I never was the main attraction

Book One in the 'But you are in Italy, Signora' series

Book Two in the 'But you are in Italy, Signora' series

One year ago, I published my sixth and seventh books … ten years exactly after ‘But you are in France, Madame,’ my first.

Books number six and seven were set in Italy, not France, and in a glib comment the day I released them to the world, fuelled by tiredness, I shared my Italian book news with my Instagram followers in the following way:

 

“I’ve always wondered whether it was my story that attracted readers or the fact that it was set in France (some have suggested the latter). I guess I will find out soon enough.”

 

The data is in.

 

Compared to my first year promoting and selling ‘But you are in France, Madame,’ I have sold roughly double the number of both books in my Italian series, ‘But you are in Italy, Signora.’

 

Do I consider this a success?

Not really.

 

Back then, I was a self-published, unknown author with one book to my name, no social media, no ratings or reviews, and zero confidence in my worth. I was the writer, yes, but I was also the editor, the publicist, the manager, the bookkeeper, and the advisor, trying to find my way in an unknown world.

 

It was up to me to spread the word that I had written a book. I worked hard, studied how to advertise, battled and overcame my fear of promotion to make contacts, gave talks to any group who would listen, lugged boxes of books from car to venue, wrote blogs and articles, and continued to doubt.

 

Gradually, sales improved and contacts increased. ‘Write more books,’ I was told. So I did. The upward curve continued. And when it dipped, again I was advised to write more.

 

But, it would seem, hard work, following authorly advice and increasing the number of one’s followers, doesn’t mean much.

 

Additionally, the release of thousands of AI-generated books is submerging and hiding books that have taken months (or years) of human thought and devotion to produce; attention span is decreasing; scrolling is taking over from reading; world news is all-consuming; financial constraints place the purchase of a book in the ‘luxury’ category; and journalistic reports are dominated by those with power and money.

 

Yes, there was an uptick in sales after Books One and Two in the ‘But you are in Italy’ series were published, but that ‘party for one’ is a long-abandoned scene of faded streamers, stale cake and overturned bottles.

 

Truthfully, I had hoped that it would not just be my faithful readers who would waltz from France to Italy with me. Maybe some are still on their way? Are they traversing the Alps on the Via Francigena with the thought that they’ll get to me in due course?

 

This is not meant to be a pity piece. In my more optimistic moments, I continue to believe that I can write, that my story is worth reading and that the messages that I convey allow readers to dream. But, as I watch my stats slide, it is becoming clearer that the main character in my memoirs was never the real attraction.

Here are the links to all my books:

French series 

Italian series

And, as always, you can find me on Instagram here.