From unfit for work to selling quarter of a million books - How did that happen? [View all]

[LeftishBrit]

Over the last two years, readers have downloaded over 244,000 copies of my eBooks. The last time I was in paid employment was the year 2000, over thirteen years ago. I suffer from bipolar disorder, not your garden variety but a type known as rapid cycling. This means that debilitating mood swings snap on and off, seemingly at random and sometimes many times throughout the day. For a number of years I thought I'd never work again....



That was when I was put in touch with Workways. They're an NHS organisation which specialises in helping people with mental health problems to find and maintain work. I'd been offered this kind of employment support in the past but been too depressed and anxious to accept it. Now, thanks to volunteering, I had the self-confidence to give it a try.

Workways put me into the Supported Permitted Work scheme. This allows me to work part time, earn a small amount of money and still be supported by benefits. The scheme aims to ease people into earning without risking excessive anxiety which may cause a mental health relapse. One of the compulsory criteria is supervision from a support organisation. For the first year, I made less than £1 a week. I resented the supervision and the extra paperwork that came with being self-employed. However, although I sold fewer than 100 books in my first year, I found that I was enjoying familiarising myself with the self-publishing world. Knowing that people, no matter how few, were reading my books, gave me the motivation to start seeing projects through.

In January 2012, my writing enterprise suddenly took off and I saw a jump to over 10,000 downloads. The reason - free eBooks. Amazon introduced 'Select', which allowed self-published authors to put their books on free promotion for five days. I wrote a short story especially for Select. I didn't dare believe it as I watched the download counter leap. I assumed it was just because the book was free. However, when the five free days ended, people continued to buy my short story in their thousands....

(More at link)

http://www.rosentrevithick.co.uk/292/from-unfit-for-work-to-selling-quarter-of-million-books-how.html


This may be the first time that I've used DU to 'push' a person or project other than a strictly political cause. But I know Rosen Trevithick (not her real name) personally, and know that she is a great person. And I can strongly recommend her writings, both for adults and children!

Plus the fact that I think that this is an interesting and important story!