POST-PUBLICATION PLEASURES AND PERILS!

May 26, 2026May 26, 2026 / Edwina Shaw / Leave a comment

Edwina Shaw signing copies of Dear Madman — Signing copies of Dear Madman

Having your book published is one of life’s greatest joys for writers. All those years of invisible toil and people thinking you’re crazy feel worth it when your book is finally launched into the world. Yes! It feels great.

PLEASURES

The first day I held Dear Madman in my hot little hands, I read through it quickly and saw only typos including that dreaded ‘George goat’. But the next day when I picked it up again, then put it back down, I realised the greatest reward of publication. I could put it down! Properly. The story was no longer something I carried with me wherever I went, heavy on my mind, always thinking about it, something I missed, something to add, where to publish. As I placed the book back on my bedside table, it stayed there and I went on to do other things. I went back, the book was still there, real and outside myself. Separate. An entity of its own, finding its own way in the world. The weight of its burden lifted.

Publishing a book is often likened to having a baby, except I’ve never carried a baby inside me for 16 years! A book is born like a foal, ready to stand on its own. Yes, I still need to help it find its way, make sure it is seen, plan events and send it out for review. But now the book belongs to everyone; their imagination and experiences melding with mine through the text. A new creation with every new reader. Real life magic.

An email message praising Dear Madman all the way from Germany! — A lovely response from a distant German relative I’ve never met

Receiving responses from friends and even strangers who’ve read the book is a great post publication pleasure. I hope you feel this kind of recognition of your writing one day too. Thank you to those who’ve emailed me as soon as they’ve finished reading, filled with the story, faces still damp with tears. Thank you to those who also put up reviews on Goodreads, or told their friends, posted about it and shared. This support means the world to me and to all writers. If you’d like to help out and add a review, you can do so HERE.

Review of Dear Madman by Cass Moriarty, author.

Thank you to the wonderful and talented Cass Moriarty whose beautiful review made me see the book in a new way.

Books from small presses like AndAlso Books need this wonderful word of mouth to sell. Luckily, I’ve had over a decade’s experience in promoting and even distributing my own work. Thrill Seekers was published by a small UK press, so I had to push it uphill on my own. It went on to be shortlisted in the NSW literary awards. Although the book baby is born walking, it still needs the writer to make sure it’s visible. As I learnt with my Covid self-publishing experiment, A Guide Through Grief, no marketing equals no sales. No matter how well-intentioned and marketable the product.

Other post-publication joys include getting reviews, as long as they’re good of course. I was thrilled to score a half page review in The Weekend Australian, sharing the spread with esteemed Queensland writer, the late, great David Malouf. Oh happy day!

Another pleasure, for me, is doing related events at bookstores and libraries, even the Police Museum if you’re lucky like I was. Answering reader questions about your story, signing books and meeting enthusiastic readers is the best writing fun you can have when you’re not actually writing. Getting interview requests and being on podcasts and radio shows can also be fun.

But beware, doing these events and interviews can feel very exposing. A lot of the above-mentioned pleasures have a peril side as well.

PERILS

Yes, it’s great getting good reviews, but our brains seem to seek out even small negatives inside much greater positives and focus on those. Yes it was great getting the review in The Australian but the reviewer said there was too much “woo-woo”. I have 29, five-star reviews on Goodreads (thank you everyone!) and one four-star. Which one do I lie awake worrying about? Yup!

The general rule is NOT to read reviews, but the good ones do feel good. If you’re extra sensitive – and let’s face it most writers are – then get a friend to take a look first and only show you the positive reviews. I love Gay’s idea of printing out every single good review and piece of positive feedback about her memoir Will I Ever Be Who I Am and sticking them on her wall. She’s up to ten full pages.

We don’t all have personal assistants to make sure we’re well taken care of. Be your own best friend and schedule breaks.

Other perils include burning out doing events. When you’re on the circuit, doing event after event, especially when it is a deeply personal work, as Dear Madman is, including a memoir strand, then it can all feel horribly exposing. Event after event talking about yourself and the book is exhausting. I’ve learnt to pace myself and leave gaps between gigs, but still, after a while you get sick of the sound of your own voice and wish someone else could do it for you. Taking really good care of yourself, doing your self-care rituals and practices daily is vital during this period of publicity. And if it’s all too much, pull the plug on an event or two. A few disappointed punters are far outweighed by your own wellbeing.

Publishing any book feels like running around town in your undies, but publishing memoir is like running around town stark naked, or after a bad interview it can leave you feeling skinless. Muscles and nerves exposed to harsh light and judgements. Memoirists take note.

