As a self-published, unrepresented author, there’s always a niggle of self-doubt in my mind that I’m playing at putting books on Amazon, but really they don’t actually cut it alongside published books. 

At the start of the year, I set out one of my writing goals to get into the Kindle Top 100, the ‘holy grail’ of Amazon publishing. This weekend, much to my delight, my latest novel ‘Don’t Tell the Groom’ managed to sneak into the top 100 (at #98) for about two hours before it drifted back into the high hundreds. It wasn’t until two days later that I got into the top 100 again, and this time I got even further. By coincidence, Amazon featured me in their ‘daily deal’ e-newsletter, and somehow I made it to the giddy heights of #52. 52 out of half a million books available on Kindle. 

It was a proud, yet surreal moment. There was my book, that I had written, in a book chart actually above traditionally published books and authors who are household names. This is probably nothing in comparison to that feeling you would get when you sign with an agent or a publisher; at that moment your writing is validated by someone and they’re essentially saying they believe in your work. But, I like to think that by making the top 100, that’s a validation from readers and book buyers. It’s given me a huge boost of confidence to start believing in my writing and my books. 

I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone that has bought a copy, to those that reviewed the book, and to the huge thank you to those that have retweeted the links/interviews and reviews.

And here’s hoping that one day I’m writing a blog that’s titled: ‘What being in the Kindle top 20 means to me!’ 

It's been a busy time lately. I've been working on my very funny rom-com 'Don't Tell the Groom' which launches in January. You can read the first chapter on my website if you want a sneak peak! 

I've also been planning ahead and researching book three in the Millie series: Millie and the American proposal. The first few chapters are set in Zurich, where Millie is visiting her boyfriend James who is working out there. But that is as much as I'm going to tell you! It's was really great to visit snowy Zurich which well and truly put me in the festive mood. 

Mid-November I travelled up to London to attend the Romantic Novelists' Association's Winter Party. It was a great opportunity to network in person with so many authors that I've interacted with on Facebook and Twitter. 

It's a hard life this writing! It may sound like writing full time is all research trips and parties but outside of that I've been working almost 12 hour days trying to get out Don't Tell the Groom. But all the hard work will be worth it as I'm treating myself to ten days off over Christmas. And believe me the break is much needed! 

Well I officially am busier than ever. If I’m not writing or podcasting, then I’m twittering, writing columns or reading books for review. For those of you that haven’t seen, I now have a weekly column on the chick lit website Novelicious. I’m ridiculously excited about it. I used to read their previous columnist Emily Tootsweet every week and enjoyed reading it. I thought it was a brilliant view point on the website as it was nice to hear what other writers go through. Hopefully people will enjoy reading the column as much as I used to enjoy reading Emily’s.

I’m also reviewing books for the chick lit club, which I’ve been doing for about 4 months now. It’s great as it keeps me reading. I read some top tips from Gemma Burgess earlier in the week which said how much as a writer you needed to read. It seems to be really true. Analysing what works and what doesn’t is really useful when writing your own stuff. My biggest problem with the site is that I read other peoples reviews and then end up reading the books they’ve recommended which means more reading. Good job I love, love, love chick lit!

And in other news I’ve also planned most of my wedding. I’m quite an annoying super organised person. So venue and church are booked. Wedding dress and invitations purchased. All I need to do now is wait for 13 months for the wedding to come round. Seems like ages away, but let’s hope it flies by.

The funny thing is, is that 13 months ago I wasn’t writing. I hadn’t even thought about writing a book at all. It’s amazing how far things have come in the last year. Fingers crossed lots more continues to happen in the next one  x