It has been an extraordinary few months – and this week has been a great week.
It all started in July, when Accent Press signed me on a four-book contract. That news hit the trade press, and I was thoroughly spoiled by friends and family. For a few weeks, champagne never seemed to be off the menu for more than a few days!
But it meant more work, too. Accent were taking over my two indie titles, Face the Wind and Fly and Loving Susie, so there were edits to go through and approve and covers to be agreed and signed off (they kept the first one more or less as it was and developed an amended version for Loving Susie). Hard on the heels of all that, the edits for Maximum Exposure came through, with Accent racing against time to meet the deadlines I had already set. Face the Wind and Fly went on FREE on Amazon for five days, and reached the heady heights of #3 in the Kindle charts in the UK (#5 in the US) in contemporary women’s fiction and romance, and hit the top ten in both countries in the overall FREE Kindle charts. Shortly afterwards, more or less the same happened to Loving Susie.
In the middle of September, Maximum Exposure was released as an ebook and was launched with a blog tour arranged by the wonderful Hit Lit Pro team (thanks Charlotte!). Reviewers also seemed to like the book, much to my relief!
It all culminated in a book launch in Waterstones in George Street, Edinburgh, on Tuesday this week. This was heady stuff for a writer who has been trying to make the breakthrough for far too long. Thanks to my many friends and supporters, it all went with a swing. Novelist Eileen Ramsay ‘interviewed’ me and I did a couple of readings. I raffled a daisy photo frame (the heroine, Daisy Irvine, is a photographer) in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and thanks to generous donations, we raised £116.36, which will be forwarded to the Fund.
It all feels great. But what I’m enjoying more than anything is the fact that my books are finding appreciative readers. The slog has all been worth it.
Congratulations, Jenny. Well deserved. Oh, and I love champagne too.
Thank you Dale. We must find more reasons for opening champagne!
It was a great evening, Jenny – and well deserved! Glad you enjoyed your moment in the spotlight.
… and I can’t wait till you get yours! Thank you for coming.
Congratulations, Jenny! I was smiling as I read this – partly because you looks so happy and to be having so much fun at your book launch and partly remembering when you ‘almost’ wanted to give up. I say almost because you are a writer and so you wrote and wrote (wonderful books) and never gave up. Brilliant.
Nothing succeeds like success, as they say. Thanks for all your encouragement along the way, Mary. It has helped. Sorry you couldn’t be there, but we’ll find a way of celebrating before too long, I hope.
Congratulations, Jenny. It’s lovely to hear success stories. They act as an inspiration to all of us who are still trying to hone our skills and gain respect in the writing world. Thank you for sharing. All the best.
Thank you – and thanks for dropping by!
Belated congratulations on your publishing success. Just catching up with things. All the best with your writing career in 2015.
Thank you Val – hope we might catch up this year?