Warning…this is a longer read than my usual updates as it covers the above subject and also plans for 2025.
In the ancient world (from about 1400 BC – 390 AD), if you wanted advice from the gods, the Pythia at Delphi was the premiere spot to get it. For those who haven’t been to Delphi, it is a steep drive up from a valley into the mountains where Apollo fought the legendary Python. To get to the temple site itself still involves a bit of a hike up a hill that will test your glutes, (see below when my glutes were tested when I went in 2022).
In ancient times, it was a journey and a half on foot. The wait lines were insane to get in to the see the oracle, if you got in to see her at all. If you were lucky enough to get to the top of the mountain, and into the forecourt of the temple, you would have seen a column carved with three maxims: “Know thyself” (gnothi seauton), “Nothing in excess”, and “Give a pledge and trouble is at hand” (there were another 147 maxims around the temple according to Stobaeus).
So, how is any of this relevant? Because publishing is like the climb up the mountain to go and see the oracle.
Let me explain.
It’s been ten years this week since I first published, ‘Cry of the Firebird,’ and I’m having a moment of reflection so I’m taking you with me. (Look at that picture. See how excited I was on release day and how I had no idea what I was getting into? I love that girl so much, and how brave she was to jump in anyway. What a lunatic.)
I get asked a lot about publishing advice, and I’m reluctant to hand much of it out because each journey up the metaphorical mountain is different.
The publishing industry is run by Loki (thank you Becca Syme for this perfect description), and it has changed so much since I first started that I sometimes get whip lash thinking about it. All of the ‘sacred cow’ beliefs of how to be a writer, how to get published, how to make money as a creative, are being ritually sacrificed every day. This seems to upset some people, because they seem to forget publishing is a form of gambling on your art and it’s not a ‘fair’ system. It’s not a business that you can put 40 hours a week into and see 40 hours worth of profit. There is no silver bullet. There is no magical formula or one way to make money (believith not the hypes).
I hear a lot about the ‘Gold Rush’ of indie publishing and how its so hard to break out these days, it’s pay to play etc etc. I was publishing in that so called magical time (maybe on the cusp of The Great Change) and let me tell y’all…it’s much easier now than it was ten years ago. The sheer amount of avenues and help you can get these days is truely mind blowing. The fact I don’t have to wait 4-6 weeks for a paperback proof to be sent from the US via Ye Olde Create Space any more is amazing. The sheer amount of resources in advertising and even graphics creation is incredible. The help you can get? Incredible. There is so much option out there that there is no one size fits all pathway to success.
The best advice I can give to anyone is the same maxim the oracle warned everyone about before going to see her: Know Thyself.
This isn’t me trying to give some glib advice as someone who has ‘made it’ to being a full time author. This is honestly the best advice anyone can give you because it will save you a lot of heartache. If you know what you really want, no one can sell you any bullshit. If you know who you really are, you won’t follow a pathway that you know will be shit for you and your mental health.
As an example of this…when I first started wanting to get published, I did what many authors did back then and submitted a lot to publishing houses. It was a hard process and I didn’t like all the waiting for a responses (if I got one at all) and how all the rejection made me feel. I began to read alot about people who had self published, built a platform and a reader base and then approached a publisher. It was kind of a ‘proof of a good bet’ that would help you look better when trying to get an agent or a publisher.
I did a lot of research before I took the plunge and I knew some people had made a lot of money doing indie but that wasn’t my end goal at the time. Yeah, I wanted to make money, but I wanted a trad deal more. Because that was one of those shiny sacred cow things that you were meant to want back then. I did all the things. I was on all of the social media sites. I blogged for content creation. I was on Good Reads doing ads and giveaways (bless). I spent alot of money on covers and editing to make my book look the same as the other trad books out there.
It took another four years to get that book deal I thought was the thing I wanted. The magical thing that meant I was going to be happy and could write full-time and never be bound to a cubicle again.
Only when it happened, it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. This is not to have a dig at the publisher or any publisher, this was a me thing. It was a ‘Know Thyself’ thing that I really wish I would have learned earlier on my trip up the fucking mountain. Turns out, I hate having people tell me how to write my books. And having next to no say on covers or marketing. Or waiting years to have releases. Some writers love not having the pressure to make those kind of decisions. I am not one of them.
