With the re-release of The Wedding Shroud by Dp Books this month, I’ve decided to share my journey in the hope it might give inspiration to other aspiring writers to never give up – and to give readers some insight into the tribulations of authors.

Write, revise and rewrite

It took me ten years to research, write and publish The Wedding Shroud when I was part of the ‘sandwich generation’, squeezed between raising children and caring for elderly parents. I had a busy job and was coping with myriad other pressures that women experience in our various roles of spouse, mother, daughter or sister. Apart from a few precious periods where I could devote solid blocks of time to writing, I only had a minimum of two hours per week to spare on Thursdays which I diarised. I kept those diary dates religiously by hiring a local schoolkid to childmind while I wrote. Meanwhile I kept a notebook to jot down ideas whenever they came to me – often at 4am in the morning! Back then, I produced paper manuscripts so I would edit on my daily train commute (if I was lucky enough to score a seat), and in my lunch breaks.

My first agent couldn’t sell the book but I was advised to submit again if I changed my focus to emphasize the love story and explore a clash of cultures.

I rewrote the manuscript with a revised plot and did further research. No luck.

I rewrote it a third time in a different style with the help of a mentor. My new agent got the book over the line! I will never forget my disbelief then exultation at hearing I’d been offered a contract with Pier 9 Murdoch Books, an Australian publisher. To add icing to the cake, I was also commissioned to write the sequel, The Golden Dice. My next big excitement was to gain an endorsement from the legendary Ursula K Le Guin!

Pier 9 took pride in producing books that were visually appealing both inside and out. I was thrilled with the cover design which featured a woman in red in a dramatic pose with the title in an elegant font, curlicues adding a sensuous flourish.

And so began the journey of the girl in red.

Caecilia – a prickly heroine

The Wedding Shroud tells the story of a Roman girl, Caecilia, used as a pawn in a decades old conflict between the austere, fledgling Republican Rome and the sophisticated Etruscan city of Veii. To seal a tenuous truce, Caecilia is wedded to an Etruscan nobleman, Vel Mastarna.  The warring cities lie only twelve miles across the Tiber, but its peoples are from opposing worlds so different are their customs and beliefs. Leaving behind a righteous Rome, Caecilia is determined to remain true to Roman virtues while living among the sinful Etruscans. Instead she finds herself tempted by a hedonistic culture which offers pleasure and independence to women as well as an ancient religion that gives her a chance to delay her destiny. Yet Mastarna and his people also hold dark secrets and, as war looms, Caecilia discovers that Fate is not so easy to control and that she must finally choose where her allegiance lies.

A coming of age story, The Wedding Shroud spans only one year. In that time, a fearful and gullible girl must navigate her way through an alien yet unexpectedly seductive environment. Caecilia constantly struggles with the dilemma of how to stay true to her roots while embracing the possibilities of a new world. As such, the novel explores themes of cultural identity, duty and love, and tolerance and prejudice. Not all readers are patient with my stubborn adolescent heroine. They grow frustrated with her indecision at times, but luckily the majority of my reviewers seem to appreciate the immense challenges facing her. The Golden Dice and Call to Juno continue Caecilia’s story as she matures and becomes a mother during a ten year war, together with the plights of other strong female characters such as a Roman tomb whore, Pinna, and an Etruscan servant girl called Semni.

Debut dreams

Debut authors are naive. We have high hopes our books will be ‘the next big thing’. We expect our publisher to pour dollars into marketing to ensure our novel has the best chance of success. The sad truth is the publishing world works on what I call the ‘spaghetti method’ – they throw debut novels against the wall like pasta. Those that stick are given more marketing dollars. The rest slide down the wall and are tipped into the bin.  It hadn’t dawned on me publishers sell books directly to booksellers not readers. An author’s fate is in the hand of a bookstore owner who has limited space and razor thin margins. The shelf life of a new release is 12 weeks at best – thereafter your book baby faces being returned to the warehouse and ultimately pulped.

The Wedding Shroud was released in 2010 at exactly the time the Borders empire collapsed and the Red Group (an Australian book group) also hit financial difficulties. My novel sank without trace. I found the experience bewildering. The book I’d slaved over for ten years had been relegated to the dustheap in the space of a few months. But hope springs eternal, I concentrated on finishing the sequel within 18 months. I made the deadline but heartbreak followed. Pier 9 closed its fiction imprint. The deal for The Golden Dice fell through.

