Six Years After Publication: What Impact Has W.G & ME Made?
A personal story of surviving Wegener's Granulomatosis that travelled beyond Britain
In August 2020, I published a book that was very different from the historical, community and cultural books I had previously written.
It was personal.
Very personal.
W.G & ME: Surviving Wegener's Granulomatosis was not a book I wrote simply because I wanted to add another title to my publishing catalogue.
It came from experience.
It came from fear.
It came from uncertainty.
And ultimately, it came from survival.
Today, six years after its publication, I wanted to ask an important question:
What impact has W.G & ME actually made?
Has it simply disappeared into the enormous world of independently published books?
Has it remained confined to the United Kingdom?
Or has the story travelled further than I originally imagined?
The answer is interesting.
A book written from inside a medical condition
Wegener's Granulomatosis, now more commonly known as Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (GPA), is a serious form of vasculitis. The condition was officially renamed GPA in 2011 and can affect areas including the kidneys, lungs, ears, nose and sinuses.
But medical information can only tell us part of the story.
A diagnosis can explain what is happening to the body.
It cannot necessarily explain what happens to the mind.
It cannot fully describe the fear of being told that your life may change forever.
It cannot describe what it feels like to sit with uncertainty.
And it cannot always explain how a person finds a way forward.
That was where W.G & ME came from.
It was not written as a medical textbook.
I am not a doctor.
I do not claim to provide medical advice.
Instead, the book was written from the perspective of someone who had to live through the reality of a serious autoimmune condition.
There is an important difference between reading about a condition and reading the experience of someone living inside it.
One gives us information.
The other can give us understanding.
The importance of lived experience
When someone receives a serious diagnosis, they often enter a completely unfamiliar world.
Suddenly there are medical terms.
Consultants.
Medication.
Hospitals.
Tests.
Side effects.
Possibilities.
And sometimes fear.
For a person living with a rare condition, there can also be something else:
loneliness.
You may have doctors around you.
You may have family around you.
But you can still wonder:
Has anyone else felt like this?
Has anyone else been afraid in this way?
Has anyone else questioned what the future will look like?
Has anyone found a way to continue living a meaningful life?
This is where lived-experience books can have a different kind of value.
They may never become international bestsellers.
They may never receive thousands of online reviews.
But they can reach someone at the right moment.
And sometimes, for that one reader, that can matter enormously.
Six years later, the book is still travelling
One of the most interesting things I have discovered while looking again at W.G & ME is that the book has not simply disappeared after publication.
The book was released on 5 August 2020 as a 190-page English-language paperback with ISBN 9781910499320. Six years later, that same ISBN is still being recognised and used by booksellers in multiple countries.
The book was published in Britain.
But its ISBN and book information have travelled far beyond Britain.
It can still be found through bookselling and distribution platforms reaching readers in:
The United Kingdom.
The United States.
Australia.
Canada.
Germany and continental Europe.
India.
And beyond.
For an independently published specialist book, this matters.
Because there is a major difference between a book being published and a book remaining discoverable.
Many books have a short moment of visibility.
They are announced.
They are promoted.
A launch takes place.
Then gradually they disappear.
But W.G & ME is still there.
Still searchable.
Still listed.
Still capable of being discovered by someone who may be searching for information about Wegener's Granulomatosis, GPA, autoimmune illness, vasculitis, survival or the personal experience of serious illness.
The factual impact: what can actually be measured?
It is easy to make large claims about the impact of a book.
It is much more useful to look at what can actually be verified.
Six years after publication, there are several measurable facts about W.G & ME.
1. The book has remained commercially discoverable for six years
The book was released in August 2020.
It is still listed and available through bookselling platforms in 2026.
That is a measurable form of publishing longevity.
A current listing is not proof of a particular number of sales.
But it does demonstrate that the book's ISBN, metadata and distribution information have remained active within the international book trade.
The book is currently listed by retailers and booksellers including Hatchards in the United Kingdom, ThriftBooks in the United States, Mighty Ape in Australia, Indigo in Canada, Hugendubel in Germany, iMusic in European markets and Bookscape in India.
For a specialist independently published memoir, that is a significant distinction.
The book has not remained solely on the publisher's own website.
It has entered wider bookselling systems.
2. The book has reached recognised booksellers
One particularly useful measure is where the book appears.