If you don’t know yet, this year I did the hard, painful, expensive work of getting all my rights back for my back catalogue that I sold off to have THE BIG SHINY DREAM that turns out, I didn’t want…or need. I got my own ass out of the cubicle with a fuck ton of work and a healthy splash of luck and timing.
I went all the way up the mountain in the last ten years, only to realize I would have saved myself a lot of butt hurt if I had followed “Know Thyself.”
The hilarious thing is that if you in the industry long enough, you see how much things tend to circle back. Like I’m currently seeing a lot of hype about having subscriptions and Substack etc etc and I’m like…we are back to basically blogging in a new way? Huh.
It’s good because I too have actually circled all the way back to wanting to go back to blogging properly. Not about publishing, but about ancient history shit I’m interested in. I do a lot of research for my books and a lot of it doesn’t end up in ‘the book’ but damn do I want to write about the other random stuff I find out. To the point it got so bad on my recent trip to Greece I seriously considered going back to uni for a history degree. Once again, “Know Thyself” has saved my ass because not only do I know I don’t have time for a degree and full time writing but also that pesky thing of me hating people telling me what to do, think, and study also comes into play.
Knowing myself is saving me a lot of heartache here again, because I really just want to deep dive JSTOR and then write about all the random history shit I find. Yeah, I am ADHD as fuck and I hyperfocus on stuff and then want to info dump about it. Like upstairs plumbing found at Akrotiri, the new labyrinth they have found on Crete, and how all the stuff I get excited about from the writings of ancient Egypt to the Albigensian Crusade all seems to mysteriously lead me back to Cosimo Medici (why dost thy haunt me, ghost of Cosimo).
So, in 2025 I’m going to start blogging again. I’m not sure how often, but I will start dropping some essay type blogs about mythology and history. Maybe I will label them Rabbit Hole: X subject here. Just so you know what you are in for when you open the email.
Don’t worry, I’m not about to start spamming your inboxes, I am still writing full time after all, but every now and again, expect something because I love ancient history and mythology and want to write about it. It’s going to be my way of feeding the beast so I don’t do something silly like sign up for a degree I will never use.
If you are someone who doesn’t want to get any of that, just wants to know when I drop a new release, go and follow me on Amazon because that’s what they are there for. I’ve pretty much made my Instagram a place to announce new books and thats it because it’s not a place thats good for my mental health anymore. I’m even looking into hiring a team to run it for me because I want to be either here on the blog, or writing books.
As for books I’m working on in 2025, you have all seen by now that I am starting off a new world of stand alones based in Istanbul called The Order of Anubis. That is exciting in and of itself. It was the first project I jumped into since “Magicians of Venice” that is extremely research heavy. The initial idea of attempting such a complex world again sprung out being pissy I couldn’t write any more Magicians because it was tied up in a publishing contract that wouldn’t let me. Much of the driving force behind me fighting for my rights back was because I really wanted to fucking write Magicians again. Being told “no” doesn’t stop the stories in my head. It just makes it worse. The whole reason for me labeling that world to “The Immortals of Atlantis” when I relaunched is because I want to start writing spin offs in that world again. I’m actually writing a winter solstice novella right now that I’ve wanted to write for…3 years? Yeah, it’s happening. More magicians! I know some will be novellas, some might turn into books, but they are coming back and sooner than you think.
The other project I’m scheduling to write is another book in the “Wolf of the Sands” world. I’ve held off on it because the idea for it wasn’t quite right yet and then when it was, I suddenly had a whole back catalogue to edit and publish again. I love this world, I want to write more in it and from all the messages I get, I know you guys all want more of it too.
2025 is going to be about the year of leaning into “Know Thyself” and focusing on what I want to do and write, trusting that my intuition knows what’s going to be the best creative path for me.
So to circle back: don’t waste time trying to get a seat at a table that wasn’t meant for you, like I did. Think about the Oracle of Delphi and the wise, wise words of “Know Thyself.” I’m not saying Trad is Bad or that I would never consider it again. I’m saying that there are ways to have success in writing and publishing that suit every one, and now there are pathways and resources to make it happen. Find your own way. Make your own table, don’t try and bring a seat to someone elses.
Cheers to the oracle for helping me finally figure it all out, and to the next ten years in this crazy, chaotic world of story telling.
Ames x
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