One Year after the story ended

The year 2024 is almost coming to an end, and if I'm being honest, it has been a year-long exercise in letting go of everything associated with my time being a writer. One year after the story ended, I've taken some time to reflect on some of the pitfalls that no-one prepares a writer for in life on the other side!

My 23rd and final book, Revamp an Existing Layout is about to turn 1 year old!

I took the numerical significance of releasing book number 23 at the end of 2023, as a sign that it was time to step away and try something new. In reality, it was a long overdue decision. I first thought seriously of stepping away from writing back in 2012 after my one and only contracted novel, A Walk Before Sunrise, was taken out of print less than a year after being released. The next time occurred in late 2015 when I needed to remove all of my now re-released eBooks from Smashwords at the same time my wife and I were selling our investment property in the United States, due primarily to the foreigner income reporting that was tied to the property. Had I kept my account open with Smashwords following the sale of the property, any book royalties earned would have required me to continue filing for a period of 6 years. I very quickly said goodbye to my eBooks.

The decisions a writer faces are far more intrinsically tied to finances than the average reader might think, and the quest to have a book with your name on the cover always involves asking the honest question 'what are you prepared to sacrifice to make this happen?'

Fast forward to late 2023 and after having successfully partnered with Australian based self-publishing platform Blurb since 2016 to re-release and produce another 19 books, I knew that I'd taken my self-publishing enterprise as far as I could. With effectively nothing to show for a professional writing career that now stretched back to 2006, the thought of attempting another book only filled me with a sense of dread and a reminder of past failures. I had nothing left in the tank and knew I was done.

My final image as Author Phillip Overton, taken in October 2023.

The positive mindset was rallied one last time to promote and sell my final book, while in the background I returned to full-time study in 2024. On the other side of now being an arts school graduate, my writing and identity as a former Author now seems like a distant chapter in a long-finished book. Even to the point where I no longer refer to myself as Phillip Overton.

As a former Author, it was a tough lesson to learn that not everyone will be interested in you once the books stop coming. No-one prepares you for the silence that follows 3 months after the excitement of your final book release, or the emptiness in your email inbox when the royalty notifications stop landing once your book orders dry up. The comments on your social media will immediately drop-off once the euphoria of your final book release has passed, and sadly too, so will your followers. The real friends will still message or call you to ask how you're going and what you're up to, while for others, you've served your purpose as being the Author they can say they know, so don't expect them to return your calls anymore. Give them 6 months. And then delete them from your phone!

Personally, I chose this as a time to close any social media accounts that I no longer wanted to maintain. When it comes to holiday snaps and dinners out with friends and family that all have nothing to do with your books, the reality is that no-one cares. We all have our own friends and family on Facebook or influencers who produce better reels on their Instagram pages to keep up to date with. If I want a book recommendation, I search for one online through a book retailer, not because an Author just so happened to holiday at the same place I did.

It's a purging feeling once you end the personal updates across social media platforms, emails and websites. It felt like I suddenly regained control over my own life choices and personal decisions moving forward, without feeling the need to post updates of what I am up to in life and what I am planning for my next project.

Although the general email enquiries do slow down, they only seem to get weirder! From suspicious offers of representation, to publishing companies whom I've never heard of claiming to now own the rights to my past work, I've just learnt to ignore them all. While I've had genuine offers to buy the domain name Phillip Overton, to me that seems like the final straw in erasing everything that I once worked so hard for.

Writing career aside, the past few years have been some of the most redefining of my life. Personal issues following loss, changing life circumstances and healing previously undealt with childhood trauma have all shaped a very different me moving forward in this next stage of life. When there is no longer a connection between your past and present, why provide people the opportunity to satisfy a morbid curiosity of what has become of you? Only the genuine ones in your life will have been with you for the whole process.

One year after the story ended, and my life is now a totally different one. After a 17-year professional career that resulted in producing 23 books, I no longer feel defined by the words I leave behind. They are an accomplishment rather than what I hope to be remembered by. That in itself is a huge mind shift from how I once revered having my name on the cover of a book a decade ago. The new me is now out there enjoying life and living free from being defined like the blurb on the back of one of my books.

Perhaps this is the right time as Author Phillip Overton to say goodbye. I've taken a year to reflect on what a crazy ride it has all been and can't think of anything new to suggest to an aspiring writer other than what I have already shared over the past 17 years. And to the next generation of self-published Authors who were once sold the dream and put their everything into making it happen, only to end up in this same place... Take solace in the fact that we did it! We achieved what we did in a world before AI will cast a question mark over every piece of literature that emerges in the next century.

I started writing on a mechanical typewriter and retired as a self-published Author that produced my own library of professional work. To the teachers at school who said I'd never amount to anything in life, and to all the put-downs and obstacles I had to overcome along the way, may you forever be left wondering what I am up to next. Because this story was only me getting started!

Take care, and farewell.