Guest Blog: Mark Sippings - My Writing Story
- lotenwriting
- Sep 11
- 8 min read
Firstly, huge thanks to Ruth for inviting me to talk about my books.
I wasn’t sure what to write – we English aren’t very good at blowing our own trumpets, and we often suffer from imposter syndrome.
Then I remembered a talk I used to do for the Women’s Institute, called Beginner to Best Seller and I thought maybe it would help someone who was in a similar position to me when I wrote my first novel, so I have adapted it here.
I’ve always loved words and have been the lyricist for several local bands, but the difference between poetry and a novel is huge, and the idea of writing a book seemed impossible. Nevertheless, during my mid twenties an idea persisted – a young man who was afraid of living meets an old man who doesn’t want to die. I said to myself I had to do this by the time I was thirty!
Then reality stepped in. I was working in London, getting up at 6am and not getting home until 8pm. I was also lucky enough to have a family and two young children, so although I still wrote lyrics, the idea of a book was well and truly put on the back burner.
Then fast forward (It did seem like that) 30 years, and the company made me redundant. I thought it was now or never, and I set about writing Cold Sunflowers.
The first thing I needed was a Mac; didn’t all cool writers use one?
I had been looking on Gumtree for a while, but everyone I spoke to seemed very dodgy. Finally, I met a chap at a caravan park. To be honest, I was a little scared. He was large and shirtless, with a chest covered in tattoos.
I thought he was about to mug me and run off with my cash, but he invited me into his mobile home and after a brief look, (I didn’t have a clue how to interrogate a Mac;) I bought it.
I hurried out, thinking at any moment his accomplice would be waiting in ambush. As I reached my car and opened the door, I heard footsteps behind me - it was the bloke. My heart skipped a beat, and I nearly dropped my new purchase. But he had just come to tell the Mac’s password. I thanked him and drove out of there like the proverbial bat out of hell. The Mac has worked fine ever since and been a trusty companion. So many thanks to the guy at the caravan park, I doubt I would have written Cold Sunflowers without you.
I settled down with my new laptop ready to write the best story ever – word one – The – sixty-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine to go.
I had a start and a finish but not much in the middle, but I began with that first word and the story evolved. It’s about Raymond, a young man who is afraid of life, and Ernest, an elderly gentleman who was a First World War photographer, their lives cross, and they find strength in each other’s company.
I think with a first novel it’s important to write what you know. The book takes place in Colchester, and some landmarks will be familiar to people. There’s also a lot of me in Raymond. As a youngster, I was skinny, shy and really did have trouble getting off buses. It seems crazy now but since Cold Sunflowers was published, several people have written and said they or their children had the same problems. I guess when you are young you suffer in silence, but things do pass.
The book took about 18 months to write, and then off it went to publishers and agents. I sat back waiting for a bidding war and the call from Stephen Spielberg.
Then the rejections started to come in – I couldn’t believe it – I’d written speeches for Baroness Jay, the Leader of the House of Lords, for goodness sake!! What were they thinking?
I used to watch the X Factor, when they would concentrate on people who thought with all their hearts they could sing, but in reality were completely out of tune. I questioned myself - could I write, did I have a good story, or was I just fooling myself like an X Factor contestant? To say the least, I was disheartened. I had no idea what I was going to do.
It was then I discovered the world of the independent author and things really changed.
A wonderful lady called Fenella Miller, who is a prolific local writer, gave me loads of invaluable advice and put me in touch with the Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli). It costs about £70 a year to join if you are a new writer, but the information on the site is fantastic, from approved partners to downloadable guides, and there is always someone to answer your questions, no matter how trivial.
I hoovered up everything I could find on writing independently and discovered that many bestsellers started out as independent publications – It Ends With Us, The Martian, Fifty Shades of Grey and Wool (which became Silo on the TV.)
I joined a writing group in London, who were interested in the technical side of publishing, went to Amazon parties, attended The London Book Fair, which was amazing (Alli throw a great after party) and signed up to a couple of courses
Then I was ready,
ALLi had shown me that writing a book was like running a small business, and I needed to employ people to do the things I couldn’t.
I’d originally sent my book to the publishers with only a ‘do it yourself’ edit, it was a wonder I had even got a reply.
So, first things first, I found an editor. ALLi recommended the Society of Proof Readers and Editors and it was there I found Louise Harnby. I sent my manuscript to her, and a few weeks later I got it back - 10,000 words lighter. I couldn’t believe it. Surely a chapter or two were missing, but they weren’t, she had just tightened things up. It was fantastic.
