NEW RELEASE from Peggy Jaeger! Available Now!

Hello November! 

So many of my favorite authors have books coming out I'm over the moon with bibliophile excitement! AND... I have next week off for vacation so I'll actually have time to binge them all without feeling guilty for hiding under my desk with my Kindle when I should be, you know, working. Jennifer Weiner new book is supposed to be Awesome, Claire Marti's latest just released, Penny Reid's new book will be out in days, and today PEGGY JAEGER'S NEW BOOK IS OUT!

I invited Peggy to visit and talk to us about this new series of hers, since it took a few twists and turns in the making. Her story is below and if you missed the first in the series - Dirty Damsels - you should grab a copy of that too. (my review from July is here)

Welcome, Peggy and her book, It's a Trust Thing.

When my first book was published I was one month shy of 55 years old. The very fact I found a publisher willing to take me on at that age was astounding. 17 books and 4 years later, and I am still astounded, even more so since other publishers felt the same way and took a chance on me.  Recently, though, two of those publishers and I have parted ways, one while I was in the middle of writing a new series. To say I was devastated to be dropped isn’t to do the situation enough credit. I had book 2 written with book 3 plotted. What was my recourse; leave them in a file, forgotten and gathering cyberdust on my computer? Try to get another publisher interested in the series?

There’s this old saw that says everything happens for a reason, and you just have to discover the reason, so instead of wasting another year with queries, or simply crying with frustration, I decided to do something I’d vowed never to so: Self publish.  I’d always resisted this path because I felt the learning curve was so vast and I didn’t have the mental wherewithal to learn how to do it well. (Or at all!)

I love being traditionally published and letting someone else handle all the “work” of getting a book into print. All I want to do is write. I am very happy letting cover designers  design, copy editors copy, and distributors distribute, with me being merely a cog in the wheel.

But if I were going to be a self-pubbed author, I would now be the captain of the ship where I’d once been the yeoman. Or is that yeoperson?

Any hoo…

The part of self publishing that has been the most daunting for me is in the editing process. As a traditionally pubbed author, I had professional editors guide and instruct me in order to make my books be the best they could be. Editors employed and paid by the publisher. Well, I am now, for lack of a better term, the publisher. In addition to being the cover designer, the copy editor, the content queen. Chief bottle washer and head cook.

Plus, the author.

I used to worry that reviewers and readers wouldn’t like the story I wrote, or my writing style. Everyone has an opinion and not everyone can like you or what you’ve written. I recognized that and came to terms with it early on in my career.

Now, though, I am agonizing over things other than if a reader likes the book. I worry about the editing and if there are any mistakes that I didn’t capture and correct before I hit “publish.” Is my tense consistent throughout the book? Is my spelling mistake-free? Are there any misplaced modifiers I didn’t catch, or dangling participles left on the page to confuse and puzzle the reader? Any missing words? Are the scenes flowing or are they stalling? Do I have a saggy middle or an impractical conflict? Does the end resolve well, or does the reader have questions?

These were all concerns my editors used to worry about. Now, it is my job.

I had no funds to employ a cover designer or an editor for this book, something every self-pubbed author should do. I designed the cover myself and I asked a college English professor who happens to be a friend to mine, to go through the book and point out anything that needed correction. She doesn’t read romance novels so I wasn’t worried she’d hate the plot or the story. I just wanted her to read the book as reader first and then an editor, which she did, and to point out any mistakes, spelling errors, etc., something fresh eyes would capture. I wanted to credit her with editing, but she asked me not to, claiming she didn’t want to do it for anyone else, just me.

I love her for that.

But…ultimately, if there are any mistakes or glaring mis-spellings, wrong or missing punctuation, or plot holes, it is ultimately my fault. The buck – and the book – stops with me.

Sleepless nights have become a habit in my life, believe me. I hope I have done the story- and my readers – justice. I sincerely hope mistakes aren’t found or if they are, that the reviewers don’t vilify me in the court of public opinion, reading, and reviews.

And I sincerely hope that whoever reads It’s a Trust Thing, loves Nell and Charlie as much as I do. They deserved to have their HEA read, and, despite one blip along the way in the form of a dropped publisher, I hope I’ve done them proud.

Enjoy!

GRAB HER BOOK ON AMAZON