Honeysuckle Loving It

Okay, that post title is super cheesy, but I have to say that I’m so in love with Evan and Clara.  I think more so than Anton and Emma which is hard because I feel like I’m cheating on them.  I wonder if other authors of romance feel that way when they write their next books.  Because for the time that you’re developing the story, learning your characters, growing and changing them, you do fall in love and think that you’ll never be able to love anyone else.  I hate to say it’s a labor of love because that’s so clichéd, but it is.  In every sense of the word.  So I guess it’s natural to feel like a whore when you begin to fall in love with your new characters.

Oh my God, I’m a whore.

I did go back and reread some Hoodie today (and found some mistakes that I promptly fixed . . . argh) just to make sure that the magic was still there.  Whew!  It was.  I love Anton.  I love Emma.  Still.

But on to my new book.  I already told you that I think my target publishing date is impossible.  Let’s go ahead and just assume that it’s impossible.  Set low expectations and then surprise myself if I can actually meet the date.  Yes, I think I’ll do that.  It really has to do with my big plans for this book.  Hoodie was published exclusively on Amazon Kindle, but I have other things in store for Honeysuckle Love.  First off, as I mentioned in my previous post, I’m going to be publishing HSL in a variety of e-stores including iBookstore and Nook.  I’m going through Smashwords which allows me to upload my e-book once, and they take care of distributing it and keeping all of my records in one place.  And I just now learned about this!  I am a true indie author with no idea what I’m doing.  Sometimes it really makes me feel like an idiot, but I know I need to be fair to myself.  It’s a new industry for me.  I can whip up a writing lesson for ninth graders in about two seconds flat, but ask me about marketing and publishing as an independent, and I’ll just stare at you.  And then you’ll feel really uncomfortable.

In any case, I’ll still be publishing HSL on Kindle, but at least now I know there are other options out there for me.  Other avenues for people to get their hands on my work.  And that’s a good thing.  But do you want to know what I’m absolutely THRILLED about?  Well, I’ll tell you.  There will be print editions of HSL.  Yep, that’s right.  My husband, who is so supportive and a person I really don’t deserve, is going to get me print editions of my new book to (hopefully) sell on my blog, sell to independent book retailers, and to give away to my fans.  Because I like you all.  (Oh, you’ll have to win them, of course, but they'll be signed.  That’s kind of cool.) 

From what I understand, print packages are usually offered for one book at a time, but I’m going to see if I can split a package that will allow me to get Hoodie printed as well.  Yes, it is expensive.  Yes, I will never recoup the cost.  And you know what?  I don’t care.  I’m still old school with books (even though I’ve come to discover that I really like reading books on my HTC).  Still, it cannot replace the tactile feel and smell of a printed book, and I know I’ll squeal like a little girl when I get my box in the mail and hold my printed book for the first time.  And I’ll squeal like a little girl when someone purchases a printed book instead of the e-book for the first time.

So that’s why the publishing date will most likely be extended.  Still so much stuff to do, but very excited about it all.  Soon I will be posting excerpts from HSL.  One a week up until publishing day.  I have to get you interested, right?  One of my absolute favorite things about this novel is that it sounds nothing like my first one.  You may wonder if it was me who wrote it.  (I wrote it.)  And I always hope to give you that as a writer.  Something fresh and new.  Because why would you keep reading my work if you knew what to expect?  Well, the voice is the same.  That doesn’t change.  That’s at the core of a writer.  But the style is different, and I hope you like it.