It’s been 10 days since my first novel, Maternal Instinct, was released into the world. There’s been a book launch event to celebrate, I’ve spoken at a conference in Canberra about it, I’ve done a podcast interview and 4 online interviews. Maternal Instinct has received 41 reviews and 56 ratings on Goodreads, 33 reviews on Netgalley and articles on other lovely websites are popping up regularly, including The Book Muse and Handbagmafia.
In summary: I’m ecstatic, readers are loving the book and I feel pretty much surrounded by a big ol’ literary love bubble.
Today I’m going to share a few of the highlights of the past couple of weeks with you, and try to answer some questions I’ve been asked about what happens next.
Publication day
I flew back home to Melbourne from Conflux15 in Canberra the night before Maternal Instinct was released to the world. Conflux was my first speaking event as an author. It was incredible and overwhelming and exhausting. But I still stayed up until past midnight so I could see the “pre-order” button change over to a “buy now” button and know that my book had been officially released.
On Monday 7 October – publication day – I saw the kids off to their first day back at school and then spent most of the day drinking coffee and hanging out on social media to exchange “OMG! HOW EXCITING!” tweets and gifs and posts with all you wonderful people out there who are just as excited as me!
How did the book launch go?
The book launch was held at Realm in Ringwood on Friday 11 October. It was so much fun. People came after work and after school, from close by and from across the city. It was just as kid-friendly as I’d hoped and I even managed to censor the swear words from the book excerpt I read out after I’d thanked everyone I could possibly think of (because birthing a book is not a solitary endeavour).
We all jumped up and down in excitement, the kids ate most of the cupcakes, and I signed some books. Then we had dinner and wine in the Town Square.
It was amazing.
The reviews
There have been dozens and dozens of lovely reviews – too many to list here – and I am so grateful to everyone who has written a review. I know how hard they are to write! Here are a few of my favourites.
Emily-Jane Clark from Sleep is for the Weak: “It’s not often a book can keep me gripped enough to stay up all night these days but this one did! The idea that all babies must be handed over at six months to be raised by ‘professional parents’ the Maters and Paters – is a terrifying one – but even more terrifying is the fact it is quite believable!!”
Amy from Handbagmafia: “If you’re into speculative, dystopian fiction, this is a great read.”
Ashleigh from The Book Muse: “So perhaps this should be a cautionary tale about how not to conduct business or tell people how to raise their families, as well as not forcing people to use their bodies for the good of the state over their own health and well-being.”
The interviews
A big thanks to those who have welcomed me onto their websites with challenging and entertaining questions. If you want to know more about me, Maternal Instinct or the writing and publishing process, check out these two interviews:
- Giveaway and interview with Rebecca Bowyer, author of Maternal Instinct, Carpe Librum (13 September 2019)
- Pursuing Self-Publishing: Writer Talks with Rebecca Bowyer, Nadia L. King (11 September 2019)
There are two more online interviews to come in the next few weeks, so stay tuned on social media.
I had a fabulous conversation with Claudine Tinellis from the Talking Aussie Books podcast last week. We talked about Maternal Instinct, writing, motherhood and how to try to have it all. That interview will be up on the podcast in a few weeks. In the meantime, as a long-time listener, I can highly recommend Claudine’s back catalogue of the Talking Aussie Books podcast – available wherever you listen to podcasts. She’s interviewed so many incredible Aussie authors, including Kate Forsyth, Fiona Palmer, Pamela Cook, Sophie Green, Tess Woods and Michael Robotham.
Will there be a sequel to Maternal Instinct?
The answer to this is a big, fat ‘maybe’, with a side helping of ‘probably’, but a caveat: it won’t be the next book.
What are you writing next?
I’ve finished the first draft of my next book, working title Time Thief. I can’t tell you much about it at the moment, except that if you like Maternal Instinct, you’ll like this next one as well.
It’s still a long way from publication – first drafts are definitely not the full story. To put it in perspective, I finished the first draft of Maternal Instinct way back in early 2016. This next one shouldn’t take quite 3 years to get out into the world, but it won’t be 3 months either.
Where can I get a copy of Maternal Instinct?
Maternal Instinct available at most online bookstores in Australia, the U.S., Canada and the U.K. It’s also available as an ebook on Kindle, Apple Books and Nook. Check out this list of direct purchase links.
Your library can order in a paperback or ebook copy for you as well – it’s available on Overdrive, one of the biggest suppliers of ebooks to libraries in the world.
Where can I get a signed copy?
If you’re in or around Melbourne – I’ll be at the Mornington Peninsula Writers Festival on Saturday 19 October, selling and signing copies of Maternal Instinct. Drop in and say hello if you can make it. Tickets can be purchased from the Mornington Peninsula Writers Festival website.
Signed copies are also available to purchase direct from Story Addict – head to the Maternal Instinct page to order.
What will you do now?
Now that the work of getting my book out into the world is behind me, I’m going to sit back and enjoy it for a while.
And when I say “sit back and enjoy”, I mean I took 2 days off over the weekend before I started back at my day job this week.
And when I say “a while”, I mean 2 weeks. Then I’m going to spend my spare time in November working on the second draft of Time Thief, trying to whip it into shape to send out to beta readers in time for Christmas.
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