It's now ten days since Poems of Awakening; Through Hardships to the Stars by Edwin Charles (my pseudonym) went live on Amazon in paperback and eBook versions.
I have to say that the process has been a complete rollercoaster! Probably not the best situation for an (ex) bipolar to be subjected to, but I have evolved so far now that it really doesn't affect me.
The highs include reading your first unknown reviewers who love your book - that is a real moment of joy - the thought that someone who has no clue who you are is enjoying your words and relating to them! That's huge, as are all the other reviews.
The downs are trawling around trying to promote your book, getting knockbacks from people and dealing with really unpleasant emails from editors who clearly aren't very happy themselves. I've been able to deal with all of this side by knowing that it is 'the real world' that's making them unhappy.
Now that Edwin has evolved and broken from the 'real world' he sees it as the root cause of people's suffering. It's so obvious to him. Everyone is going too fast (emails, social media, phone, text etc, etc) and the paradigms of society only encourage people to live through their ego's - (vanity on social media, trying to be something they are not in order to portray an illusion to the world, earn more money in the deluded hope of being happier, etc, etc).
Edwin is the reverse. His ego is on the floor and he goes slower in nature for a reason - contentment!
Unfortunately, having had to join the 'real world' to promote the book, he's immediately noticed the stress and chaos, so he's booked a remote cottage in North Yorkshire and is going to embrace solitude (which is where the freedom is) and nature for the foreseeable!
So, that is where he will be and he will be writing the NEXT book. This process has given him the idea for yet another important work and as the writer he needs to be putting down the words NOT posting to social media, dealing with a million emails and being a PR and marketing person!
Anyway, he's learnt an awful lot from this process and now knows how to improve things for when his next book comes out... he just has to figure out how the hell to finance it!
A literary agent interested in multiple important manuscripts would be so welcome right now... but once again my submissions go unnoticed!
I will never give up!
Edwin!
Poems of Awakening Through Hardships to the Stars available in eBook and paperback here;
