Shawna Hunter's Blog - Posts Tagged "self-publishing"
Their Meddling Aunt (free)
Hello lovers,
So Their Meddling Aunt is FREE on Amazon until Thursday July 19 at noon.
You can get it at this link:
https://www.amazon.com/Their-Meddling...
Because of that I thought I'd revisit the back story to this novel. It is not the most professionally edited (I freely admit) and this can be tough for some readers. The reason for this is that I edited it personally. I didn't have the money to pay for an editor, or a cover artist, or anything. I tried to go through professional publishers but....well read below and you'll see why that didn't work.
When it comes to Their Meddling Aunt the story of how we got to this point is just as interesting as the story within the pages. You see this book almost didn't happen.
Their Wild Little Girl was a phenomenal success. Its net earnings in its first three months dwarfed all of my other books combined and although its had its detractors the majority of readers have loved it. Its only flaw was that the story was incomplete. You see when I first decided to turn an over long short story into a novel I figured that a series would be better than a stand alone. As I was to learn, however, the original publisher did not agree. To their way of thinking sequels never earned enough to justify the cost of editing. So Their Meddling Aunt was rejected.
Now ordinarily that wouldn't be a big deal. Rejections are part of the publishing process after all but no other publisher would touch Meddling Aunt without the rights to Wild Little Girl which was under ebook contract. That didn't sit well with me. I know the unresolved questions of Wild Little Girl would bother me as a reader and I couldn't stand the thought that if Their Wild Little Girl had earned even a single fan that they would be left disappointed. That is no way to embark on a writing career. So, in my profound naivite, I decided to self publish.
Now, in all fairness, I originally planned to put it out for free but amazon wouldn't let me. So I made this book as cheap as I could and hoped for the best. Sadly my best at the time was awful. I had no knowledge of cover art designs, no editing skills and no clue about the formatting for ebooks. The original version of Their Meddling Aunt was damn near unreadable. I did later edit it and fix many of these mistakes but the book still didn't live up to its potential and I am profoundly thankful to those readers who put grammar aside to read and review the story for what it was.
That said my greatest thanks must go to Wordwooze Publications who have given my little story that could new life on audible. Working with me to correct the grammar in the process they've produced a high quality, well performed version of my story that nearly brought me to tears. This book was published with love for those fans I hoped one day to have and now it has been reborn with the quality those fans so rightly deserve.
The ebook, as well has been greatly improved and, although still flawed, is something I am no longer ashamed to put out there. A lot of Brooke's Hollow story elements have their seed in this story and I'm glad that those who love my kinky town can have this glimpse into some of its luminaries.
So Their Meddling Aunt is FREE on Amazon until Thursday July 19 at noon.
You can get it at this link:
https://www.amazon.com/Their-Meddling...
Because of that I thought I'd revisit the back story to this novel. It is not the most professionally edited (I freely admit) and this can be tough for some readers. The reason for this is that I edited it personally. I didn't have the money to pay for an editor, or a cover artist, or anything. I tried to go through professional publishers but....well read below and you'll see why that didn't work.
When it comes to Their Meddling Aunt the story of how we got to this point is just as interesting as the story within the pages. You see this book almost didn't happen.
Their Wild Little Girl was a phenomenal success. Its net earnings in its first three months dwarfed all of my other books combined and although its had its detractors the majority of readers have loved it. Its only flaw was that the story was incomplete. You see when I first decided to turn an over long short story into a novel I figured that a series would be better than a stand alone. As I was to learn, however, the original publisher did not agree. To their way of thinking sequels never earned enough to justify the cost of editing. So Their Meddling Aunt was rejected.
Now ordinarily that wouldn't be a big deal. Rejections are part of the publishing process after all but no other publisher would touch Meddling Aunt without the rights to Wild Little Girl which was under ebook contract. That didn't sit well with me. I know the unresolved questions of Wild Little Girl would bother me as a reader and I couldn't stand the thought that if Their Wild Little Girl had earned even a single fan that they would be left disappointed. That is no way to embark on a writing career. So, in my profound naivite, I decided to self publish.
Now, in all fairness, I originally planned to put it out for free but amazon wouldn't let me. So I made this book as cheap as I could and hoped for the best. Sadly my best at the time was awful. I had no knowledge of cover art designs, no editing skills and no clue about the formatting for ebooks. The original version of Their Meddling Aunt was damn near unreadable. I did later edit it and fix many of these mistakes but the book still didn't live up to its potential and I am profoundly thankful to those readers who put grammar aside to read and review the story for what it was.
That said my greatest thanks must go to Wordwooze Publications who have given my little story that could new life on audible. Working with me to correct the grammar in the process they've produced a high quality, well performed version of my story that nearly brought me to tears. This book was published with love for those fans I hoped one day to have and now it has been reborn with the quality those fans so rightly deserve.
The ebook, as well has been greatly improved and, although still flawed, is something I am no longer ashamed to put out there. A lot of Brooke's Hollow story elements have their seed in this story and I'm glad that those who love my kinky town can have this glimpse into some of its luminaries.
