It’s publication day for Een Veld Vol Klaprozen, the Dutch version of The Poppy Field. I’ve never had one of my books translated before so I’m a little excited (understatement)!
While writing this post I thought I’d mention to those of you wondering whether it’s worth self-publishing, it is.
The Poppy Field and now Een Veld Vol Klaprozen, came about because my now publisher read my self-published historical romance, Broken Faces. I had a different agent back then and although Broken Faces was runner-up in the Good Housekeeping Magazine Novel of the Year Award in 2012, it never sold to a publisher. Heartbroken that I had missed my one chance to be traditionally published – or so I thought – I self-published Broken Faces.
Three years after publication, I was contacted by Charlotte Ledger of HarperCollins UK imprint, One More Chapter. She told me that she had just finished reading Broken Faces, loved it and was looking to commission an author to write a novel to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War. Was I interested? I think it took me less than a millisecond to reply that I most definitely was. Then I was contracted to write, The Poppy Field.
So, if you’re a writer and struggling a bit at the moment with rejections – don’t we all? – remember to keep on writing and that dreams can come true.
