My Experience with Publishing - Self vs Traditional

I spent most of 2010 send query letter after query letter and received rejection after rejection. Unlike a lot of Author, I didn't keep track of how many rejections I got. I knew it only took one acceptance letter to become a published author. Well I got two offers from small independent publishing houses. These were both legit publishers. Legit, what does that mean. Well I mean a publisher that pays me, I don't pay them (Vanity Press). They covered editing, cover, some marketing expenses and more, a traditional publisher. One was in Europe, one in Florida. I decided to go with World Castle Publishing (WCP) in Florida.

Some friends and family we skeptical, after all WCP just opened and I was one of their first authors, along with my writing buddy, Kathi S Barton. WCP owner Karen Fuller was amazing to us authors that trusted her. She did everything right! She listened to us and worked with us, ensuring we were pleased with the books we were releasing. As a new author, I couldn't have asked for a better publisher. She planned and organized a book signing tour of Texas, we had I think eight authors. It was so amazing to sir in Barnes and Noble and have readers come engage with us, but our books, take photos.

I released four books with WCP between 2011 and 2012. I traveled and did fundraisers, book signings, book events and more. It was everything I imagined and more. I was also pretty proud of the sales and royalties I was receiving. As a new author with a new publisher to have steady sale was amazing. I became a best selling author with WCP, and had realized my dreams. Then I hit a brick wall, I couldn't write. I have a near finished novel, already in first round edits and I couldn't do it.

From 2013 to 2017 I went through lots of changes as a person, wife, mother and author. I won't go into it all, but in 2017 after a chronic illness diagnosis I got my drive back. I was ready to finish the story, work on the Embrace series. Many friends were self publishing and I thought wow, this sounds so amazing, not sharing my royalties, full control over my career, Independence and the title of Indie Author. I needed to do this. So I emailed Karen and asked to have my rights back. My contract was long over, but she continued with my books as a back list. They still brought in residual income for both of us.

I re-wrote all four books in the Embrace series. Had a good friend/artist design new covers for me and re-released The Embrace Series as an Indie Author. As I worked on the long anticipated fifth book.     

 
I finished my contemporary romance novel The Climb, and was so proud of this book. I knew it was amazing. November 1, 2018 I release the book that took nearly 7 years to finish. It got amazing reviews, and readers loved it as much as I did.

Fast forward a few months, to 2019. I feel lost again, no drive to write, I find doing this all on my own is way more than I bargained for. Self publishing is fucking HARD. You can't understand until you do it. If you want a nice cover, you have to out source to someone that knows what they are doing. A cheep cover can be spotted from a mile away. And yes people judge a book by it's cover. You need to hire and editor or two. You can not edit your own book, spell check does not edit your book. You need a professional. You have to hire someone to help with marketing or you need to spend the time to do it yourself. Connecting with readers, selling your book but not being spammy. I admire every self published author, successful or not, because it's a lot of work.

I know this is what I'm meant to do, I have so many stories in my head I can't sleep at night. Writing is my destiny, my calling, my  job, and I love it. With that said, I love the help, the support, the encouragement and yes the deadlines I get with a publisher. So I emailed Karen at WCP again and asked to come back. She said YES. I was so excited that she would take me back after I abandoned her. Yes after 8 years, WCP is going strong, they work with agents, and film production companies and are truly making their mark in the publishing world. I searched up publishers and WCP came up on several lists as a top ten small publisher. I'm proud that I was with her in the beginning and even prouder that she is taking me back. 

This week we signed contracts and discussed the direction for my books. We couldn't use the original covers, because after a computer crash, the original photos were lost. Plus I hated book 2 cover, she hated book 4 cover. I loved my new self publishing covers, but for various reasons we decided not to use them. We talked about doing a combo of the two covers and they are amazing.

The Climb, my passion project, a contemporary romance of loss and love. Love isn't always pretty and sometimes you have to climb a few mountains to get there. I absolutely love this story, I loved the original cover. It was exactly what I wanted. Even though other romance authors told me no, it looks like a travel book, not a romance.  I still went with it. Any reviews I got were amazing, but it just wasn't getting noticed like I had hoped. So we decided to make the cover look a little more romance and also change the name. So The Climb is now Beating the Odds - Loss and Love series novel. I'm so happy with how this turned out. It still has the elements I wanted (Kilimanjaro in the back ground) and has a beautiful romantic couple. This is it, I love it. 

