Since I’m sitting in a hotel room, updating my author website (b/c it REALLy needs love more than once a year), let’s tell the story about how my vision for my series got all jacked up.
So there I was, a newbie author, writintg my way through deployment – my romance author peeps kept me sane through care packages and, for a newbie writer, advice and mentorship.
Julie Kenner let me beta read her books and that was the most important learning experience for me in terms of learning how to structure a story and provide feedback for what wasn’t working. It was great and it kept my mind off missing my two little girls who were back home.
Twitter was a lifesaver back then. I’ve said for years the smartest thing I ever did was tweet from Iraq. In the golden years before editors said don’t pitch books on twitter, I pitched my book. Loveswept was looking to relaunch their line as a digital only imprint.
And I got to be the pretty pony. My debut was picked up in a three book deal and I was over the moon. The advance was small but I was just so dang happy to have my books sold! Because of You launched with a really great cover that I would have loved to have kept. You’ll note that I kept many of the same color schemes in the rebranded cover.
Turns out I really enjoy making covers and graphics. Anyway.
One thing that experienced writers will tell you that newbie writers almost always ignore is that book 2 is a whole different ride than book 1. When book 1 is shopped, it’s in pretty good shape b/c it’s been worked on usually for years (in my case over 3 years)
Book 2 turned into a nightmare for me. It was supposed to have been Laura and Trent’s book – I’d set up the sequel in Because of You but because my editor and I couldn’t find our way through a marriage in trouble story, we ended up shelving it and moving to what was originally supposed to be Book 3 – the book that would be come Carry Me Home (formerly known as Until There Was You). My editor was new, I was new – neither one of us knew what the hell we were doing. I was panicked b/c even though I was new, I also knew in my bones that the book sucked but they were going to run with it.
So I hired an outside editor who was a friend of mine. She helped me get that book into the shape it is in today and I will always be grateful to her for that help. She’s the reason I didn’t give up entirely on writing after book 2. So book 3 because book 2.
The relationship between me and my editor soured because of that learning episode and I wanted out of my contract. Her boss was amazing and I will always always be grateful to her for allowing me to buy my rights back to book 3. $2500 later, and I’m free and clear to shop the rest of the series to whoever is willing to take a look. I wasn’t ready for indie publishing just yet – my confidence had taken a hell of a beating over the second and third book in the series. While all that was going on, I was still writing – I wrote what I’ll call my fuck you book – the book I wrote wide open, no holds barred. I wrote the book I badly wanted to read and did my best to banish my editor’s harsh comments from my brain.
This is the part where the series got screwed up. The book that ended up being book 3 was supposed to be book 2 but I simply didn’t have the chops to write a marriage in trouble book this early in my career – not without amazing editorial help. So Laura and Trent’s book because book 3 and Reza and Emily’s book became book 4.
So book 3 – the book that would become Back to You was picked up by Grand Central – Michele Bidelspach wrote me an editorial letter that made me cry with gratitude – she saw the story I was trying to write and helped me write it.
This is why good editors are SO important. Michele had the experience to help me figure out the story I was trying to tell. She gave me the confidence in that third book to really write the story I’d been struggling with for years (almost 5 at this point).
So books 3, 4 and 5 are published with Grand Central, who had very different ideas about the covers for their books. They went with something much more paperback-y. You can see the original cover for All For You (which I renamed but more on that later).
Loveswept owns books 1 and 2. Grand Central didn’t push me to put their books into a new series – in hindsight that was a marketing mistake. And pushing a previously digital author into print was basically like launching a brand new author – which we didn’t know at the time – circa 2013.
I was also unlucky enough to have my print books come out back when Amazon punched Hachette in the nuts and pulled all their buy buttons from their store. My print numbers weren’t great and unfortunately, Grand Central couldn’t pick me up for print a second time around. Even though I ended up being hurt by that, I still think Michael Pietsch made the right decision to try and stand up to Amazon about their contract.
At this point, I’ve learned enough about marketing and ebooks that I’m feeling ready to make the jump to indie publishing. So I push what should have been books 6, 7, & 8 as a new series – the Homefront series.
When I tell you I have some patient and loyal readers who stuck with me through that mess, I’m not kidding. I am SO lucky for the readers who kept on trucking.
Anyway, fast forward a few years and I start trying to get my rights back – because why not. The publisher isn’t doing much with them and the numbers are low – I figure I can do more with them if I get the whole series back. I honestly never thought I’d get my Loveswept rights back – the out of print numbers were way too low. But, as luck would have it, they reverted them.
I’d argued that the industry standard accounting for ebooks was quarterly now, which pushed the out of print clause into reality – I was SHOCKED, when they reverted. but hot damn was I excited.
So then I go to Grand Central – hey I want to buy the remainders for my print books so I can trigger the reversion. About 4500$ later, I’m the proud owner of several hundred paperbacks and, more importantly my rights!
At this point, I’m practically giddy- I now own the rights for ALL 10 books (plus 1 short story) set at Fort Hood. Now the fun part begins: I first managed to piss off goodreads librarians everywhere by making trying to make new versions of my books – the wrong way of course. Not on purpose but they are sticklers for doing things right (and this is a good thing). But I manage to get things sorted out and the books listed correctly.
After getting that sorted out (thank you goodreads librarians who helped me on this multiple times!) – I finally get to relaunch the series as it was intended. Trent and Laura’s book now became properly Book 2 as it was intended but It had to follow a novella I’d written to reintroduce readers to the characters for the Grand Central part of the series.
I very clearly marked every single book that was rebranded or renamed- and thankfully Amazon won’t let you repurchase a book you’ve already bought but ten years after my first book came out, the series is in the correct order and I’ve got cover consistency throughout!
But this month marks the 10 year anniversary of the launch of Because of You and the rest of the Coming Home books are finally in an order that matches how I envision it.
I learned a lot from that experience (to include how expensive it can be to buy your rights back). But I also I learned to find my voice, to know when to trust an editor and when to walk away. I’ve had so many mentors along the way that boosted me up when I was seriously flagging.
I’m slowly finding my way back into writing. I’ve missed it. I’ve missed talking about it and being around other writers.
Hopefully, 2022 will see a new book on the way. The echoes of the war in Iraq will be with us for a long time and these books represent a way that I reckoned with the costs. Who knows, I can still go viral for a stupid tweet again, and get fired, leaving more time for fiction:). Thanks for everyone who’s come along this journey with me for the last ten years!