Ire-re, stargazers!

If I'm being honest, I have no idea how to start or what to say in this first blog post. It feels... weird.

It’s like you’re writing for yourself, yet at the same time there are people reading what you write. It’s a strange feeling. And kind of amazing.

In this first post I want to talk about a few things: how I’m doing, the current state of 52 Letters and what I’m planning to do next.

1. HOW I AM DOING

Honestly? I’m exhausted. Like, properly knackered — no exaggeration. I didn’t expect to have to deal with soooooooo many tasks, to organise so many things, or to learn how to do SOOOOO many things on my own. Suddenly I’ve had to figure out how to handle forms, fees, distribution, taxes, setting up a shop, creating a website, doing promo edits... Honestly, WOW.

I genuinely think people don’t realise just how much work goes into publishing, not just in my case, but in general. Especially if you’re self-publishing, like I am. It’s easy to think it’s just about writing the book, maybe getting it formatted or edited (if you can afford it), posting about it... and that’s it. But NO. It’s nothing like that.

The amount of work and paperwork involved from the moment you start writing to the moment the book actually comes out is insane. So yeah, I’m currently absolutely drained. Trying to juggle work, studying, and all of this on top has been mentally and physically exhausting. So this week I probably won’t write or do much at all, maybe just plan a few things… But more on that in the last part!

2. CURRENT STATE OF 52 LETTERS I (NEVER) GAVE YOU

Well... I’ve sort of messed up a bit, to be honest. Me, being the total newbie I am, thought that if I hit “publish” on the 24th of June, everything would be sorted by the 25th. Turns out it is absolutely not. Not even close. I’ve spoken to both Amazon and IngramSpark, and apparently it can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks for a title to show up properly in bookshops, databases, etc. Wild.

And now it all makes sense. You know when some shops have a book on display before it's official release while others don't? I always wondered about that. But now I get it: publishers or authors probably publish the book a month or so in advance, and during that time all the information slowly gets uploaded to various platforms and catalogues. So I imagine that's why in some bookshops you can spot it sooner and why they decide to stock it right away, while in others not. It was logistics all along. (If you caught the reference, a glomp for you.)

Soooo now it’s just a waiting game. The price still isn’t showing correctly on Amazon — in fact, there are THREE different prices at the moment lmao— and it’s not appearing anywhere else either. I’ve had people check Secret Kingdoms and La Casa del Libro and it’s not showing up for them yet either.

So yeah. Just got to be patient, I suppose. This is one of those things you only learn by going through it yourself, I guess.

P.S. The books I ordered myself to sell via Ko-Fi — since I placed the order directly through Ingram — should arrive sooner (fingers crossed!). I checked this morning and they’re apparently already being printed. YAAAAY! So for now, the Ko-Fi supporters will be part of the D.V.I.S. Club (Drew’s Very Important Stargazers)

3. FUTURE PROJECTS

Once I’ve had a break, I’ll go back to working on the project I was focused on before writing 52 Letters. For those of you who don’t know, 52 Letters isn’t the first book I’ve written. The first book I ever finished was the first volume of a saga called TSOA (The Scepter of Arándelis).

The thing is… I’m translating it. It was originally written in Spanish, but I always felt like something was a bit off. The tone of the story at the beginning and at the end felt nothing like my current voice as a writer. I started that book around 2019, just before I began my English Philology degree, and I finished it around 2023/2024? And woooow, it really shows.

So I’m not just translating — I’m rewriting it.

I want to carefully go over everything: the plot, the characters, the details. And of course, that takes time. But that’s what I’ll be working on from now on.

Funny thing is, there’s another book already started — kind of like a 1.1 to SACUROM (the first book of TSOA). A follow-up, more of a short story. And all I’ll say for now is... the initials are: CHROM-Z ;)

Aaaaand that's all for now, stargazers!

Oso-so!

—Drew Starfell