Tag: regency romance

Publishing update and free gift

I know Regency romance is not to everyone’s taste, so for those of you not interested, you can stop right here.

Publishing is a steep learning curve. It is frustrating, slow, but also interesting and fun. In my search for information and improvement, I have joined the Authors Guild of America, where there is a very active and varied community of authors, all connecting and asking for and giving advice to each other. I have learned much from there.

The idea that if you can get an agent to take you on, you are invited to a posh lunch and thereafter everything is done for you has been firmly squashed. Unless you are Margaret Atwood, or a celebrity with a misery memoir to sell (Prince Harry, perhaps?) Stories abound of people being fired by their agents, agents unable to sell to publishers and so on. Even if the publisher acquires your book, nothing is secure. Publishers go out of business, the editor assigned to you leaves and the replacement hates your book, they publish but it does not sell…

Of course, you can always self-publish. But I have always had a niggling feeling that if nobody wants to take on your debut, it is probably not polished enough yet, or not good enough. Once you know the ropes, things will become easier. But self publishing is expensive, unless you are an expert at editing, proofreading, cover design, formatting, etc. Otherwise you have to hire people to do all these things.

And after all that, once your book is actually on the market (drum roll!) you still have to sell it. Again, unless you are a well-known author guaranteed to sell thousands of book, you can forget about book tours and organised readings paid for by your publisher. Also every single publisher expects you to take an active part in selling your book which, as I have slowly been finding out, consists of the dreaded social media, blog tours, getting your friends to review your book (much harder than expected) and other stratagems, such as paying for Amazon or Facebook ads. And your options depend on where you live—are there book fairs in your vicinity, friendly bookstores or libraries? In my case, none of that is available, since I live in the French countryside and I don’t think I know anyone who reads in English! Luckily there is plenty of advice to be found online.

Misunderstandings, banter and romance. Read it by joining my Reader’s Club

I was thrilled when I landed my publisher, Cupid’s Arrow, who are a small indie outfit in San Jose. They are lovely people, but overwhelmed by having to do it all themselves. Communication is slow. Information hard to get. And you mostly have to deal with your own problems. But the printed copies are great, especially the hardback (I was not expecting them to have hardbacks available.) My editor, Lisa, is wonderful.

I am not expecting to make much money out of this, but I do need to sell enough copies so that the publisher will take on the next book in the series. I have therefore applied myself to marketing the (damn) thing.

The Authors Guild provides members with tools to build a simple website for free, and human help where needed (shoutout to Hector, my saviour in hard times.) Within the website, I have set up a Reader’s Club, where subscribers can sign up to get freebies (extra content, short stories etc.) and news of upcoming publications. At the moment I am offering a free short story plus a curated list of books. If interested you can join here

I also set up an Instagram account and try to produce ‘content’ (who knew I would be getting into this at my age—but it’s actually quite fun, once you get around the tech.) The account is called mmontroseauthor Here is a post

I hope you are suitably impressed, and that some of you will join the Reader’s Club and/or take a look at my IG account. If you do, please let me know your thoughts. I always welcome feedback and comments, as you know.

Cover reveal and more

Things are moving fast all at once. After months of idleness, publication date for my debut novel, Marguerite, has been set for December 4. Very exciting!

While waiting for the publishers to reveal their complete marketing plan, I have been am busy setting up my side of things. I think I mentioned before that I joined the Author’s Guild of America, which was a shrewd move. They provide free tools to build a website (they can also build it for you if you like). They organised my domain name and an email in my pen name. They embedded the email sign-up form into the website. And the best—you communicate with a REAL PERSON (shoutout to Hector!) No bots, and no endless search for some elusive ‘Happiness Engineer’. Yay.

As for the rest, why must everything be so complicated? I was assured by Kindlepreneur (a very useful source of all kinds of information) that the best mailing service for authors is MailerLite, as well as being the easiest to set up. Well, either I’m a moron, or the other services need a degree in advanced coding. I have been struggling with the damn thing for days—despite a bot who is better than most, and even some help from a real live person. But it’s done, more or less. Finally, I’m pretty familiar with IG, via my art account, but I hate X, Facebook etc. I think I’ll pass. I’m too old to make little videos on TikTok.

Take a look at the cover and tell me what you think. I’m quite pleased with it. I was very clear about NO bare-chested duke clutching a swooning maiden.

It was difficult for the graphic artist to find a stock photo I liked, so I came upon the idea to use an old painting (in the public domain). This is an oil portrait by Swiss artist Jacques-Laurent Agasse (1767 – 1849), possibly of Mademoiselle Cazenove. Then I wanted to superimpose a profile of the duke watching Marguerite ride in the park. The graphic artist did a good job of my ideas, I think.

