Ellen, I've been published on three continents since 1962. You can read some of my reviews in my 'about' section. You can look at my Good Reads, and my amazon books. My closest friend was an editor to international bestselling book authors, including Nobel and Booker prize winners. Another friend had an international bestselling books. I have worked for magazines, newspapers, been an editor for two publishing houses in London, etc. In other words, I'm accustomed to the writing and publishing world. My late father, incidentally was published in many languages and was a journalist and writer as well as other things.

Here's what I don't get. You get turned down by Mills and Boon. Did you ask why? They turn down books that are either not well written, or they think there is no market for them. I tried to read the first few pages of your book, but it's not set to be able to allow readers to do that. Readers are loathe to buy if they can't read the first few pages and can't get a feel for the book.

Oh, two other reasons publishers won't buy. The first is that they have enough authors in their stable, and the second is that a particular story might already have flooded the market.

The next thing that boggles my mind, and you are not alone in this, are the number of writers who are upset because friends and family do not 'support' them. I'm 72. In all my years, I have never asked a member of my family to support me. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If a publisher won't accept my writing, or if strangers won't read my books, that's the evidence that I need it. I never heard my brother, a musician, ask his family to listen to him, or my sister, a dancer, ask friends to come to her professional performances. Nor have any of my writer friends asked me to read their work.

The bottom line is that when we become adults, that kind of 'support' does not come from adult friends and family. It's what happens when one is a kid at school. I suspect that all these writing schools and writing courses tell their students that they must advertise their work with their friends and families. The reason they do that because they know very well that there are now more writers than readers in the world, and there is precious little market for all the writers.

Amazon ranks your book within an hour or two. of it going live. If it doesn't sell 100 books on day one, you can forget it. It will take a long time to rank. That is how the algorithm works. That's why it should have been promoted before the book went live.

Next, when I google you, someone else came up. You don't have a high level profile on Google. It's very important. If you google me, you will see that I come up for pages and pages. It takes time to build up that kind of profile, and as you say you are a blogger, I was looking for your blog. I couldn't find it. This is no easy task, and to my advantage, I have had tens of millions of reads during the 30 years I have been published on the web. I have also written for multiple sites.

Best bet for you, I think, is to stop writing about your writing process. Readers of romance are not interested in knowing about your writing process. They are interested in your views on romance, in life in Sydney, in what it's like to go to a private school (ask me, and yes, we're still friends), and so on. There are many social networks - forget the one's which are concerned with writers. Writers don't read your work because you are a fellow writer. Even on Medium, my majority readers are not writers. They are readers, interested in my perspectives, and while my books don't sell well, they do sell, and I have never advertised or promoted. That's because people google me, find the topic I've been writing about, see a book about the same topic, and buy it. That is the approach you need to take.

Also, open your book, so that people can read the first few pages on Amazon. Next, remove your book from the prime goodie, and publish on Draft2Digital Banes and Nobel, and many other sites. You will do much better. I once had a bestseller on itunes. ;)

I wish you well. This is not an easy journey. You will not get sales from friends and family. They are not interested in your writing. I certainly was never interested in my sister's dancing - more interested in her love life. And so on.

Best of luck to you.