It’s a day that most authors love. Release Day!
I should be happy. But honestly, I’m exhausted. If you’ve been following what’s happened, you know my publisher closed down Oct 1st. My release Must Be Crazy was in galley reviews (my last chance to find errors) and was supposed to be released yesterday. Then the bomb dropped.
Must Be Crazy is Book 3 in my Darling Cove series. Collateral damage from the publisher closing was, Books 1 and 2 were removed from all retailers. Since Book 3 was on the 1-yard line, why not just publish it myself? What was the point if Books 1 and 2 were unavailable? That put me back punting range.
I had to publish THREE books.
And I did.
This post is about why?
Why did I stop everything I was doing (including finishing another book for a new series that I planned to pitch at the NJ Romance Conference)? Looking at the calendar, I cringed. I had 3 back-to-back-to-back weekend trips planned. I had EVERY EXCUSE to give up and walk away from this series. My favorite line “I’ll deal with that BS later.”
So why didn’t I?
Writers peak at different points in their career. Some write a masterpiece out of the gate and then fizzle. Some write best sellers again and again and again. My skills are slowly sharpening with every book. Must Be Crazy is technically the 5th full-length serious novel I’ve written. For a contemporary, it’s my best work to date. I am so immensely proud of it. Even if it’s still a dud compared to the masters. What’s important to note that, while I had help from Donna Alward (who loved it enough to let me put her name on it), I had ZERO development input from the editor. That’s important. This book is mine. All mine.
Authors openly brag about how amazing their editors are. I’ve yet to experience that. If you’ve read Must Love Fashion or Must Have Faith, for better or worse, that’s ALL ME. And it’s the same for Must Be Crazy. So back to the question…why?
I truly love how this book came out. I finally got it in this book as far as pacing, emotion, and conflict. And that was why I dug in and fought against the odds to get it out. I was lucky enough to find bloggers who already read the publisher’s ARC and posted positive reviews on Goodreads. (check it out 🙂 The book that’s up for sale as of today, is the same book. Only better actually because I was able to go in and clean up mistakes missed in the editing process.
I had already written a Christmas Novella for this series which will be available immediately after Must Be Crazy (A Must for Christmas). And I really really really want to keep this series going. I have outlines for two more novels, but I can’t make any promises. Self-publishing is expensive. I’m tremendously lucky to have the resources to put my love on the page and hand it out. That’s kind of what it feels like. And I’m okay with that.
So this post is just explaining what’s going on. I have a newsletter coming out later with all kinds of blurbs, sexy teasers, and links. There’s none of that here. This is just me saying thank you for staying a subscriber to my website.
I plan to chat more in the coming year. I have a vampire series coming out next year from Soul Mate Publishing and I am really excited to announce 3 publishers asked for Forty Times Platinum. I’m not the greatest writer, but I don’t exactly suck 🙂
Have a wonderful day xoxo
