The five lives of our novels and why it's vital that we understand them all

Plus: how The Resilient Author is evolving ...

Hello, and I hope you’ve had a very happy Easter weekend! You won’t usually be getting posts from me on a Tuesday, but this is part of setting up The Resilient Author and my new reader substack Story Matters so they work effectively together. More on that later, because first I want to talk about the five lives of our stories, and why they all matter.

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Publishing a book is always a heady experience: ranging from intensely exciting to a huge anxiety churn, with emotions changing regularly! Now I’ve published nine books I try to go with the flow of each ‘season’ in my writing life without jumping on the rollercoaster too much, but it’s always there waiting for me, tempting me to take a ride!

A few weeks ago, my new psychological suspense novel When She Was Gone was published in Australia and the US, which got me thinking about the different ‘lives’ our books have, both before and after publication. As you may know if you’re a regular reader, one of my missions here is to explore ways we can continue to value and support our backlist books - because, after years of hard work, no author deserves to feel that their titles get just a few minutes in the sun and then disappear. However, I’ve noticed that authors themselves - particularly those who suffer disappointing publication experiences - can begin to devalue their own work. So, first of all, let’s remind ourselves of this one key fact:

Your book remains a valuable part of your creative body of work, whether it was published one day ago or twenty years ago!

How do I help you believe this? Well, the only two deals I have signed so far in 2025 are for my fifteen-year-old debut novel Come Back to Me, which is having a new lease of life later this year.

However, the vagaries of the book market, and traditional publishing houses, do not often highlight the long-term value of our work (unless books are classics or bestsellers), so it’s up to us to remember that publication is not the finish line, but only the beginning.

Here’s how I view the five lives of our novels:

1. Expecting a book: aka prepublication

Some novels get sales momentum much earlier than others because there is some level of build-up buzz and expectation around release. You’ll most often see this around debuts (which get the trade excited) or big, established bestsellers (here I’m thinking about all the different special editions of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s forthcoming novel Atmosphere!) This is your first opportunity to breathe life into your book’s potential in the market, by telling people it’s there. And even if you don’t have lots of media contacts or celebrity pulling power, you can still get friends, family, co-workers and local bookshops excited about this event.

2. A book is born! Aka launch day/week

This is a massive moment for your book, and it should be roundly celebrated. Hopefully there’s been some build-up to this moment, but whatever has happened so far, this week is all about announcing the book’s arrival, encouraging others to do the same, and helping them to find it. (i.e. wherever possible, have links to where people can buy the book - make it easy for them to do so!)

3. The book comes of age. Aka the first month/two months of publication

Our books have to grow up incredibly fast in claiming their spot on the shelves - because over the course of just a few weeks, the industry (booksellers, publishers, media, etc.) will begin to decide whether that book is doing well or not. Some lucky new authors are blissfully unaware of this, but those in-the-know will be watching sales nervously, hoping the book shows signs of flying (or at least selling decent, respectable amounts) rather than sinking. And this is the point where it often feels like dreams are made or broken, depending on whether a book gets prime spots in shopfronts or is filed straight under your name on the shelves along with thousands of others (or even gets a spot in the bookshop at all!). In traditional publishing, this is THE moment for the book - so you might be under the impression that all is won and lost here - but no, we’re only at life stage 3!

4. Your book begins its long life. Aka the future!

After those first months of publication, all books enter the longer game of life. Sure, there’s less traction in the marketplace (except if you reach the moments I’m about to detail in life-stage five), and your publishers and the bricks-and-mortar marketplace will move on, but you don’t have to. You can keep talking about your book for as long as you like, sell books at private events, keep looking for people who will enjoy the book, and so on. Of course, you have to combine this with all the new things you’re working on, but I think it’s at this point that too many books are doomed to die because authors become dejected by the machinations of the traditional marketplace. Your work is never dead until you decide it is. You can revive books in different ways many times over your entire life, get rights back and place them elsewhere, and there’s never been a better time in the world to do this with all the access to self-publishing possibilities. Did you see the article I wrote about I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman a few months ago? That book is only on the bestseller lists now, because a publisher went through his dusty backlist shelves and decided this was a story that could find its moment - thirty years after it was first published back in 1995 - and, sadly, 13 years after Harpman passed away.

5. A book’s rite of passage. Aka possible big moments

Not all books will reach this point, and not all go through the same rites of passage. But if you nurture your book throughout its life, you might just find that the story gets explored in more ways than you can ever imagine - through TV and film and theatre - and in my case a dramatised radio podcast that went to the top of the charts for weeks in Australia, 4 years after it was published, when Listnr took its own creative direction with my seventh novel You Don’t Know Me. Remember to look out for topical events or moments where your book might strike a fresh chord with readers.

Case Study: Freida McFadden

I went to Kmart the other day and took this photo because McFadden is DOMINATING right now and has her own entire shelf at Kmart. This Australian retailer only takes a limited number of titles each month, so to get a book in the shop at all is an achievement, but having your back catalogue set out like this is something else! Did you know: McFadden started as a self-published author and still retains her ebooks exclusively for KDP (Amazon Kindle) - while selling her paperback and audio rights. The books you see here have been through their own complex life journeys, some over many years, before they reached my local Kmart store. And of course McFadden’s career path is an exceptional story, and we can’t all emulate her, but we shouldn’t be trying to. Our books are as unique as we are - and they all need to go on their own journeys to find readers. But this is a great example of what can be achieved with persistence, as well as more validation that a book’s life doesn’t have to be over after its first few months of publication.

I hope this fires you up to think more about marketing your own books, and to continue to believe in their value even when it feels like the outside world is telling you otherwise.

If you’d like to read more about my ideas on valuing creativity, here’s another piece I wrote a while ago:

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My Substack news: The Resilient Author is evolving to work alongside my new Substack, Story Matters

From now on, I’ll be alternating each week between writing here and writing on Story Matters, my new substack for readers. This is to keep both these spaces clear and focused on the two different parts of my work here, and to give myself enough time to work on both substacks effectively. And it will also ensure I don’t bombard my subscribers or do unintentional crossover posts. I would LOVE you to sign up for both if you’d like to continue receiving weekly posts from me.

SIGN UP FOR STORY MATTERS HERE.

The Resilient Author will remain focused on insights and advice around writing and publishing, along with my monthly author notes. This site also has a paid component where I write an extra post each month for paid subscribers, and I’ll be providing access to a password protected resources page with additional writing goodies exclusively for my paid contributors. I will sometimes send all my subscribers the previews of paid posts.

Story Matters will be where I dig deeply into story and culture through my articles and personal essays - and it will also feature more of my latest book news and behind-the-scenes. I’ll also put my reading recommendations here.

MORE CHAT! In both my substacks, I’m planning to open more chats for a limited time after some of my posts or when there’s a topic of interest, giving us chance to talk directly about our different ideas. My first Story Matters chat will be on following the TV series finale of The Handmaid’s Tale (showing on SBS right now in Australia) - which I can’t wait to get into with my fellow Atwood/Elisabeth Moss fans! So if you’re on Story Matters, please watch for that alert shortly.

My next Story Matters post will be at the beginning of next week, followed by my monthly Author Notes round-up here on Thursday 1st May. From then on I’ll be settling back into my rhythm and sending the majority of my newsletters on Thursdays and Fridays.

Have a fabulous week - and chat to you soon!