Monday 1 April 2013

Publishing With "Books We Love"



Well, I feel like a whirl wind has caught me up!  I just signed a contract on Wednesday with the e-publisher "Books We Love for Readers We Love," and the folks there really move.  By the end of the day on Wednesday, I had sent them the manuscripts for Framed for Murder, The Affairs of Harriet Walters, Spinster, and The Marriage Market, and by Friday (Good Friday, I might add), I had the proofed copy back for Framed.  They worked all Easter weekend and produced the three covers and my new author's page.  I've also been reading their authors' loop, and what a friendly, terrific bunch of people they are.

Why did I choose to leave the indie path, at least for the e-publishing of my novels?  Jude Pittman, President, gave a presentation at the February meeting of our Romance Writers of America Calgary chapter, and I picked up their brochure and business card.  I thought about them over the ensuing weeks, and then happened to sit beside a member of CaRWA at the March meeting who had just published her first book with them.  She talked about how friendly they were, how quickly they worked (compared to traditional publishers who take over a year to get copies of your book into stores), and how many copies her book had sold in just two weeks (6,000!), and I started to seriously consider going with them.

Books We Love is an international group with the President living here in Alberta, the VP in the States, and the writers in Canada, the States, and England.  They traditionally take only published authors, and since I was self-published I wasn't sure they would take me, but they did.  They copy edit the manuscript, design the book cover, publish the book with Amazon (and eventually other e-book retailers), and promote the books, all for nothing up front, plus offer a good royalty rate.  And, judging by my fellow CaWRA member's success, their stamp on a book is the gold standard to their loyal readers.

I knew that it would take a long time to get my books out to as many readers as Books We Love can do in just a couple of weeks, and I went for it.  I look forward to seeing Framed for Murder published with Amazon later this week, and the other two sometime soon. Wish me luck!

And, if there are any other writers reading this in my situation, Books We Love is looking to expand their authors' pool.

Check them out at http://bookswelove.net/bookswelove.php.

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