Getting Back in Print

With a sigh of relief, I recently welcomed Wish for a Sinner back into print (and e-format of course). Wish is a key book in the Sinners sports series since it deals with the quarterback, Joe Dean Billodeaux, whose career we follow throughout the five novels. For some reason unknown to me, my new publisher chose to reissue the books in reverse order so that the second book came out last. They still held rights to the first book, Goals for a Sinner. I can be thankful for that since it made it easier for me get the books reprinted. I know authors who had only one book out with my former publisher and are still looking for a home for that book. Wild Rose immediately picked up my whole series and the three books I had planned to publish with Dreamspell in 2014. Naturally, publishers prefer fresh works that have not reached the end of their sales peak.  With a series, new readers are picked up along the way and that makes them more appealing for reprinting.

So, what goes into getting a book back into print? More work than you would suppose considering that the title has already been professionally edited. I received new galleys on all of my reprints that had to be read word for word for errors. Somehow, when a manuscript is put into book form, all sorts of things can go haywire. A paragraph indent might disappear. Two words could run together.The worst I ever experienced was in my first book with Dreamspell. All the quotes in the center of the book were turned backwards. We fixed it, but the process was tedious. Then, there are tiny mistakes you missed in the first edition which is just plain embarrassing. How both myself and an editor could read the book at least four times and not see them, I do not know, but they are always there.

Cover art does not travel with the book, but is redone unless the original artist is paid for its reuse. All mine received new covers which meant I had to fill in numerous forms describing the hero, heroine, the location, etc. for each book. The back cover blurb must be rewritten and sometimes, the author is asked to gather quotes of praise from other authors and reviews. This is highly time consuming--and frankly, I never rely on those quotes or even read them in other books.Regardless, I think the Wild Rose artists did a great job on my books. Sorry to those of you who miss seeing Joe Dean shirtless.

The Sinners reprints came out one a month for four months which meant I had to publicize each one as it appeared and order new promotional items with the current covers. Thankfully, Amazon retained my reviews and switched the covers with no special requests from me. But, I did get more forms to fill in from the Wild Rose PR people listing my favorite scene, quotes, and interesting things about me for their own efforts. I do this blog, am on FaceBook, but don't Tweet. They tweet for me, thank heaven! Anyhow, the work load was tremendous, even more so considering I had three new books coming out at the same time, the new Roses cowboy series, and the stand-alone A Trashy Affair.

 Time to write during these months: zero. I am beginning to wonder if I will ever finish a Regency I started last September. Especially since the next Roses book, Always Yellow Roses is now in edits and another book edited but never released by Dreamspell, Courir de Mardi Gras, is the next to be offered for contract.  Meanwhile, the next Sinners book is simmering on the back burner of my mind. I have a title, Son of a Sinner and a half-cooked plot so far. Am I complaining? Not at all. It means everything to have my books back in print again.

The Unlikable Heroine

Last month, I wrote about the characteristics a romance hero and heroine should have. Briefly, I mentioned that the heroine should be likable from the very beginning of the story. I have violated this rule twice, maybe three times. In the now out of print Mardi Gras Madness, my heroine is sitting at the funeral of her young husband and has a breakdown after she returns home in the opening. Before the end of the chapter, she overcomes her depression and ventures into the world to start over in a strange place which does take courage. Still, this one was rejected because my heroine wasn't sympathetic from the very first page. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I guess she shouldn't have had the breakdown but immediately packed her bags and blithely started over which would not have made sense to me if she truly loved her deceased husband.

I am happy to announce that Kicks for a Sinner is now back in print along with Paradise for a Sinner. Making progress!  But I must warn you that Kicks has an initially unlikable heroine, and did I take some flack for that! Cassie Thomas was rescued by Joe Dean Billodeaux and his wife from the clutches of an older man who took advantage of her as a teenager and left her pregnant. Joe and Nell adopted her baby at the end of Wish for a Sinner.  Now, Cassie is all grown up and infatuated with Joe as her hero and the adoptive father of her son. She rejects the advances of nice guy, Howdy McCoy, in favor of pursuing Joe who still has that bad boy aura about him. Eventually, she sees the light. Joe isn't interested, will never leave his wife, and Howdy is a tougher man than she suspected. Despite the happy ending, some readers haven't forgiven me for letting her hurt Howdy before the HEA. As I moved on to Paradise for a Sinner, I did put in a little karma for Cassie. Her firstborn with Howdy is a little red-headed girl who is just as hard to handle as her mother once was.

A Wild Red Rose just came out. This is the sequel to The Convent Rose where Renee Niles, a scheming gold-digger wed twice before is out to claim Bodey Landrum for herself--after she checks out all his financial assets. They have a long past physical history, too, so she figures she can stand to be married to him and if she must, give him a child. Bodey is having none of her and continues to pursue the artistic and religious Eve Burns.  At the beginning of Wild Red, Renee is still looking for her third rich husband but has time on her hands and takes up the offer of rodeo bullfighter, Clinton Beck, to go on a road trip. Unbeknownst to her, Clint has a private fortune but doesn't let on. He aims to tame her of all her bad habits and make her the lovely woman she should be. I enjoyed tearing Renee down, then building her up again often in comic ways, but she is definitely unlikable at the start. We'll see what readers think shortly. I hope they will give Renee a chance to become a better person.

The Hyperactive Orphan and KDP

It's a horrible moment when six published books disappear from Amazon, at least in their e-book form. Paperbacks of my works are still floating around advertised at $35 collectibles or $10 used but in good condition copies, but basically, I don't bother to check my Amazon ranking anymore. It has gone from a once best of 19,000 (not bad out of two million) into the stratosphere of high numbers. Only Goals for a Sinner, my first book, remains available. It is trying hard, but as it has been heavily read and just can't hold up my once proud status alone.  My response to all this--get something else published fast, many several somethings if possible. I am the Hyperactive Orphan.

As I mentioned, my first publisher, Wild Rose Press, welcomed me back. A Trashy Affair was all ready to go in June, so it is coming out first in one of those KDP deals with Amazon that is supposed to make me well-known and rich.  I do love Amazon, but am very skeptical this will happen especially since all my other books are out of print so the reader has nowhere else to go. However, I am grateful to get anything out there.  The release date in September 25, 2013 as a Kindle e-book only at a deeply discounted price of $2.99, later to be $5.99.  Three months later, it will go World Wide as if folks in other countries actually read my books. Even the Russians I suspected of using this blog for sinister purposes are gone right now. That's what being orphaned does, you lose even quesitonable friends.

I also submited the start of the new bull rider series, The Convent Rose.  Its edits are done and I've received one of those yowzah covers with a pretty sexy shirtless cowboy on the cover. He is posing for the artist who is his love interest, the very ethereal Eve Burns, his complete opposite. Worth the price just for the cover, but no galley or release date yet. Not able to stop myself in the quest to be published again, I submitted the second book in this series, A Wild Red Rose, and await the word on that.

Love Letter for a Sinner, the fifth of the Sinners series, was also accepted and has completed its edits, cover in progress.  One would say with four books coming out in 2013-2014, I should now relax and watch my Amazon status climb again, but sadly none of my previously printed works have been restored yet.  Prospects are looking good for Wish for a Sinner ( the second in the series) and a request for contract has been put in. I'm never easy until the paperwork is signed. Then, I will proceed to try to do the same for Kicks for a Sinner and Wish for a Sinner. Trouble is books previously published will not sell as well since they have been out and presumably read for a while. Thus, they are a harder to a convince a publisher to take. However, if the Amazon KDP works as I am told it will, maybe people will want this now well-known but not rich author's back list. I'm hoping.