So there you have it my experience with traditional and self publishing. I am a writer that likes the support of a team behind me, I like to write rather than search for covers, editors, and what not. Since my chronic illness became a major player in my life, my brain just cant focus on doing it all. I applaud an author that takes the Indie route, and I think that everyone should at least try it. you can't really understand until you've been there.

Thank you to the readers and fellow authors that have supported me through my journey, but most of all thank you to World Castle Publishing for always being there to help me realize my dream. All my books should be back up for sale world wide through most book sellers in the next week or two.

Now to finish book 5 of the Embrace Series and book 2 of Love and Loss.

xoxo
Charlotte

Time to get a little personal

I've made the decision to blog every Wednesday, Although today is Thursday. Why did I wait an extra day? Well I wanted to share some personal things I've been dealing with and it had to wait till today. As mentioned in a previous post, I've been dealing with some health issues. Lots of blood work, diagnostic tests and specialists. Well the good news is I'm getting closer to a diagnosis. I want to share my last year with you.

Well I thought it all started in August, but have since learned many of my health issues even from childhood are relevant. In August I got this god awful rash (I thought it was an allergic reaction), someone compared it to vacuum suction marks. It was painful and I could hardly move. I spent nearly every day in urgent care or the doctors office. I was put on oral steroids for 6 weeks. At the end of August I saw a specialist who did what's called a punch biopsy of the marks I had. The results came back positive for  leukocytoclastic vasculitis (LCV). This is an autoimmune disease of the vascular system, there is no cure. LCV is commonly a secondary diagnosis to other autoimmune disorders. So we continued with more tests. Everything was coming back negative, yet I was in so much pain, I was exhausted, like couldn't even lift my head. I'd sleep for 18+ hours a day and couldn't function. We knew something was wrong, but couldn't pinpoint it. I saw my PCP, a dermatologist, an internist, a resident that specialized in rheumatology, a cardiologist and had a referral for a rheumatologist. My PCP, the intenist and resident all thought it was fibromyalgia. Well I have a nursing background and just didn't feel that was it. I still thought there was more to my story.

Finally in June I saw the Rheumatologist, for those of you that don't know they specialize in autoimmune disorders. Well after one hour with me, she went over signs and symptoms, looked over photos and said she's convinced it's Lupus. So back for more blood work I go. She also informed me she saw signs of it in my blood work from August. Now I will admit, this is the exact diagnosis I suspected. Most people it takes years to get diagnosed, but it looks like less than a year for me. So I feel very lucky. If you don't know, Lupus is a disorder where your immune system attacks your own body. There is no cure only treatment, which isn't very pleasant either. Lupus can also attack your organs. I already have suspected kidney and heart involvement.

So why am I happy to get diagnosed with this? Well simple, the sooner I start treatment the better it is for me. People with Lupus are now living full life expectancy with proper care and treatment. I also spent the past nine months in bed, my memory failing, couldn't get my thoughts straight or even out at times, no will to go on, no motivation and depression took over. I was one 12 different medications (I hate taking meds). I'm ready to face my disease head on. So I said enough is enough, I started writing again and here we are, release week for the revised version of Immortal Embrace. I vowed to not let my disease win over my life. I have my drive back again and so excited for what the future holds.

Today I had a MPI Stress test. This is a test of the heart, I had to walk on a treadmill until a target heart rate was met. I was injected with a special dye and the MRI photos were taken of my heart. I returned 3 hours later for more MRI photos to be taken. I won't have any results for a few days, and have five...yes five more heart tests coming up between now and October. I see the Rheumatologist at the end of this month and will hopefully start treatment as well as further investigation into my kidney's.

So that's my story, I want you all to know that no matter what it is you might be going through, you're not alone. reach out to me on social media, email, whatever. I'm here to listen. I'm writing again, and have like 7 books coming out before Christmas (including the revised Embrace Series). I will keep everyone updated on my progress in both writing and health and thank you for standing by me. I love you all.

Charlotte