What I Wished Readers Knew

I’ve been getting a lot of fan letters and new FB likes lately with UNDER THE COVERS about to be released in May, TWISTED in June, and FORGOTTEN SINS in July…and I LOVE it!  There are a few things I didn’t know before becoming an author that I wish I’d known…and here they are:

1)       Authors with NY Publishers have no say in the price point of the books. None-zippo-zilch.  I have no clue how much my book is priced at until I either see it in a store or check online retailers.  🙂

2)      Those of us with traditional publishers don’t create our own covers.  I see the cover after it’s pretty much ready to go.  Having said that…I’ve LOVED my covers!  The graphic arts departments at Kensington, Entangled, and Grand Central seriously rock.

3)      We have no say in whether a book gets printed or not.  Or whether it’s available in e-book or not.  These type of things are never guaranteed in a contract.  Of course we want them in both e-book and print.  Always.  So far, I’ve been fortunate.

4)      We know not to read reviews…yet we do.  And yeah, sometimes we take them personally…and wish year-long yeast infections on the reviewer.  Yeah, I’m talking to you—mean reviewer.  And…we can tell if it’s a personal issue and not something to do with the book…even if somebody tries to mask it.

5)      When someone gives us a poor rating on Amazon or GoodReads because the price of the book is too high…we think she’s a moron.  (See number one above.)

6)      Once we get several reviews…we realize that the EXACT same thing one reviewer just loved is the reason another reviewer didn’t like the book.  This is a great thing…because then we realize we can’t please all the people, and we should just go write the next book…and stop reading reviews.  🙂

7)      We’re taken aback and overwhelmed by the kindness of readers and how they’re willing to go out of their way to help promote our books.  (Yes, FB street team… I mean you.)  It’s very humbling, and I hope I express how much this means to me and how much I appreciate all of my readers.

8)      Reading fan mail is the best part of many days.  Thanks for sending fan mail!

9)      There’s no magical muse.  Honest.  We just have to sit down and write when we’d rather be doing laundry sometimes.  This actually is a job.

10)   We feel an incredibly strong loyalty to our readers and really, really, really don’t want to let you down.  Ever.