While the editing was being done, I contacted Design for Writers to create my cover. It was so exciting getting ideas back and tweaking them. I know my book has sold many copies just because people have loved the cover.
Finally, with editing done, I needed formatting for the paperback and Kindle for this I employed Averill Buchanan.
I then bought myself a pack of 10 ISBNs and loaded the files onto Amazon, the formatting was so good everything went perfectly.
I had decided to do the marketing side myself, although there are many companies recommended by ALLi. I knew the first thing I needed was reviews. 70% of people will read a review before buying, and social approval allays the fears of worried customers. I employed two companies, Hidden Gems and AXP, to send out Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) of my book.
Their purpose is to generate an early buzz and these companies have complete lists of people who enjoy reading. There’s no guarantee they will write a review and no guarantee it’s going to be a good one, but I thought it was worth a shot. In the end, I got about 14 reviews, and it cost about £2 a review.
While this was all happening, I had a book launch at Red Lion Books in Colchester, blagged myself an interview on Radio Essex and had a sold out book signing at Waterstones.
Things were picking up, so I did something you may think as crazy but I gave the ebook away for a week. There is a good reason for this - you build hype, get downloads, and move up in rankings. Your goal as a new author is to find readers and get publicity, and this will allow you to do that. If you are part of Kindle Unlimited, you also get paid for page reads which adds up.
I took out three adverts to support the promotion. These were, Book Betty $25, Book Raid $20 and Freebooksy $60, and I achieved about 3000 downloads.
I was also running adverts through Amazon, which were proving to be profitable, but the last piece of the jigsaw for me was getting a BookBub feature deal.
BookBub is based in America and has about 4 million subscribers. I hadn’t even heard of it before I wrote my book, but at various writers’ meetings people spoke about BookBub in hushed whispers. They accept only 10% of books, making a feature deal the Holy Grail.
Amazingly I was offered a deal. The only trouble was it cost about £700. To be honest, I was getting cold feet, but everyone I knew in the writing world told me to go for it and it’s been worth every penny many times over.
Cold Sunflowers reached the top fifty in the US paid Amazon charts and was number one in several categories, earning a bestseller badge.
So that’s how I did it. Since then Cold Sunflowers has received 1.2k reviews on Amazon, averaging 4.5 stars. It has sold over thirty thousand copies, and I get emails from all over the world. They say no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader, and there were certainly some as I wrote about Raymond and Ernest, but none have compared to those I’ve had reading the wonderful emails from people.
The email below is one of my favourites. This lady writes to me every year at the time of the Perseid meteor shower to tell me of her family’s adventures. It reminds me that although Cold Sunflowers took 30 years to write and every agent and publisher rejected it, you should never give up on your dreams.
Everything happens for a reason.
“Hope it’s ok with you that I write you this note. I’m a mum to two young children so I don’t get the opportunity to read as much as I used to, so whilst on holiday there is always a pressure to select the perfect book. Mum bought me your precious book for Christmas and I’m just so glad that my love of sunflowers made me pick your book up this summer. We are lucky to be travelling around Europe with our caravan for a month and when we arrived in Croatia, it rained solid for 2 days, this was my opportunity to read your book.Oh WOW , I wish I was articulate enough to give your book the credit it so deserves! I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that has moved me like this book has, I’ve laughed out loud and sobbed, really sobbed, to the point that my husband actually came and sat with me to give me a cuddle. I was bereft for days after and it’s only now as I leave Venice and reflect on the pure joys we have around us that I appreciate the pure joyfulness, sorrow and love your book brings. We love our Sunflowers in our house and my husband actually brought a sunflower head back from northern France, we have used the seeds to grow our own for years. Our last night in Croatia , was the Perseid meteor shower, hubby and I love a shooting star and it was a perfect end to our stay in Croatia. I never realised until after that it was your debut novel, so again Wow! Thank you Mark so much for being you, for your wonderful book and for reminding me the most beautiful things in life are simple and free!My Daughter 9 years ago was born with Downs Syndrome , she has taught me more than anything “ everything happens for a reason” Best wishes from Tuscany C”
If anyone would like some advice with their first book please give me a shout, so many people helped me along the way and I always said I would try and pay that back.
Cold Sunflowers can be purchased here:
If you feel the urge to join the Alliance of Independent Authors it would be great if you could use the link below. I’ll get 30% off my membership for the recommendation:
More information about me can be found on my website:
Thanks for reading – In Ernest’s words ‘Be kind and have a dream or two.’
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