Edwina with her sister, mother and Nana in 1995

Keep loved ones close to keep you grounded. This is an old photo from 1994/5 of me with my beloved Nana (Nana Franny in Dear Madman), and beautiful sisters and Mum.

An interview I did a few weeks ago really shook me. An older fellow, ex-sportsman who usually interviews sports stars and musicians, suddenly had “woo-woo” me to interrogate. Questions he would never ask a man started our discussion. “Are you single?”, “Why did your marriage break up?”. Then he kept going for the sore points in search of ratings. When asked about resonances in my own life with the murderer’s story, I told him about my own father’s death, my brother’s mental illness, but he pushed on. “Wasn’t there a dead baby?”

Shocked by his audacity, I answered and continued the interview, but afterwards I felt sickened. Raw and vulnerable. Yes, it’s in the book, but mate, some things aren’t open for discussion with strangers.

Memoirs open you up to this kind of unwanted, intrusive and ugly line of questioning. Your life comes under examination. Not the work. Not the story. YOU. It’s not supposed to be like that, but it is. I comforted myself with the thought that all publicity is good publicity, but I now have some strict boundaries around what I will and won’t talk about publicly. I resisted including a memoir strand in Dear Madman for many years because of this kind of thing. Memoirists, be ready with boundaries around what you are happy to discuss and areas that are off limits.

Put up some boundaries around what you’re happy to discuss.

Pleasures far outweigh the perils in the long run. Learn how to manage the perils and stay sane through the publicity and exposure, how to print out those good reviews and bin the rest. Stick up for yourself and your right to privacy. Protect your sensitive self in interviews and make space for downtime between events.

Relish the joy of knowing your work is out there in the world finding its own way. Cherish the empty spaces available in your mind, now this huge burden of work has been released. Let yourself celebrate. This is a writer’s harvest time, so feast, frolic and be merry!

Writing buddies understand. With the delightful Nicky Peelgrane, Amanda O’Callaghan, Fiona Robertson and her lovely sister Julene. Keep your writing gang close.

Wishing you all the pleasures of publication and plenty of strength and courage to handle the perils.

Lots of love,

Edwina 🙂 xx

PS. Are you ready to tackle the next draft of your work in progress? Writing mojo need a reboot? Come along on retreat. Places still left for Springbrook in August and Byron Bay in September. A few rooms still available for Italy 2027 too 🙂 ALL THE INFO HERE

PERFECTING YOUR PITCH!

April 29, 2023 / Edwina Shaw / 5 Comments

Recently I attended my third ASA Literary Speed Dating pitching event. This great initiative by the Australian Society of Authors brings writers face to face with publishers and agents to pitch their work. For $27 or so per pitch you get three minutes to sell your book to trade publishers or agents. YAY! These opportunities are the best way to get your work noticed by the publishers or agents you’re aiming for, and I highly recommend you give it a go once your MS is ready. Here’s more info on LITERARY SPEED DATING. Next sessions are in July.

But you don’t need to do the Speed Dating to pitch. You can still submit your pitch online to most trade publishers or agents through their slush piles, or directly to any publishing contacts you may have, if they’re happy for you to do so.

Here are a few Australian publishers accepting direct submissions right now – no agent needed.

PAN MACMILLAN AUSTRALIA Open for submissions

HACHETTE AUSTRALIA – ONLY ACCEPTING Children’s, YA and non-fiction (As at end April 2023)

UQP looking for Literary fiction, non-fiction and Stories for the Future

ALLEN AND UNWIN – Friday Pitch! Submit your pitch on a Friday!

TEXT PUBLISHING – 6 months wait here

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE AUSTRALIA Currently closed for submissions but opening up for children’s books in August.

You don’t need to limit your pitching to Australian publishers either – my first two books were published by a small UK press – so do your research and find a publisher that feels like the right fit for your book. Follow their submission guidelines to a tee.

A general rule I follow when submitting is to AIM HIGH – GO FOR GOLD! Start with the big guns – those dream publishers or agents. If you don’t hear back or get a rejection (gird your loins – you’ll be facing a few of these. All badges of honour!!) then send out your next round of pitches to smaller trade presses, and so on, until you’re left with hybrid publishers or independent publishing. Independent publishing isn’t tricky and is very empowering. All you need is a good book designer to do the interior and cover for you and a printer to create the books. And now with the ASA DISTRIBUTION SERVICE for Independent Authors our books also make it to bookstores. Plus of course, make sure it’s been properly edited! Essential. There’s no use having the fanciest cover in the world if your story doesn’t make sense.

