Zero to Twenty: My Publishing Journey

Zero to Twenty

It’s wonderful to have a dream. Unless, as happened to me, the dream becomes so precious you’re afraid to try make it come true in case it crashes to the ground and smashes into a million sad disappointed pieces. I’d wanted to write for so many years – started now and then, giving up too easily. Afraid of failure, I was desperately clinging to that dream.

It wasn’t till I saw the headlights of 50 shining brightly enough to illuminate my stupidity that I decided to take the jump – write that book and make the dream come true or forget about it.

I was working fulltime. It took a year, then there it was. My first book.  I was a writer. Unpublished, but that was the next step. Or so I thought. Looking back, I’m amused at my naivety.  I really thought that was it – write the book, get an agent, get published. It was a while before I realised I’d done the easy bit.

Innumerable submissions to agents followed – most of whom didn’t reply – some of whom did with kind words of encouragement buried in the rejection. Meanwhile, it was as if I’d let the cork out of the bottle, because despite my first languishing unpublished, I was writing the next. 

It was my sister, Patricia, who was responsible for my next step when she sent me an article about someone who had self-published on Amazon (thanks Sis, I’m eternally grateful!). Always one to jump straight in (I was the one who decided I didn’t like the central light or side lights in my living room and dismantled them all, only to realise then I’d no lighting whatsoever!) I checked through the manuscript, made a book cover and uploaded with Kindle Direct Publishing. And there I was, for sale on Amazon. It was a wonderful feeling – even if it didn’t sell many copies. 

I kept writing. I was now on the third in my Dublin Murder Mystery series. Disappointed in the lack of interest by agents, I decided to write a different series – this one a grittier series about a serial killing nurse. As I still worked as a nurse, it seemed a good idea to adopt a pen name for this series and I borrowed my mother’s maiden name Keogh. Using two different author names didn’t work, leading me to adopt Keogh for all my books. Only much later did I realise many readers had difficulty pronouncing the name. 

With four in each series on Amazon, none selling particularly well despite good reviews, I decided to write a psychological thriller, Exit Five from Charing Cross. This time, I didn’t bother submitting to anyone and simply published straight onto Amazon. 

I continued to submit to various agents over the years, and to the new breed of E-First publishers who accepted direct submissions. Constant rejection is wearisome, but I never considered giving up. I kept writing, improving my craft, learning all the time what worked, what didn’t. No more home-made book covers, I hired a cover designer; no more publishing straight to Amazon, I hired an editor. I immersed myself in the writing community and made writing friends – one, Jenny O’Brien, whom I met through Women Writers, Women’s Books became a close supportive friend. 

It was late 2017 and I was going through a difficult time in my job when I decided to try again to get a publishing contract. I resubmitted to an E-First publisher who’d rejected me before. This time, I had an email to ask if they could ring me. They weren’t interested in the submission but liked my writing and asked if I was working on anything else – as it happened, I was. They asked to see it, and that was it. A few months later, in the summer of 2018, I signed my first publishing contract. Secrets between Us came out in November of that year. My self-published books had only ever been in an e-book format so when copies of the paperback came, I remember smiling for the rest of the day. 

My first contract – I thought that was it, I had it made. But, sadly, following publication of my second book, The Housewife, in Feb 2019, my contract wasn’t renewed. I remember feeling distraught. My dream had crashed around me, and it was a bitterly painful experience. I cried for a full day. 

A day later, I was angry. And determined to pick myself up and prove them wrong. 

A month later, I signed a contract with Bloodhound Books and my first two books with them became bestsellers. They also published my Dublin Murder Mystery series, and I wrote two more to bring the series to six. My 13th book with Bloodhound, A Taste of Deceit, which is my 20th published book, out Feb 28th. I recently signed a further contract for 4 more psychological thrillers.

From zero to twenty was a long learning curve, with highs full of excitement and lows full of despair and self-doubt, but persistence and determination finally made that dream come true.

 

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After self-publishing for several years, in 2018 Valerie Keogh was offered a two-book contract with Bookouture. The first of these, Secrets Between Us, was published in Nov 2018 followed by The Housewife in Feb 2019. Valerie was then delighted to be offered a three-book contract with Bloodhound Books who also expressed an interest in republishing her Irish crime series – collectively called the Dublin Murder Mysteries. There are now six available – No Simple Death, No Obvious Cause, No Past Forgiven, No Memory Lost, No Crime Forgotten and No Easy Answer. Valerie also published the psychological thrillers: The Three Women, The Perfect Life The Deadly Truth. The Little Lies and The Couple in the Photograph. A further psychological thriller, A Taste of Deceit, is due out Feb 28th 2022. Valerie Keogh’s self-published crime series, the Hudson and Connolly series is also available as is her self-published psychological thriller, Exit Five from Charing Cross.

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A TASTE OF DECEIT

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips