I wrote a great first novel, but I don’t know how to market it…
Beyond the Rose Hedge really is an interesting story based in eighteenth-century Barbados. Yes, of course, I am biased in this opinion because I wrote the book. I typed the book really because it still feels like the story was given to me by my ancestors, which is how I know that it is a good book. I certainly could not have written such an interesting and in-depth story without the guidance of my ancestors. Unlike so many others, I trust that I am my ancestors; without them, there is no me.
They are who the story is about. It is a novel with quite a few main characters and connected stories. Once you start reading, you will feel compelled to continue until you get to the very end. I know this. After all, while I was writing the novel, I kept typing all day long, day after day, because I too wanted to know what happened next. Many times, I was shocked by the events that followed but once I typed them, I knew that they were what really happened. I know that Beyond the Rose Hedge is a story written by me, yet somehow, I feel like the story is true.
It feels true because it explains something that I have been trying to resolve for many years. Being of African ancestry and born on the island of Barbados indicates a history that many wish to forget. I refuse to forget, and rather, I choose to remember every day and seek to learn as much as I can about my ancestors that came here. They survived and made every decision necessary that allows me to be here today. I love them all for the sacrifices they made, and I honour them. So, I wish to know who they were and what they did. My entire being craves a deeper understanding of who came here and where they were from.
Many contemporary black people are ashamed of their ancestors because they refer to them as slaves. My ancestors were never slaves, mine were enslaved people. They were people, from Africa who were brought to the island against their will. PEOPLE! I have done a couple of genetic DNA tests trying to get answers to questions I have, but such things only lead to more questions. My results were not surprising in any way: predominately West African. Is there a dominant nation of people from whence I came? What was our original language? Who is responsible for the small amount of East African DNA and how did they get from the east to the west?
Beyond the Rose Hedge tells of at least one of those ancestors, how she came to the island and what happened to her and her offspring for generations until there is me. I wrote the story; it must be fiction since I was not there and could not know what happened. Only, I was there because I am my ancestors and I am here, and this is how I know that the story is true. There are too many details, and it makes too much sense for it all not to be true. Still, there is no way to convince anyone outside of myself of what I know to be true.
Meanwhile, here I am, the author of a very good novel, with no ideas for getting people to first know the book exists, and then have a desire to read it. It seems to me that writing the book was the easy part. Those who read it so far are impressed but they are also very few. Something else that is also true is that I have done very little in terms of promotion, which is probably part of the problem. I simply do not know the best marketing strategy to implement for a book, because while I have always loved writing, I did not know that I could write a book until it happened spontaneously.
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Rose-Hedge-T-Winston-ebook/dp/B09C2YHNGM