In Britain, W.G & ME is listed by Hatchards, one of the country's best-known booksellers, where it remains available to order.
In the United States, it appears in the catalogue of ThriftBooks, where it is listed among Mayar Akash's more prominent titles.
The book is also listed by Mighty Ape in Australia and Indigo in Canada, demonstrating that its distribution data has reached major retail systems outside Britain.
This does not mean that every listing represents a large number of sales.
But it does establish something factual:
the book has achieved international retail discoverability.
3. The book has crossed into the American book market
The United States was an important development in the life of the book.
Today, W.G & ME can be found through American bookselling systems including ThriftBooks and American eBay listings.
This is important because an independently published British book does not automatically become visible to American readers simply because it exists online.
For a title to appear within American retail catalogues, the book's identifying information must move through the international publishing and bookselling infrastructure.
The measurable impact is therefore not yet that we can prove how many Americans have read the book.
The evidence does not allow that claim.
The measurable impact is that:
- the book has entered American retail systems;
- American readers can discover and order it;
- American sellers categorise it across medical, biography and healing-related areas;
- the book remains part of the author's American-facing catalogue years after publication.
That is a real form of international reach.
4. The book is being positioned in more than one category
Another interesting factual finding is that different bookselling systems do not treat W.G & ME as belonging to only one narrow subject.
An American eBay listing categorises the book within areas including Medical, Healing / General, Biography & Autobiography and Body, Mind & Spirit.
This matters because discoverability often depends on how a book is categorised.
A reader does not necessarily have to search specifically for "Mayar Akash".
They may encounter the book while searching around:
- illness memoir;
- medical experience;
- healing;
- autobiography;
- autoimmune illness;
- vasculitis;
- survival.
In other words, the book's potential discovery routes have become wider than the author's original personal network.
5. The book has been independently surfaced beyond ordinary retailer listings
The book has also appeared in external book-discovery and comparison content.
One independent book-ranking site surfaced W.G & ME within its book listings and linked the title to Amazon, eBay and Walmart discovery routes. The site's own score should not be treated as an Amazon ranking or as an authoritative literary award, but its inclusion is evidence that the book's metadata has travelled beyond the publisher and ordinary retailer catalogue pages.
This is an important distinction.
The book has not only been placed on sale.
It has also been collected and indexed by other book-discovery systems.
That increases the number of possible routes by which a reader may encounter it.
6. The book remains one of the more visible titles in the author's international catalogue
ThriftBooks currently includes W.G & ME in its "Most Popular Books" presentation for Mayar Akash.
This is not the same as a verified sales ranking.
Nor should it be presented as one.
But it is still a meaningful visibility signal within that retailer's presentation of the author's work.
Among a large and varied catalogue of books covering British Bangladeshi history, the East End, art, poetry, Sylhet and personal writing, W.G & ME continues to appear as one of the titles surfaced prominently by the retailer.
What the evidence does — and does not — prove
The factual evidence is strongest in four areas:
Longevity
The book has remained commercially discoverable six years after publication.
International reach
It is listed across multiple national bookselling markets.
American entry
The book has entered and remained discoverable within American retail systems.
Multi-category discoverability
Retailers classify it not only as a book about a medical condition, but also within autobiography, healing and body/mind/spirit-related categories.
What the current public evidence does not prove is:
- the total number of copies sold;
- the number of readers in America;
- the exact number of people helped by the book;
- the book's current or historical Amazon Best Sellers Rank unless that figure can be independently verified;
- direct medical outcomes.
That distinction is important.
A serious assessment of impact should not exaggerate.
But it should not underestimate either.
International discoverability is itself a measurable publishing achievement.
From Britain to America
One of the most interesting questions is what happened when the book travelled to the United States.
America has a much larger population.
It also has a vast publishing market.
But that also means a book can easily disappear among millions of other titles.
Yet W.G & ME has continued to appear within American bookselling systems.
This does not automatically mean that thousands of Americans have read the book.
It would be dishonest to make claims about readership that cannot be proven.
But it does mean something important.
The book has crossed borders.
A reader in America can potentially discover a story written by a British author about living with a rare autoimmune disease.
A book which began as one person's experience has entered an international system where someone thousands of miles away can encounter it.
That is impact of a different kind.
The book is no longer limited by geography.
The story can travel further than the author.
Discoverability is an achievement in itself
We often judge books by sales figures.
Or Amazon rankings.
