The In Between

Often, when I was living in Ohio and starting my publishing career, I felt I was between a rock and a hard place. My house was a huge financial burden, the proverbial money pit, and my publishing career was growing, but not to the point where I could afford to pull money out of the business and put it into the house.

My move to North Carolina helped get rid of the huge financial burden, but the publishing career is in the process of being retooled. I now have an agent I trust, I've finished a book I truly enjoyed writing, and I'm sliding into the next one. Yesterday, I drove my 15-year-old Jeep into Pinehurst to go to the library and parked on the street, between a Land Rover and a Mercedes.

A rock and a hard place or a Land Rover and a Mercedes. Even with a 15-year-old Jeep, I'm sitting pretty right now. 

Finishing Touches

If you follow me on Facebook, you know already that my trusty hammer is still on a pegboard in Ohio.

I'll be picking up a spare one from my brother-in-law today and will finally be able to start hanging pictures. I consider picture location one of the final acts of getting settled into a new home. I've already begun to position some of them where I think they'll end up, but one never knows until something's on the wall whether it's in the right location.

While all this has been going on, I've also been given the boot by Simon & Schuster, along with all my fellow Crimson authors.

While I work to get my rights reverted to me on the eleven books I have with them, I was putting the finishing touches on the second book in my new Flower Girl series. Book One, Winning Violet,  has been out since December, but S&S isn't willing to continue the series. As I see it, I have two choices here: 1) I can finish book 2, write books 3 & 4 while I wait to get my rights back for book 1 and position myself to self-publish the entire series next year, or 2) I can find a publisher who doesn't care if they have all the books in the series under their flagship and only care if the writing is good.

Since the first option means going an entire year with no income from this series and then having a considerable outlay of cash to get the four books ready next year, Option One is not feasible. That leaves me with Option Two. Readers don't look twice at who the publisher is, unless they are also an author, so I decided to pursue my second choice. Instead of abandoning Losing Lily, the second book in the series, I put the finishing touches on the manuscript and got it ready to head out into the world. Simon & Schuster had given me a due date of April 15, so I kept myself on track, even during my convoluted move to North Carolina. I finished the final edits on it this past week, so all I need do is read through it once more before sending it off to the interested publisher, who has vision enough to not care if they don't have the rights to Book One. A good series is a good series, regardless of who produces it. So Losing Lily and her beloved maze, not to mention her beloved Scotsman, may see the light of day yet. And I feel like I've been through the publishing gauntlet, trying to find a new home for the series.

One Step Forward

It seems as if this past year has been one of taking a step forward and then flailing wildly. Botched operations, both medically and professionally, have set me back a year from fulfilling my goals.

I am declaring an end to it all right now. My hip will be fixed, my foray into self-publishing will happen, I will find an agent who appreciates my talents. I will not venture forth with any publishing houses who are just starting up, nor will I take any offer just because it comes my way. I will spruce up my website now that I have enough of a backlist to make it look like something, and I will continue to enjoy the success of the Cotillion Ball Series, the final book of which will be released in March. I will attend the RWA conference in July. I will become a hybrid in 2016, both in the genres I write and in the way I bring them to market. Here's a picture of a "liger," a cross between a lion and a tiger. This is what I'll become.

Look out, publishing world!

The End Of An Era---Or A New Beginning?

I like to think of myself as a 'glass-half-full' kind of person. Now, before those of you who know me fall to the floor in uncontrollable laughter, I'd like to clarify. I'm a glass half-full girl only after the full-blown panic attack that seems to be my first reaction to any new situation. It doesn't take long after my initial response for me to strap on my big girl panties and get 'er done. Whatever 'er we're talking about.

About a year ago, I was approached, along with many others, by USA Today's Happy Ever After editor, to become a contributor to their New Release section. In exchange for my hard work, I'd get a mention in the column each time books I'd found made it into the section. After my initial panic when I wondered how I'd ever find the time, I settled in and got 'er done. My 'beat' was historical romances set in America from the Colonial period through the Civil War. Later on, my role expanded to include pirate books and wild and wanton updates of the classics. It became a routine. Every Saturday morning, I'd scour NetGalley along with half a dozen publisher sites to find new releases for the coming week that fit my given criteria. It was an excellent way for me to keep on top of the industry, and to find the other authors who think the era in which I like to set my stories is as fascinating as I do. Glass half-full.

So imagine my surprise when I got an email from the editor at the HEA column saying they were eliminating the New Release section from their web presence, since it didn't get a large number of hits. I realize USA Today needs to remain flexible and adjust to the changing winds of the publishing industry, but I was now out of a job! Whatever was I to do? Full-blown panic.

Then, the reality of the situation set in. I had two more hours in my weekend now, to do whatever I wanted. I could peruse NetGalley for new releases, but only if I wanted to. I could now gallop to the finish line on my next historical. I could maybe write a guest blog for someone. I could begin to write the contemporary that's been banging around in my head for four months now. See? Glass half-full girl, panties in place, at your service.

Is it the end of an era at USA Today? Perhaps, in its current format. But more emphasis is being placed on in-depth stories from the authors themselves. My takeaway from the shift in coverage is readers feel a need to connect, not only with the characters, but with the author. Human contact in an increasingly technological world. Makes sense to me.

I don't know about you but I'm going to embrace the change and call it a new beginning. Perhaps, one day, I'll be that featured author that readers want to get to know. And, I'll graciously answer all questions put to me. Right after I have a panic attack.

Obsessing Over Numbers

This new world of publishing is the only one I've ever known, having begun my journey as a published author in 2012. I obsess daily over my Amazon rankings and check NovelRank to keep an eye on how many books have sold, even though I know they're unreliable. I check the number of hits I've had on my website and blog and keep track of the tweets I've posted for various books to gauge any correlation. My web presence checklist for each new release is about seventeen places and growing daily, it seems. That's not including any guest blogs I'm appearing on and must write content for. And, in between all this compulsive behavior I need to focus on writing the next book.

All of which led me to ponder how it was in the days prior to the internet and blog sites. The days when each page of a manuscript had to be printed out, bound in rubber bands, and mailed from the post office to the traditional publishers or agents who would then determine its fate. I've heard stories of Nora Roberts appearing on QVC to promote her latest book. I know book signings were more abundant back then, and people would be on the road for weeks at a time. Now, all I have to do it push a button to reach hundreds, or hopefully, thousands of potential readers. I guess a little obsessing over numbers is worth it.

My latest WIP features Rosemary Fitzpatrick, who is an author true to her day. She writes dime novels, so, in writing her story, I've had to learn a bit about what printing was like in the late 1850s. Her love interest is the man who has just taken over the publishing house where her stories emanate from, and many of their scenes take place in the office of the publishing house. Any student of journalism can tell you about lead type boxes and the tedium of creating headlines and text one upside-down letter at a time, then setting all of it into a frame. Ink was then rolled onto the lead letters and a sheet of paper laid over top and pressed into the ink. The advent of computer programs has now made lead type obsolete, and printing is much faster now. Several times I've been able to witness the big presses used for magazines and newspapers in action. 

We've come a long way. Books can be printed electronically in a flash, and the length of time from manuscript to finished product sometimes takes my breath away. But the smell of ink on the printed page is still one of my favorite scents of all time.