if sharing stories of these struggles could help and inspire us all? A mixture of next chapters, celebrities and non-celebrities started showing we all face the same ups and downs whoever we are.
2021: The Next Chapter Podcast began
2021: I rewrote and self-published The Juggle – set in the fictitious Cherry Blossom Park in Bristol.
2022: I rewrote and self-published The Secrets of the Coffee Club (now coffee, not gin), also set in Cherry Blossom Park.
2022: An agent told me she likes my work, but would I consider writing a new series? I began Do We Really Have To Do This? set in Strawberry Village.
2023: I sent book back to that agent – who decides she will pass. I also wrote to other agents again – while I’m at it. More rejections followed. Yet, at the same time I had the realisation of how much I love being my own boss, writing my books, learning the business side of life and creating a community with my wonderful readers and listeners. (The Universe breathed a sigh of relief that I’d finally cottoned on to what it’d been trying to tell me. I also stopped eating quite so much cake.)
2024: Finished first draft of Book 5. The second in the Strawberry Village series which will be released through Flowerpot in time for the Summer months (if I stop writing this timeline and get back to my desk).