Roses and Readers, please welcome Jacqueline Diamond as our guest blogger. In addition to a fun post to read, Jacqueline is giving
away five ebook copies of her zany romantic comedy Designer Genes,
in your choice of formats. Just email her at jdiamondfriends@yahoo.com and put Contest Entry in the
subject line. If you’ve read Designer Genes & want a
different one of her books, please specify the title in your email. And if
you’d like to be added to her mailing list, please mention that. It is not
required and won’t affect your chances of winning.
Now for the post!
Those of us who’ve been
writing books for many years face a challenge that, historically, authors never
had to consider. When our publishers return the rights to us, what do we do
with them?
A word of explanation:
as a rule, authors don’t sell manuscripts to publishers; we lease them.
Depending on the contract terms, at some point, we can reclaim the books.
In the past, most novels
simply went out of print. Ever visit a dusty old used bookstore? That was the
only place to find them.
The new field of digital
publishing (ebooks) gives us an exciting option. Which brings me to my point.
While I’d love to have a
magic wand, my older books (and I’ve had rights reverted for about 50 so far)
don’t simply transform themselves into ebooks. They need new covers, new
blurbs, updated material such as introductions, and so on.
This takes a lot of time
that I’d rather spend writing. On the plus side, I get to fix mistakes that
sneaked past (or in a few cases were introduced by) an editor. I can also
revise out-of-date references that might annoy readers. Remember the Soviet
Union? Pay phones? Getting film developed?
What else do authors do
with our new-old books? I’m a better writer than I was thirty years ago, so I
appreciate the chance to polish creaky prose. It’s also been fun designing my
own covers (except for my Regencies, which were created by customgraphics.etsy.com).
There’s been a steep learning curve, but thanks to Photoshop and stock photo
sites that sell images, I’ve created bright up-to-date covers. I hope you’ll
check these out on my website, www.jacquelinediamond.com.
On rereading my earliest
books, I became concerned that some fell short of my current standards. Either
the premise was too dated or the characters weren’t strong enough. I’d hate for
a first-time reader to pick up one of those moldies and assume that’s what all
my books are like. Regaining the rights has allowed me to retire half a dozen
tales that couldn’t be whipped into shape.
What’s the best part of
reissuing old gold? I love reaching new readers who missed those novels the
first time around. I also enjoy hearing from longtime fans who delight in
re-discovering a story.
At times, I’m
rediscovering them myself. Some of the zanier tales make me laugh out loud,
because I’d forgotten the humorous twists. These include romantic comedies
like The Bride Wore Gym Shoes, Kidnapped? and Designer
Genes. I hope you’ll enjoy the excerpt!
Title: Designer
Genes
Blurb: There was a
shocking mix-up at the sperm bank. Now blonde L.A. sophisticate Buffy Arden
arrives in Nowhere Junction, Texas, to introduce her cute little girl to the
infant’s unprepared father, auto mechanic Carter Murchison. As for Carter, he’s
not sure how to deal with this smart-mouthed lady who happens to have the same
name as his cat and who quickly turns his life upside-down. “A comical tale
with witty dialogue, humorous scenes and fun characters.”—Romantic Times.
Excerpt:
Buffy decided to take a sharper tone. “What is your problem?” she
demanded of the car. “You’re being unreasonable.” How unfair that it should die
now, after making it through the Snoring Desert, which was kind of like an
endless beach with neither an ocean nor good-looking surfers.
It wasn’t actually named Snoring, although it deserved to be; it
was the Sonoran, whatever that meant. Thank goodness for GPS, since geography
had never been Buffy’s strong point. Having grown up in Los Angeles, she viewed
the United States as consisting of three major coastlines dominated by L.A.,
New York and New Orleans. Anything in between had a squishy name that started
with a vowel, such as Omaha, Ohio or Utah.
Buy links:
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/366537
Bio:
Jacqueline Diamond, who
received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times, has sold more than a
hundred novels. She is best known for romantic comedies and her Safe Harbor
Medical romance series. A former Associated Press reporter, she currently
writes the spin-off Safe Harbor Medical mystery series.
7 comments:
Welcome, Jacqueline. Great post! You're so right that resurrecting a "moldie" (love the term!) is a lot of work and possibly expense. I think you're wise to consider each on its own. I love the blurb and excerpt for DESIGNER GENES. Confession--I too have occasionally thought of the middle part of the country as those states with vowels! I'm terrible with geography. (I also once got lost in my in-laws' subdivision because I walked around their block in an opposite direction.) Thank goodness Idaho has pretty much branded the shape of the state on its bags of potatoes or I'd never remember it! :-) Wishing you much continued success.
We're happy to have you join us today, Jacqueline. How smart of you to freshen your backlist! Love the title Designer Genes! Good luck with the re-launch...we need your kind of comedy more today than ever!
I've taken my rights back to 3 novellas that I wanted to publish together in a single digital and print addition. I also pulled a novel that I wanted to use as the first book in a new series with a larger publisher. In both cases, I edited them to death before re-releasing. We certainly do get better with age! Best of luck with this project. I can't imagine the time it would take to reintroduce 50 books!
Welcome to the Roses. Designer Genes is on my Kindle, settling in with 600+ other books to read. I love a good chuckle.
Great blog post, Jackie! *scratches head* Still trying to figure out how you put out 100+ books. Must have started in utero!
Welcome to the Roses of Prose. It's nice to have you here today. Like Jannine, I took back the rights to three novellas to publish in a single volume. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd do it again. I'm a traditionalist at heart. 100+ books published is an amazing feat. And now you're re-editing half of them. Best of luck with that feat too.
Welcome, Jacqueline. Isn't it great we can have a do-over with our books? When I got the rights back for my 1st book, I was so glad to make changes that readers complained about--pronunciation of a name, for instance. I love self-publishing--the control, esp. Best wishes for Designer Games.
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