goodreads « Robin Writes

Since the release date of Seven Dirty Words is just around the corner – four days from this morning, to be exact – I’m going to take this opportunity to first tell you all ways you can get your own copy of this great romantic read:

You can enter the giveaway over at Goodreads – nearly 300 other people have done it!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Seven Dirty Words

by Charlotte V. Howard

Giveaway ends January 29, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

You can go directly to the publisher’s website – and get an autographed copy.

You can download for Kindle… or Kobo. AND, you can get that signed too, very soon, through Authorgraph!

You can go to Amazon or Amazon UK for a paperback.

And, by Monday, you can download for your Nook!

Of course, there’s a link on Charlotte’s website too….

Moving right along, let me tell how Seven Dirty Words came to be a book:

I met Charlotte several years ago, online of course, where we both wrote non-fiction articles for a certain unnamed website. Last fall, when I was slightly bored one day, I decided to start a publishing house. For my own two books, of course, and why yes, I will name them, thankyouverymuch: REDUCED and REUSED, but also for other authors – authors who may or may not be able or interested in self-publishing but who were possibly having trouble finding an agent or traditional publisher. And as I’ve mentioned before, RHP is a traditional publisher.

So, never one to let grass grow under my feet, I put out a call for submissions. Initially, I received two: one from a gentleman in Oklahoma, and Charlotte’s manuscript. Now, the gentleman from Oklahoma called me after receiving my email. I had made some suggestions/corrections and told him I’d be happy to look at it again after he made those changes. It was a good story, but needed some work. Two beta readers had gone over it, and I based the requests on their comments.

And there was Charlotte’s book. Seven Dirty Words. Our beta readers really liked this one! The only issue was to tone down some of the “Britishisms.” I have no idea if that’s a real word, but I like it. As you know, English is not always English on both sides of the pond – and that’s all I’m going to say about that!

At any rate, Charlotte was awesome about all this – she listened to what I had to say, made a few changes, and presto: we had a workable manuscript which went off promptly to editing. I will say that our editor was a little flummoxed over a few of those “Britishisms” which remained, the ones that I felt were essential to the story; it does, after all, take place in the UK. Shannon Yarbrough was busy during this time designing the amazing cover…. And then we had a book. To sell.

Charlotte is an absolute joy to work with – she follows through almost immediately on any marketing ideas and suggestions that I throw her direction. This is particularly remarkable when you consider the time zone differences – which I frequently forget about – and the fact that I’m very off-the-cuff about such things: when I think of them, I shoot off an email before I forget!

Besides selling and promoting Seven Dirty Words, though, I really do want to thank Charlotte for taking a chance on a new publishing house – and for helping me learn A LOT MORE about this business. And I’m really glad that I got her on board with RHP before anyone else came along and snatched up her very talented writing!

The other day, I asked a publisher friend of mine WHY she hadn’t warned me about this publishing business thingy. Her answer: misery loves company. Of course, she added a few “hahahas.”

Sigh.

So here’s the short version:

Many of you know that self-publishing, or SP, still operates under a stigma of sorts. Not from readers – they probably couldn’t tell you “who” published their favorite books. Amazon certainly doesn’t care, ha, neither do Kobo or B&N online. Now, getting your SP books on the shelves at B&N, that’s another topic altogether.

The problem is booksellers. Most booksellers. They claim bad writing, poor grammar, nonexistent editing, lousy covers, etc. And sure, some SP books have all these issues – maybe even most of them. And booksellers simply don’t have time to vet every SP book that comes across their counters, which means they can’t recommend them and, therefore, won’t often try to sell them.

Well, I thought, I can solve that – I started a publishing company. Now, SP authors can pretty much say their books are published by _________ and get away with it – unless they run up against a savvy bookseller who does some checking. Not many do, but it’s really simple. If you Google a “publisher” and it comes up showing the author as owner and ESPECIALLY if they’ve only published the author’s books, well, it’s an SP book.

Knowing all of this, I went the legit route – we already had a SAN, thanks to the bookstore, so it was simple to create an imprint and put out a call for submissions. We received quite a few since we started the publishing house, and we’ve chosen two so far with a third being announced in the next couple weeks. We plan to put out print and e-books of just six titles this year, more than likely increasing that in 2014. But here’s the BIG announcement:

SEVEN DIRTY WORDS, a contemporary romance by CHARLOTTE HOWARD, is being launched next Tuesday, January 29!

Let me show you the process that Charlotte’s book went through, which of course is the same process for all of RHP’s books:

First, the submission. The ms is read by at least two beta readers who give their recommendations – whether they like the story or not. Then we make a decision as to the sales potential of the book and, if it’s positive, we offer the author a contract. We do NOT CHARGE FEES for anything. ANYTHING. We are traditional publishers, we take the risk.

The author decides if he likes the contract, if it’s acceptable; if not, there’s a little wiggle room for negotiation. A little.

Then RHP makes the announcement, adds the author to our website, and starts promotional work. Simultaneously, the ms is sent to our editor and to our cover designer. After these two things are finished, both are sent to the author for approval. Line edits are done one more time, to make sure everything is in place and coherent.

When the cover design is completed, promo materials are ordered, and the ms is formatted. We schedule a launch party at the bookstore, send out postcards to bookstores all over the country, and keep promoting the book. We arrange press releases, giveaways, and interviews.

On the release date, the book is available in print and all e-formats.

Simple, right?

Oh, if only I’d known!

Later today, you’ll be able to read a review of SEVEN DIRTY WORDS on the Creve Coeur Patch and Goodreads, and very soon we’ll be announcing a giveaway on Goodreads. The launch party is set for January 29, and we’ll have refreshments and a giveaway there too, and Charlotte will be joining us via Skype!