Guest Post: Sara Palacios

Last week I had the pleasure of reviewing Love In Translation, the debut novel from Sara Palacios. (Read my review here if you missed it). Today Sara has a guest post for you all that talks about her road to publication. I'm always interested to see what it was like for an author to go from idea to actual book and I would like to thank Sara for this lovely post. I hope you all enjoy it!

I’ve dabbled in writing for a few years now. I finished my first book, BEAUTIFUL DISASTER, shortly after I graduated from college but didn’t really think that it was good enough. I think I saw it merely as practice and appreciated it for what it was. But then, I decided to really give it a go and write another book and see how it turned out. If I felt like it was good enough, then I would pursue publishing which was obviously the ultimate goal. So, I gave it another go and spent many months working on what would become LOVE IN TRANSLATION. Actually, back then it was titled A SUMMER TO REMEMBER, but I like the new title so much more. Anywho, I finished the book and thought it was decent, so I decided to give it to an editor. I began working with Erica McCormick who is a friend of one of my best friends and she was amazing. She really helped tighten the writing and reel me in during scenes where my writing was all over the place. After she went through it very thoroughly, I went through it again myself at least a dozen more times and really tried to make it shine. Then I presented the book to a really great gal pal of mine, Cristina Reyna. She read the book in its entirety and really helped help bring the story to life. After that, I sent my MS out to a handful of publishing agents and had a few bites, but nothing really solid so I decided to pursue self-publishing. By that time, I had been working with Samantha Robey over at Chick Lit Plus for roughly a year and saw firsthand how successful an author could be when self-published, so I went for it. I think deep down I was always intended to self-publish because I had so much fun with it all.  Luckily I had my husband to help me out with everything, and together we converted my book into ebook formats and designed the book cover (which was by far one of my favorite aspects of publishing). Then, I set a date and went from there.

Overall, it was a lot of work but it has been so worth it. I think ultimately the deciding factor was giving birth to my son. For so long I’ve dreamed of being a writer and had always been so scared to pursue my dream fully. Sure, I’d written things here and there but had never been published. After Ethan was born, I needed to prove to myself that I could do it and I needed to show him that he could do anything … be anything he wanted to be. How was I supposed to convey those messages when I was scared to do it myself? So, I dove in head first and went for it and I haven’t looked back since. Now I am on tour, with lovely bloggers (like you, Kaley) and I am having such an amazing time. I am so lucky that I have been able to do this and I am so grateful that I’ve been able to experience all of this. 

About Sara:

Sara Palacios is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a major in Advertising and a minor in English Literature. It was during her time in college that she really fell in love with the written word and ventured into writing her own stories. In addition to writing, Sara spends a majority of her time reading the works of other authors.  She reads most genres  – but thoroughly enjoys chick-lit, women’s and historical fiction. When she isn’t busy reading or writing, Sara enjoys spending time with family and friends. She is happily married, the owner of two precious doggies and a new mom to a handsome baby boy. Sara is also an avid animal-lover, runner, yoga enthusiast and wannabe vegan.

Connect with Sara:

Twitter: Sara Palacios

Facebook: Sara Palacios

Email: sararpalacios@gmail.com

Guest Post: Romi Moondi

I'm so excited to welcome author Romi Moondi to Books Etc. today. I reviewed her hilarious and awesome novel Last-Minute Love earlier this week (review is here) as part of a CLP Blog Tour and today she is here with a guest post. Since I knew a little bit about her publishing journey I was curious to find out how it turned out compared to the vision she had in her head. Thanks to Romi for this awesome post!

Hi Kaley, thanks for letting me guest-post here, and I have to say, I love your question!

I guess the best measure of how I thought it would turn out goes back to early 2010, when I’d scored a literary agent in New York for “Year of the Chick.” After sending out all those query letters, dealing with the rejections, and finally securing representation, I could picture the next several years of my author life, and I imagined it going like this:

-Most publishers reject me, but one really loves my book and offers me a deal. The book takes off with the right publisher-aided marketing (ha!), I go to book signings in different cities, my agent sells foreign right in several countries, and I use my riches to write full-time…hooray!

And this is how it actually turned out:

-Publishers liked, or enjoyed, or “insert positive adjective” my book, but they didn’t love it.

-My agent didn’t like my second book, which was a humorous essay parody.

-I liked my essay book anyway, and I’d been hearing so much about Amazon self-publishing that I left my agent. I self-published “The Book of Awful” in spring of 2011.

-I realized how obscure you are as an author if you don’t do any advertising or promotions (crikey). So I started doing some advertising and promotions, by learning about various websites from author message boards.

-In November of 2011, I dusted off “Year of the Chick,” and after another minor re-write (owing to my “fresh writer eyes”), I went ahead and self-published it too.

-After doing a couple of free promotions for “Year of the Chick” and getting some great reviews, I realized there was an audience out there for my book, even if it’s not for everyone.

-In early 2012, I took a week off work (yes, my own vacation since I still have a full-time job!) and wrote the entire first draft for the sequel to “Year of the Chick.” That’s fifty-eight thousand words in six days, and I almost went insane doing it.