Or reviews.
And of course, these things matter.
A high Amazon ranking can demonstrate a particular moment when a book reached a significant number of readers.
But rankings are temporary.
They rise.
They fall.
They disappear.
A book that is ranked highly today may be invisible tomorrow.
There is another question that deserves to be asked:
Is the book still alive in the publishing ecosystem?
Six years after publication, W.G & ME is still discoverable.
Its ISBN continues to identify it.
Retail systems continue to recognise it.
Bookselling platforms continue to list it.
Readers can still find it.
That is not necessarily the same as a bestseller.
But neither is it failure.
For a specialist independently published book dealing with a rare medical condition, longevity may be one of the most important measures of success.
A story that has changed with time
There is something else about W.G & ME that could not have been known when the book was published.
The story has continued.
When I wrote about living with Wegener's Granulomatosis, I was writing from inside an experience that had fundamentally changed my life.
But life did not stop.
Six years after the book was published, I am still here.
Still writing.
Still publishing.
Still working.
Still creating.
Still involved with my community.
Still producing books.
Still helping other writers bring their voices into the public domain.
In many ways, that gives the book an additional meaning today.
The book remains a record of fear, uncertainty and survival.
But the years that followed its publication have become part of its wider story.
The author continued.
And perhaps that continuation says something important.
Not that illness can simply be overcome.
Not that everyone with a serious condition will have the same experience.
And certainly not that a positive attitude is a substitute for medical treatment.
But that a life-changing diagnosis does not necessarily mean that life itself ends at the point of diagnosis.
More than a medical memoir
I believe W.G & ME belongs to several worlds at once.
It is a personal story.
It is a memoir.
It is a book about illness.
It is a survival story.
It is a record of lived experience.
And it is part of a wider conversation about how we understand medical conditions.
Medical professionals can explain a disease.
Research can explain treatment.
Statistics can explain probabilities.
But there is another kind of knowledge.
The knowledge of living.
The knowledge of waking up and wondering what the day will bring.
The knowledge of adapting.
The knowledge of fear.
The knowledge of relationships changing.
The knowledge of trying to remain yourself while your body and circumstances are changing.
That knowledge is difficult to measure.
But it is real.
And it deserves to be documented.
What does impact really mean?
Perhaps this is the biggest question.
How do we measure the impact of a book like this?
Is it by sales?
Yes, partly.
Is it by Amazon rankings?
Possibly.
Is it by reviews?
They can certainly tell us something.
But there are other measurements.
A book can make an impact because:
- someone discovers that they are not alone;
- a family member gains a better understanding of illness;
- a friend begins to understand the fear behind a diagnosis;
- a newly diagnosed patient reads about another person's journey;
- a healthcare professional sees illness from a patient's perspective;
- a reader discovers a condition they previously knew nothing about;
- someone finds hope simply because another person has continued.
Those things are much harder to measure than a number on an Amazon chart.
But perhaps they are sometimes more important.
The untapped potential of the book
Six years after publication, I believe W.G & ME may still have an audience it has not fully reached.
The book was written.
It was published.
It travelled into international distribution.
But the conversation around the book can still continue.
There are potentially readers within:
- vasculitis communities;
- GPA and Wegener's Granulomatosis support networks;
- rare disease communities;
- autoimmune illness groups;
- patient experience projects;
- medical humanities;
- memoir readers;
- carers and family members;
- people recently diagnosed with serious conditions.
The book does not have to be newly published to be newly discovered.
In fact, a book about lived experience can sometimes become more valuable with time.
Because the story has been tested by time.
A book that continues to live
When W.G & ME: Surviving Wegener's Granulomatosis was published in 2020, it marked one point in a much longer journey.
Today, six years later, I can look back and see that the book has travelled.
It has moved beyond the original publication.
Beyond one town.
Beyond one country.
And into international bookselling systems.
But perhaps its greatest journey is not geographical.
Perhaps its greatest journey is human.
From diagnosis to survival.
From fear to expression.
From private experience to public testimony.
From illness to a book.
And from one person's story to the possibility that someone, somewhere else in the world, may one day discover it and recognise something of themselves within its pages.
That is the impact that cannot always be measured by an Amazon ranking.
A ranking lasts for a moment.
A book can remain.
And six years later, W.G & ME is still here.
So am I.
And perhaps that, in itself, is part of the story.
