A pretty good August for The Long Grass

When I first published the novel, I really had no idea what to expect. Like most first-time independent authors, I hoped people would find it, hoped a few of them would actually buy it and, most importantly, hoped they would enjoy reading it.

So it has been particularly satisfying to finish August with a few milestones worth celebrating.

During the month, The Long Grass passed 100 book sales. In the grand scheme of the publishing world, 100 copies might not sound like a huge number. But when you're an independent author and every one of those sales represents an actual person deciding to take a chance on a book written by someone they've probably never heard of, it feels pretty significant.

I also received my first royalty payment from Amazon.

I'm not going to embarrass myself by revealing the amount. Let's just say I'm probably not quite ready to retire on the proceeds yet.

But strangely enough, the amount didn't really matter. Seeing that first royalty payment arrive was one of those small moments that made the whole thing feel real. I'd written a book. People I'd never met had bought it, read it and, in many cases, taken the time to tell me what they thought of it.

Then came an even bigger surprise.

The Long Grass has been named a Finalist in the 2026 Page Turner Fiction Book Award.

That one means a great deal to me.

The Long Grass is very Australian. It's a crime novel set in Far North Queensland in 1985, beginning with the murders of three men sleeping rough in the long grass near a beach in Weipa. From there, the story follows Detective Senior Sergeant Dave O'Reilly and Detective Sergeant Annette Mollison as they investigate the killings and the damaged lives surrounding them.

When I was writing it, I deliberately didn't try to make the setting or the characters more international. I wanted the language, humour, people and atmosphere to belong to that particular place and time. So having the novel recognised in an international competition is particularly satisfying.

Perhaps the best part of the past few months, though, has been discovering that publishing a book isn't really the end of the process. In many ways, it's the beginning.

I've learnt an enormous amount about independent publishing, marketing and the sometimes mysterious business of trying to help readers discover a book. I've also discovered just how much a review, recommendation or simple message from a reader can mean to an author.

There have certainly been moments when I've wondered whether anyone beyond family and friends would ever read The Long Grass. Passing 100 sales, receiving that first little royalty payment and now becoming a Page Turner finalist haven't suddenly turned me into a bestselling novelist.

But they've given me something perhaps more useful.

They've given me encouragement to keep writing.

And that's probably just as well, because Detective Sergeant Annette Mollison isn't finished yet. Her second investigation is already well underway.

So, all things considered, August wasn't a bad month at all.