Re-Branding with a Publisher

Greetings,

My goodness this entry is late. Last week just completely gotten away from me. The day job has been incredibly busy. Friday was our department graduation and there was preparation like crazy for staff to do in order to get everything to go without a hitch. So things have been a bit hectic.

But it's the writing news I am both excited and anxious about. A publishing company out of California, California Times Publishing has picked up/ signed a contract for Hollownton Homicide.

It's exciting because somebody actually reached out and said that they wanted to publish the book, under their name because technically it was already published, however it is kind of nerve-racking because you never know how a wider audience will respond to it and there were a couple conditions for picking up the book.

The first is they wanted to change the title. The current title has the main character in the book Anthony or Tony Hollownton as part of the title. I guess they don't like his last name so after some discussion the title will be Rain City Homicide. So the series titles from here on out will be Rain City…..

The second condition was they do not like the use of initials. So they wanted me to come up with something else. I decided to be a bit of a sassy pants and went with Essby. So I'm not exactly happy with it but I'm trying to accept the fact that I should just calm down and not get so worked up about the author name used. But I can't seem to help it.

The last stipulation is they did not like the current cover. They said covers where the person on the cover is looking practically at the reader with not a lot else going on don't sell as well for whatever reason statistically. So they are changing the cover. I got to see the new concept art for the publishers covers this week. That was super cool. I really like them.

I am trying to be upbeat about the publishing thing but I can not shake the anxious nerves. Maybe it will all be better once the book is rereleased.

I am not sure I have anything else for the moment.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Procrastination!

Greetings,

This week I want to talk about writing and books. For the last month or so I have been working on the book 2 of the Night World Series. I am super excited about working on it but at the same time it is daunting. What if it isn't as good? What if people don't like it? What if I don't finish it in the time line I have set out for myself?

The timeline is my big problem. I really wanted to get four books out this year, but I'm not sure I am going to reach that goal.

Enter the Hubster. He in his sweetness bought me Dragonspeak for my birthday. Dictating with that means pages get done more than twice as fast, YAY! However, It does not always type exactly what I put meaning my pre-editing read through is going to take longer, less yay. Over all it gives me hope to finish books this year. Since I work for a school that slows in the summer I am going down to 80% time. That gives me extra writing time at home.

So we reach the goal I set. With the math I did, I should be able to finish a minimum of two books by the end of September and a max of four. The later would be amazing.

But then my second complication comes in, laziness and procrastination. Some times I get home after the hour bus ride and all I want to do is watch an episode of something before starting dinner. This is not a conducive attitude to writing. I have yet to come up with a good way to push through that.

In other news Hollownton Homicide has a one year book contract with CA Times Publishing. They are going to re-release the book under their publishing house. I am excited about this but a little hesitant. They do not like that I use my initials so after some discussion my, pen name, I guess you would say for the re-release will be Gretchen Essby. They are also re-doing the cover and I should get a peek at the new one later this week. I also filled out the initial info so they could start working on a book trailer for it. I am excited to see it!

I think that is all I have for this week.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen