The Twisted Road to Publication

What a ride!

In January 2010 I signed a contract, under a pen name, with Turquoise Morning Press for my manuscript According to Plan. My book was slated to release February 2011 and go into print a few months after. This was great as I had no knowledge of the publishing business. I'd been strictly a reader who purchased most of her books at brick and mortar stores.

Because I had a year to prepare I settled in, browsed various author's websites and noted what they did in regard to marketing. I had plenty of time....

NOT

In February 2010, my publisher put out a call for novellas between 5-10K words. She was looking to market short stories people could download onto their phones and read on their lunch breaks. I remember thinking, 'I can do that'.

I never expected this naughty novella to reach #63 on Amazon and become the #2 Top Seller with All Romance eBooks. From March to September of 2010 my story flew off the digital shelves. I followed up with two sequels. Because of this success, my publisher pushed the release of According to Plan to July 2010.

I'd been dropped in the deep end of the publishing pool without arm floaties.

There were various other mishaps along the way, but I managed to build a website, twitter and Facebook page and gathered a nice following of readers. September 2013 my fifth book was released, along with two boxed sets and a collection of my novellas in early 2014. Then, in November of that same year, I made a personal decision to follow Christ, and.... well... things had to change. My publisher asked if I'd like my rights reverted. Without hesitation I said yes. Now all content was under my control.

The novellas will never be published again. I can't have a witness for Christ and publish stories where there is multiple sex partners, told in graphic detail, but I could do something with my print/digital book According to Plan.

I've spent the last four months going through the manuscript. I've revised, edited, redacted and polished. I love the story of Shelby and Tank. They were such fun to write. There is heat between these two, but - sorry folks - no explicit sex scenes.

Once I had the manuscript ready I realized I wanted to self-publish. I could have gone back to my publisher and requested a re-publication, but something inside me wanted to bring this story to life my way. My fingerprints are all over this book and if I succeed, kudos to me. If I don't succeed, then I need to learn more and try again.

There is a steep learning curve on the road to self-publication. Never let anyone tell you it's easy, because there is a LOT to do when you're birthing a baby into the digital world. I've had to research tax implications, (thank goodness I have a good accountant), read up on copyright law, set up accounts for my own ISBN numbers, build a new web-site, find a cover artist, (I'm hopeless with Photoshop), find a marketing firm and start sending my book out to reviewers in the hope they'll read and post a review.

Whew!

The good news is... when Man of Her Dreams is ready for publication, the ground work is already done and I can push that baby out with very little labor pain.

It's a BOOK!