Finally, a bout of shameless self-promotion:

I am delighted to present my debut novel, Marguerite. Set in the elitist and socially restricted milieu of the ton in Regency London, it is the story of an independent, opinionated girl and the man who pursues her despite her refusing his offer of marriage. 

If this sounds like your cup of tea, I would be grateful if you would consider preordering the book. Preorders help new authors get discovered, and your support is invaluable. 

Once you’ve read the book (if you manage to finish and if you haven’t hated it!), I would love it if you would consider leaving a review. Even a sentence helps other readers find the book, and I am interested in every piece of feedback. 

I’d also like to invite you to take a look at my website, Marina Montrose Author, where subscribers to the Reader’s Club receive a free, exclusive short story as a thank you gift. You can join here:

https://www.mmontrose.com/disc.htm

Thank you for being part of this adventure. 📚

P.S. The book is available for preorder on Amazon, but print copies only on Amazon.com still…Here is a link to all the other places where you can preorder. Or order later on.

https://cupidsarrowpublishing.com/marguerite

Hardback dust jacket

From rejection to publication

After years of getting rejections for my writing, I finally signed with a publisher

If rejection letters were paper, I could have covered my bedroom walls with them (or made a bonfire). Thankfully, nowadays they are digital, so they remain hidden in an Excel sheet (just so that I can remember not to submit to the same agent/publisher twice!)

But let me go back a little: I have always loved writing from an early age, and in high school served as editor of the school mag, entitled Sunny Days. This activity alleviated hours of boredom in class, where I could correct texts and draw the artwork while the teacher droned on…

Earlier even than that, at age 10 or 11, I was let loose upon my mother’s bookshelves. She was a great fan of Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer, both of whom I devoured (as well as a great variety of other authors, some more highbrow than others.)

This must have been the cover at the time.

Over the years, I wrote a number of short stories, some of which were placed in competitions, while others were published in Anthologies and online magazines (I got plenty of rejections there, too.)

I was (and am) a rabid bookworm, reading over a wide range of genres—literary fiction, memoir, short stories, historical novels, travel books. For entertainment I read mystery and crime. No romance.

Later I set myself the task of writing a book and of course I decided upon mystery. I took some online courses and attended the Festival of Writing at York twice (the most fun time). I completed no less than two novels, one set mainly on a yacht in the Greek islands, the next in the world of international horse racing. I really found it interesting and fun to work out the plot, the red herrings and twists and cliff hangers.

I started the process of querying agents but, although I got great feedback from some and quite a few requests for the full manuscript, the final answer was no. It was never the right timing, or quite the right thing for their list at this particular moment. Most just ghosted me, a practice I find at best impolite when they have requested the whole ms, however busy they might be. Publishers did reply, but still it was no.

I considered self-publishing but, after a lot of research, realised it would be very costly—both in money and time spent—in order to be done properly. Even if you self-edit to death, even if you find beta-readers for free, even if you design your cover yourself, it’s not enough. You need professional edits, a great cover, proper promotion. I’m not good enough to do it, don’t have the time or patience and I am too proud to press the button on a shoddy job. So I persevered and am still persevering.

This is a mock up I made for the cover of one of the mysteries, when I was considering self-publication

Meanwhile, lockdown happened and, having more time on my hands, I started re-reading Jane Austen, whom I had not touched since school. She has stood the test of time for a reason. Then I went on to read some of Georgette Heyer again, and really enjoyed the banter and great writing. One thing led to another and, having shelved the mysteries (for now) I have written a number of Regency romance novellas.

Amazingly, I sent one off to an indie publisher and got a favourable reply! I was astonished, as I had actually forgotten about it. However, my excitement was quickly dampened because, after I signed the contract, they then went radio silent for the whole summer. Apparently one of the team had a medical problem, so delays were understandable, but emails went unanswered which freaked me out a little. I reached out to one of their authors who explained this can happen with indie presses because they are short staffed, and that patience was needed. But still.

However, they returned with a vengeance and now things are moving fast. My editor Lisa was lovely and actually there was not much to change or correct. The discussion about the cover went well. Publication date is early December, all fingers crossed—and I am panicking a little because there are so many things to do. I had to set up a Facebook page (I hate Facebook), and IG and X accounts. I have joined the Author’s Guild of America (the publisher, Cupid’s Arrow Press, is American) which is great: there’s a fantastic forum where you can get feedback and advice from other writers, they have tools for building a website, which I have done, and they even offer legal advice if you need it. But there is still a lot to do, and I am new at this.

A glimpse of the cover (detail).

My book is called Marguerite, which is the name of the heroine, but more about that in another post. I am using the pseudonym Marina Montrose for the novellas.

Stay tuned for further developments. I know historical romance is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I hope some of you at least will read and enjoy it. I would be honoured.