DFRAT: Sandy James guest blog and giveaway

Kathryn West has it all – she’s a confident, bestselling author living it up in New York City. Too bad she doesn’t actually exist, and is only timid Maddie Sawyer’s pseudonym. Determined to attend her high school reunion with a man right out of one of her racy romance novels, she plots to find a sexy bad boy who’s up to Kathryn’s standards.

She finds Mr. Perfect shooting pool in a biker bar. He’s a blue-collar hunk who just happens to look great in leather. But the mysterious Scott Brady has some rules of his own: he won’t agree to her deal unless she poses as his girlfriend in front of his family and friends first.

As the reunion nears, Maddie tries to maintain her carefree façade, knowing she’ll soon face some old ghosts. She’s torn between her growing attraction to Scott and the nagging feeling that he’s hiding something important. Will she still want him when she finds out his secret? What about when he discovers hers?

 

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I’d been writing for three years when I made my first sale. I’d begun writing for fun, not profit, but I also started educating myself about publishing. You know—just in case… <g> Through networking, I made friends with many other romance writers, and I also caught the virus that pushes an author to publish. After writing four manuscripts, I decided to search for a good agent and submit to a few publishing houses.

One of my friends suggested that I send my story Turning Thirty-Twelve to BookStrand. It’s a quirky little book that would easily be overlooked because it’s not part of a series. It’s also about an older heroine, which certainly wasn’t the standard in 2008. I’d never heard of BookStrand, but my friend explained it was Siren’s new ebook mainstream imprint and that she’d really loved working with them in publishing her erotic novellas.

Still, I hesitated. An ebook publisher? Weren’t they supposed to be an author’s last shot? Weren’t ebooks second rate stories that couldn’t sell to “real” publishers?

My friend clued me in by telling me how much money she was making in royalties, so I decided to give BookStrand a whirl. At the time, I had no idea that I was becoming a pioneer. I did, however, wonder if ebooks might one day do for books what MP3 players did for music downloads. So…I sent in my story, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. When my offer to publish arrived, I screamed loud enough to scare my husband and pets.

Turning Thirty-Twelve debuted in the winter of 2008, right at the start of the “Ebook Revolution.” When it released, I had to explain to people that it was an ebook. They often weren’t sure how an ebook was read. Most had never heard of a Kindle, let alone owned one. I even had a few people ask me when it would be in print so it was a “real” book.  I tried not to roll my eyes and proceeded to publish four more books with BookStrand—my award-winning Damaged Heroes series.

In the four years since then, the publishing world has been flipped on its ear. Ebooks are the norm, not the anomaly. I sell more of my stories in Kindle format than any other, and fewer people ask whether my books will be in print one day. There are still those who tell me it’s only a “real” book if they can hold it in their hands, but people are familiar with ereaders and accept that ebooks aren’t inferior quality. I don’t see as much prejudice as I used to that epubbed authors are somehow inferior to print authors.

The biggest affirmation came when I sold Rules of the Game to Carina Press. I’ve been aware of the powerhouse that is Angela James from when she was at Samhain Publishing. (No, I’m not a stalker. Well, not a scary stalker.) She’d always impressed me with her unabashed love of epublishing. When she landed as Executive Editor of Carina Press, I knew I needed to be a part of it, because Angela has the Midas Touch—everything she works on in publishing turns to gold. I kept nagging my agent until she sent one of my stories to Carina.

And they bought the book!  Rules of the Game came out in April. I’m also thrilled to announce that Carina has contracted my Alliance of the Amazons urban fantasy series. The first book—The Reluctant Amazon—will be out in September.

So here I am, still hip-deep in epublishing and loving every minute of it! I love being able to say I was riding on the ebook wagon long before many authors jumped aboard.

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A big thank-you to Sandy James for joining us on the Digital First Read-A-Thon!

To find out more about Sandy and her books, visit www.sandy-james.com. And leave a comment below for a chance to win Rules of the Game. Good luck!

Be sure to stop by Book Binge, Tracy’s Place & The Book Reading Gals for more DFRAT fun 🙂