I recently celebrated my publishing anniversary. My first published novel was released on December 31, 2010. I wanted to share a little about that publishing journey and the evolution of that book.
The first book I ever published was through a small press publishing house called The Writer's Coffee Shop. It doesn't exist anymore, but it was best known for being the original publisher of Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.
My first book, Hidden Threat, released on the last day of the year. I'd never published a book before. I'd only ever written fan fiction, so I had no experience when it came to marketing.
The first cover we came up with for Hidden Threat, wasn't the best. This goes back to my lack of experience in marketing a book and unfortunately, the publisher was new as well and didn't have much experience in that area either. All the members of the publishing house were avid readers, but being a reader and knowing the right cover to put on a book are two different things.
Hidden Threat was an office romance with corporate espionage. The first cover depicted a woman grabbing hold of a man's tie with the Chicago skyline in the background. Then, we added someone holding a gun to denote the mystery/suspense parts of the story.
While the story did okay upon its release, it had two things going against it. One, I was an unknown author. And two, the cover.
Knowing what I know now, the light blue color scheme isn't really the best color for romance novels, especially steamy romance novels. It doesn't really scream suspense romance.
I continued to publish books throughout the five years I was with that publisher and ended up being the second highest selling author behind E.L. James. This provided me with a lot of opportunities to go to events and really try to build my brad and my readership.
But after five years, the owner of the publishing house decided to close its doors. All the rights for my books reverted back to me and I had to decide what was next. Did I look for a literary agent and try to get a publishing deal from one of the New York publishing houses?
In the end, I decided to use what I'd learned during my time at TWCS and go down the self publishing route. We were given permission to use all of our edited material. The only thing we had to really do was add a new cover to the books and get new ISBN numbers, then we could re-upload them to retailers.
When I went to do this for Hidden Threat, I quickly realized the name and the vibe I was going for didn't work. Add to that everything I'd learned writing wise as an author and I came to the conclusion that the book needed a complete overhaul.
In the original story, there were five or six different points of view. None of my other books had that. They were all dual point of view between the hero and the heroine.
So of course, I had to fix that. I ended up rewriting the entire story, removing the extra points of view, and beefing up the mystery/suspense elements. By the time it was all said and done, I added an extra 15,000 words to the story.
With the re-write, I also decided to change the title to Strictly Professional, focusing on the office romance.
This is Matthew and Cali's story. It still takes place in Chicago and is now about 60% romance/40% mystery suspense. It is my only standalone novel.
If you're looking for a standalone office romance, I'd love for you to give Strictly Professional a try.
Falling for the Boss’s Son is the first book in the steamy Head Over Heels series. Perfect for fans of workplace romance, he-falls-first, and deliciously hot D/s tension.
Start reading now and let Jesse sweep you off your feet → https://books2read.com/u/4jE0oo
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