So onto – THE PITCH.

If you are pitching in person or in an email you only have a bare minimum of space and time, so it’s essential you cover all the most important elements quickly. We want our pitches working perfectly to hook the interest of our targeted publishers.

OPENING

Start with the TITLE of your book, the GENRE you’re writing, the WORD COUNT and the LOGLINE ( a sentence or two that gives the essence of your story in a nutshell – think of the movie descriptions on movie streaming apps) plus some COMPARATIVE TITLES (these are important as they automatically give the reader an idea of the flavour of your work). You can also include your target audience – Eg Women readers from 30 to 50 or in my case Readers of true crime searching for more depth and meaning.

Here are my opening paragraphs:

TITLE Shadowman is GENRE literary true crime (88 000 words WORD COUNT) based on a tragedy that has haunted my family for generations. Think Garner’s search for meaning This House of Grief meets Schmidt’s first person murderer narrator in See What I Have Done. COMPARATIVES

In 1911 my great grandfather, Bill Williams, unwittingly hired a dangerously disturbed man with a history of violent crimes against girls to work on the family farm, endangering the lives of his wife and four young daughters. LOGLINE

LOGLINES

The logline needs to identify the protagonist, why they are of interest, their main story goal, and what is at stake if they fail to achieve it.

Here’s a simple template to help you write your logline

An ADJECTIVE, CONTRASTING ADJECTIVE OCCUPATION (describe the character through contrasting traits and their job if relevant) must DO SOMETHING OR STRUGGLE AGAINST SOMETHING or else RISK – WHAT IS AT STAKE?

SYNOPSIS

After the logline you need a greater explanation of your plot in a paragraph long synopsis. This is tricky! How do you take 80 000 words and shrink it to one paragraph? For a pitch synopsis you don’t need to include the ending so you can leave the reader with a hook. You need to include at least a couple of actions that the protagonist takes in pursuit of their goal and show the tension and stakes rising. If you can, inject some of the tone or style of your book. Eg, if you’re writing a comedy make it funny, a thriller? – make it suspenseful.

Here’s my SYNOPSIS

The farmhand, Joseph Throsby, suffered horrific ongoing abuse in an orphanage as a child and this combined with untreated epilepsy has resulted in a vulnerable but violent man who has only recently been released from jail. Rejected by his family and the community and desperate to create a new life for himself, he gives a false name to secure the job, but when he accidentally reveals his true identity, Williams fires him, setting in motion a chain of events that leads to murder. Not long afterwards, Throsby attacks the eldest Williams girl, Grace, in her bed. She bravely fights him off and Throsby is imprisoned, but only for six months. In court, he swears his vengeance. True to his word, as soon as he’s released, he returns to the farm and lies in wait where Grace always takes the cows out. That day however, she sends her younger sister in her place.

After we’ve got the main gist of the story across, we then need to add another paragraph about ourselves as writers. This can be the trickiest part! How to not sound like a wanker?!!

Here is where we show off about any previous publications or prizes or courses we’ve done, any manuscript development we’ve undertaken or professional edits of the work etc. MOST IMPORTANTLY though is to state why you are so passionate about this topic you had to write a whole book about it! You can also make a note about HOW you have written it, to give the publisher an idea of the style and tone of the book.

Here’s my WHY ME, WHY NOW or ABOUT THE AUTHOR section.

The story is told in 3 interwoven sections, the first-person colloquial voice of the murderer, the omniscient voice of the Williams family, and the contemporary voice of the writer herself, reflecting on the echoes of violent crime and her attempts to break the family curse.

I’ve been writing and publishing for over 20 years. My first book Thrill Seekers was shortlisted for the 2012 NSW Premiers Awards and since then I’ve published another 4 titles as both author and editor. I teach Creative Writing at UQ and to adult survivors of institutional abuse whose experiences have informed Shadowman. This MS has undergone multiple drafts with support from a Varuna Residency award and an ASA mentorship award.

That’s it for your elevator pitch! Keep it as short as possible – under 300 words if you can. Remember to leave time for questions if the pitch is in person and to research where you submit your pitch. There’s no use submitting a rural romance to a military history publisher or vice versa.

So, what do you think of my pitch? I was very lucky to get requests for materials from both an agent and publisher. Now comes step 2 – THE WAIT! Please cross your fingers for me, a little luck can go a long, long way in this crazy business. And when we finally get our chance let’s all party by the light of the moon!