-After a gruelling re-write and stressful final edits, the sequel “Last-Minute Love” was released, and it’s been out for three months now. I’ve sold almost 2,000 copies of this book, and almost 4,000 copies across all my titles.

-I still have a full-time job, and I will self-publish another book in my series in 2013 (unless of course a publisher discovers my book on their own, and offers me a wonderful author-friendly contract I can’t pass up).

Okay…whoa, that is NOT how I thought my journey would turn out!

The real-life version has been anything but glamourous, but it’s been the most satisfying journey of my life. Every time a reader emails me to tell me how much they loved the series, or to even “thank me for writing,” (you’re thanking ME for writing? That’s insane!), it reminds me how this ONE special part of the journey I always imagined, the part where I would reach random strangers with my words…that part actually came true.

As for the rest? Well screw it! It’s a brave new world of publishing, one in which, granted, I fully support every writer who gets a literary agent and finds a publisher (let’s make that clear), but also one in which I’m fully independent as an author.

And it feels good :-)

(Thank you Amazon, Kobo, iTunes and Barnes &  Noble for the ability to self-publish!)

Romi

Author Bio:

I am Canadian, and here are some strange personal facts:

-I wore denim-top-to-bottom in high school (there is a direct inverse relationship between how much denim I wore and how few tongues were launched down my throat at school dances...or anywhere in high school at all).
-A homeless lady in New York once told me "You're just a bitch on vacation with no money!"
-I always hated those insufferable couples who would cuddle and make out on the subway...until I became half of one. But now I'm back to being none of one so I hate them again.

The thing I love most in the world is writing. When I first started publishing on Amazon it was my "crazy" humour side ("The Book of Awful," and "NOT Love Poems For Real Life"). Since then, everything has focused on my "Year of the Chick" series, because it's the most important thing to me in the world right now. I guess that would tend to happen, when your writing is inspired by real life, including all the satisfaction and risks that come from that.

My "Year of the Chick" series can be described as "edgy rom-com," which helps me account for the blunt conversations and mortifying family moments in the book ;-).

Book 3 in the "Year of the Chick" series will be written and released in 2013; until then I have some adventures to go on! 

Connect with Romi:

Facebook Author Page

Twitter
Blog

Guest Post: Jenn Flynn-Shon

I'd like to thank author Jenn Flynn-Shon for taking the time to write a guest post for Books Etc. I was curious to find out what it was like for her to self-publish. I hope you all enjoy it! And don't forget to check out the review I posted earlier in the week.

Why Self-Publishing Fit with My First Novel

When I first decided to self-publish I had no idea all I’d be getting into but the learning process in birthing the baby that is Ripple the Twine was the most exciting part of stepping into the world of becoming an indie Author. I’d been writing since I was twelve years old and made a foray into blogging in 2007. The choice to blog was primarily fueled by my desire to start getting my words out into the world, to connect with other writers. When I wrote the book in 2009 I had similar feelings about wanting to share it with a wider audience and connect.


Two years later when the first draft of my manuscript was complete, I started researching the writing industry. I began my search in the realm of traditional publishing. I researched Agents and Publishing Houses, I read books on the subject, and I started crafting query letters. After many rejections my family and friends asked if I had ever considered the option of self-publishing.

I didn't know much about the ways to self-publish either and it seemed smart to investigate all the options. I immediately fell in love with the benefits of being an indie Author.

While it seemed that traditional publishing offered an Author some level of security and relief in marketing efforts, I discovered that most Authors were doing a healthy bit of the marketing on their own anyway. With two blogs and growing number of self-published articles under my belt it finally hit me that I’d already been self-publishing for almost five years.

Learning the ins and outs was a challenge, I couldn’t seem to find the end-all be-all guide to self-publishing. So I learned as I went. Bits and pieces of how to bring it all together started to fall into place – how to format, how and where to do print-on-demand, how to use cover art, how to write jacket copy and a synopsis, etc. I joined some writer’s groups and sent my book to a friend (and some family) for editing suggestions. I wrote and re-wrote a number of times. Then in early 2012 the manuscript was finally at a point where I was happy with it. I set a mental date for the book’s release.

For me the discipline of sticking to that date, fit with my personality. I liked being the one in control of the process and the pride in being able to say I did it myself. That’s when my own Publishing House, Writesy Press, was born.

For a first time self-published Author of a full length fiction manuscript I wanted to have the comfort of owning my own House. I was able to hire my mom, a professional Photographer, to create my cover art and set things up the way I wanted to see them laid out between those covers. The entire time I spent learning and formatting my only question to answer was ‘would I read this book if it wasn’t my own?’

Turns out, the answer was a resounding yes!

I know my novel isn’t perfect, it may have flaws or mistakes that traditional publishers would point out but I have never read a book that didn’t include at least one spelling mistake. Even those released from the big Houses. I let go of caring about perfection of the final product and spent my energy on trying to make the story and characters the best they could be instead.

While self-publishing isn’t for everyone I wouldn’t change a thing about releasing my first novel this way. For me it was exciting to learn the entire process of how a book is created and when my first copy arrived, it was the ultimate thrill to see my full name, title and logo on the spine. If I were to go a traditional route in the future I would be able to go in armed with the knowledge of the ins and outs of the entire publishing process. To me, that learning was priceless.