I am closing in on being done with my current historical project. So…. close.
And yet it feels so far away.
like this
—>> · <<—
only that dot is the planet Jupiter.
That’s how far away it feels.
It’s really far away, Even though I have 80K words which ought to be done, really, other than polishing, which always puts me at about 90-95K and it doesn’t feel done.
I have to go write.
·
Jupiter.
If you look over there — there. In the sidebars …. You may see the covers of my historicals Scandal and Indiscreet. Those are the US covers done by Berkley Books, and they are lovely. That’s John Marron, by the way, on the cover of Indiscreet. ::waving:::
I’ve spent the last year being silent about that fact that the books were, until about last week, unavailable in the US or Canada. Berkley mistakenly took them off sale in the latter half of 2012.
Long story short, by February of 2013, I instructed my agent that we should stop our (fruitless) efforts to get them to fix the mistake and simply request a reversion after the next royalty statement. And that is what we did.
My reversions arrived last week. I have been working to get them on sale in the US and Canada with the covers I commissioned for my non-North American version of the books. By “version” I mean different covers, a couple of typos fixed, and a reformatted interior. Some of you may recall that the original eBook version of Indiscreet was unreadable. The corrected file, when it was finally produced, was … readable. I’ll leave it at that.
It’s odd. I loved writing for Berkley. I loved my editor, I’ve adored all my covers. The copy-editor for Scandal was amazing, and I did have regrets about declining the opportunity to do additional books for them. But the fact is that Scandal and Indiscreet mean more to me than they did to Berkley– the company. The economic harm during the nearly year and a half the books were not on sale was disproportionately mine.
Then there’s the harm to my writing career. When Dear Author had long threads about historicals with exotic locations, I know for a fact people tried to buy Indiscreet (because the book was mentioned in the threads) and could not. I know because a couple of them emailed me. How many didn’t? Not so long ago, Scandal was again reviewed on Dear Author. Not to sound too vain, but Scandal was a RITA finalist. It made a list of one of the 100 best Romances. My agent called it a tour-de-force. And a website that gets hundreds of thousands of hits from romance readers reviewed it again, nearly four years after its release. And nobody in North America could buy the book when it should have been available.
When those two books disappeared from sale, Berkley wasn’t motivated to fix the problem. I, on the other hand, was fielding emails from readers who’d heard about the books and could not get them, and there was nothing I could do. My agent and I had already made multiple requests to get the books back on sale.
To everyone in North America who wondered why there was no eBook and practically no print availability, this is why. I’m sorry for the long wait and the silence, but once I decided I was done with the situation, I was worried that Berkley would (at last) notice what had happened.
Scandal and Indiscreet are both good books. Really good books. If you like angsty books, then hey, I’m your gal. And at last, if you’re in North America, you can get the books for $4.99 US.
Here are the links I have so far for Scandal:
Here are the links for Indiscreet:
I’m not sure why Kobo hasn’t managed to get the books on sale yet. Hopefully soon. Google Play and Print versions will be coming shortly.
Caption This! Leave your suggested Caption in the comments. I have a few of my own below.
“Title Me”
“Title me” is actually pretty dang funny caption because, you see, she’s coming downstairs to greet the handsome Lord Rakesalot….
What else? How about this?
Gown: check
Coat: check
Hat: check
Shoes?
What are yours? Feel free to add facts if needed.
Some of you may already know that Romance author Jackie Barbosa’s teenage son was killed last week in a car accident. There is no recovering from a loss like that. We — all of us — are a community, and we reach out to others in times of need and sorrow.
There is a memorial fund for him, which the family would like to turn into a scholarship fund in his memory, link here. Fellow authors Beverly Kendall and Courtney Milan came up with the idea of authors highlighting Jackie’s books the week of March 21st.
So, here are some links:
At my blog I have a post about The Lesson Plan, one of Jackie’s historical romances with links to various vendors (any associate links at my site are Jackie’s, not mine. I don’t think there were any, though.)
Beverley Kendall has a post about Behind The Red Door, which Kensington Publishing has kindly put on sale for $2.99 until April 1st.
By the time you read this, there will be another post at my blog about Skin in the Game, one of Jackie’s erotic romances… in case you like something spicier.
It is an unspeakable tragedy to lose a child, and I want to do what I can to support her during this terrible time. I hope you will, too.
Tulip!
Here’s a pretty picture for you while I read through A Notorious Ruin before it goes out for beta/edits.
That picture is way better at full size. Boy, I love tulips. Did I mention we planted 750 of them this year?
Photo taken with a Nikon D-80, macro lens.