Today I’m thrilled to be on the blog tour for Jonathan Kaye’s debut novel After The Affair. Do you like a book with a gripping story? A page-turner you can’t put down? A book with believable characters, a twisty yet credible plot and an easy-to-read pace? If that’s you, then this thriller set in Dublin should be right up your street.
Although I haven’t been able to read this book yet, due to the ever increasing TBR pile, I have read some awesome reviews for After The Affair, and it certainly sounds like my kind of read, so no review I’m afraid, but I do have a very interesting guest post from Jonathan Kaye.
The joy of DIY
So, you’ve written a book. Congratulations.
And you’ve decided to self-publish. Okay…great, I guess.
After all, what would be the point in waiting weeks on end to hear back from an agent or a publisher when you know for a fact that you’ve already got a guaranteed bestseller (and possible future classic) on your hands? All it will take for you to make millions in the next few months is word of mouth. And, with the Rowling-esque quality of your writing (as professed by none other than your very own mother) the sales are simply bound to take off as soon as word gets out. I mean, what could a publisher possibly do that you can’t? Especially now that you’ve got the awesome marketing power of the world wide web at your fingertips … not to mention that incredibly convincing email you’ve just sent to Richard and Judy informing them (in a friendly but professional manner) about your newly penned masterpiece.
Self-publishing. Hey, it’s a no brainer!
So, in a state approaching euphoric anticipation, you log on to Amazon and you upload your book file and the cover that you’ve designed brilliantly (much better than any designer could) and the blurb that you’ve written brilliantly (much better than any marketing person could) and you choose your genres (brilliantly) and set your pricing (also quite brilliantly). You’re quite the all rounder, aren’t you?
So far, so good.
And then a little message appears on your screen which tells you that the good people of Amazon are now ‘processing your files’ and this might take a little time. And you breathe out in exasperation (the way one of your characters kept doing in chapter five) and you think, “Seriously, Amazon, can’t you just get it together? This is my launch. This is my moment. I do not need my files to be ‘processed.’ I need them to be out there in the world, entertaining the millions of readers you’ve promised me unfettered access to.” Pressing the refresh button repeatedly doesn’t help at this point by the way!
Then suddenly, as if by magic, the message disappears and a new one takes its place. ‘Thank you for publishing your book with Amazon. It will be available to buy within 72 hours.’
Oh. My. God. Seventy f***ing two hours. You double check. Treble check even. Yes, you’ve read it correctly. Seventy-two. More exasperated breathing. And a couple of sighs for good measure. (You are now actually turning into that chapter five guy.) You sit there staring at the screen, perplexed, thinking, ‘How can it take 72 hours to, y’know, do the kindle stuff with the epub thing and the other wotsit? Seriously, it can’t be that hard.’
Alas, you have no idea. So you wait. And wait. The 72 hours feel like weeks, months, years. But eventually they pass. And then, boom, your book is live. It’s born. It’s for sale. It’s a book. Not just a manuscript anymore. A real booky book. You search for it as if you were a random browser, an unsuspecting customer, not the – ahem – author you now are. You type the name, hit search. And ta daaa – there it is (under all the other books with the same amazingly original title) in all its redolent beauty, it’s shining glory, it’s awesometasticness – awaiting the arrival of the promised myriad of purchasers. You click ‘buy now’ because, well, why wouldn’t you?!
At this point you set your multi-faceted marketing strategy into motion. You email all your friends and you message them just in case they don’t read your email and then you change your status on facebook so those same friends can read that too. Replies of ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Great achievement’ pour in and the likes quickly accumulate. Fantastic. A quick hop over to Amazon to check your sales figures reveals you have … one. Friends eh! But look, it’s a start. Well, it’s not really a start actually, because it’s the copy you bought yourself. So… maybe there’s a delay in reporting. Google tells you there’s no delay. So does Amazon. You ignore Google and Amazon in this instance. You’re an author. You can choose to ignore them.
Now what? Oh yes, your multi-faceted marketing strategy. Of course. Beyond emailing your friends, what were the other facets? Were there others? Does clicking ‘refresh’ on the sales reporting page count as strategy? Have Richard and Judy replied? Perhaps they’re discussing how best to get back to you. They do have your phone number, don’t they?
Don’t be impatient, you tell yourself. It’ll take time. Word of mouth will spread and your book will climb the charts and soon your name will be mentioned in the same breath as Rowling and King and Patterson and Hawkins and Flynn.
In the meantime you make a cup of tea, sit back and wait for fame to come to you. Which of course you know it will.
Book description
University Lecturer David Ryan is having an affair. And he thinks no-one knows.
He’s wrong. Someone does know. And that someone is out to blackmail him.
But when the blackmail attempt goes wrong, both Ryan and the blackmailer find themselves dragged into an underground (and decidedly seedy) world of secrets, lies and violence. A world where no-one can be trusted and everyone has something to hide.
Set in modern-day Dublin, ‘After the Affair’ is the unputdownable debut thriller from author Jonathan Kaye
Amazon UK 🇬🇧 Amazon US 🇺🇸
Jonathan Kaye is a stay-at-home dad who decided to write a thriller when his son started school. The house was tidy by ten every morning so what else was he gonna do till, like, three? Apart from drink coffee with moms – which he is very good at by the way.
It took him a while to figure out the plot. He even had to use google to find out what policemen and judges and people like that did. Characters were easier. He just based one of them on himself and all the others on people he knew. Seriously it’s what all writers do. Why do you think Stephen King’s protagonist is invariably a novelist?
Three years after starting out, he wrote the words ‘The End.’ It was quite the experience. Then he proofread and proofread and proofread again … but he knows there might still be one or two typos and he asks you to not be too upset by the fact.
Finally, he’s sitting here now wondering why he’s writing about himself in the third person. It is making him feel important and aloof though!
Author links:
https://www.facebook.com/jonathankayenovels/
https://twitter.com/JonathanKaye000
And the blog tour continues …………
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