The Indie Gold Rush

MY INDIE COVERS

The adjective ‘stubborn’ suits me. I now had two books without a home, and was determined that all my efforts would not go to waste. I decided to self-publish. To my great good fortune, a group known as Historical Fiction Authors Co-op reached out to me through the ether to ask me to join them. They were a collective of both traditional and self-published authors, many of whom had successfully cracked the market. The group was led by the amazing M Louisa Locke whom I learned was a guru in self-publishing circles as an expert on Amazon keywords and categories. Using her advice, I launched The Wedding Shroud in 2013 and The Golden Dice in 2014 into the Amazon eco-sphere at a time when the goliath supported Indie authors.  By using very short windows of opportunity (3 days) to offer books for free, Indies could gain visibility to compete with legacy publishers. Through this marketing method, my books were bumped into the Historical Fiction popularity lists for months at a time alongside traditionally published heavy hitters. Suddenly I was selling thousands of ebooks, rising in the rankings, and garnering reviews. I was part of the ‘Indie Gold Rush.’ I began to plot the third book, Call to Juno.

The covers photoshoot

RAW IMAGES FROM THE PHOTOSHOOT

I approached self-publishing as a business. I employed an American editor to ‘Americanize’ my book as my readers were no longer in Australia but in the States. I felt it was important to make the reading experience as comfortable as possible for this new readership by using familiar spelling, grammar and vocabulary so my ‘Australian English’ was less likely to distract from the story. But what was I to do about covers? I wanted to create a brand with a recognisable ‘face’ representing Caecilia across the three books. I was inspired by the ‘girl in red’ concept on the Pier 9 cover but wanted my own version with a different pose and starker lighting. So I hired a photographer, Tom Greenwood, to do a photoshoot for my trilogy.  The beautiful girl  is the lovely Marcella, a daughter of a friend. And her wardrobe? The red, yellow and turquoise gowns were my sons’ brightly coloured bedsheets! Marcella wore some of her own fine jewellery but others were just cheap costume pieces from K-Mart. I even painted some toy dice with gold paint and inscribed them with Etruscan numbering.  The very talented designer, Lance Ganey, produced the covers for the first two books. The girl in red was fashioned anew. And the girl in yellow made her debut.

Opportunity knocks – Lake Union Publishing

LAKE UNION COVERS

There is a saying that success occurs when preparation meets opportunity. Out of the blue, I was contacted by Jodi Warshaw, a commissioning editor from Lake Union Publishing, an Amazon Publishing imprint. (In fact, I thought her email was simply an Amazon book recommendation so I was glad I didn’t delete it!) Jodi’s team had noticed my indie sales and wanted to buy my first two books, and commission me to finish Call to Juno. The offer was too good to say no, especially as audio editions were also to be produced. I am forever grateful for Jodi’s support and caring advice. The Wedding Shroud and The Golden Dice were re-released in 2015. I finished Call to Juno within 12 months. And what of the covers? Lake Union loved my girl in red and in yellow. And in 2016, the girl in turquoise was introduced for Call to Juno with the old bedsheet enhanced using photoshop (thank goodness!)

Ten years have gone by since Lake Union first launched my trilogy. My books have now sold tens of thousands of copies with over 3,000 ratings on Goodreads between them. Sales continue. The threat of my books being shunted back to a warehouse and pulped as they were in Australia in 2010 is non existent in this digital age. I love the fact Caecilia’s story continues to engage readers to whom I am so grateful.

This is Rome calling…

MY ITALIAN COVERS

Readers are the most important people in an author’s writing life. The next unexpected email to land in my inbox was from an Italian fan who loved Call to Juno. An  historical novelist himself, Andrea Oliverio, enthusiastically recommended my trilogy to his publishing colleague, Marco Paganini, from AltreVoci Edizioni. It has been a dream come true to have my Roman books translated into Italian as Il Velo Nuziale and I Dadi D’Oro with Il Patto di Giunione to be released next year. Interestingly, Marco chose to swap the colours but I think the images are stunning.

The power of the backlist –  opportunity knocks again

But wait! The story isn’t over. Last year, I was again contacted out of nowhere. This time by Dp Books, a digital only publisher that wanted to acquire my ebook backlist. Dp Books understands the value of an author’s  catalogue which can potentially generate sales for years (The Wedding Shroud has already been going for 15!) I’ve been excited to work with James Faktor and his enthusiastic team who are prepared to promote my novels to reach new readers,  primarily in the UK. And I’m grateful Lake Union Publishing continues to sell the paperback and audio editions of all my books.

And the covers? Dp Books has taken a different approach based on current trends for ancient world fiction. I’m thrilled with the result. The girl in red, Caecilia, has been joined by her beloved husband, Vel Mastarna. And Dp Books have also given my Amazon pages A+ treatment with lush graphics which I hope will catch a reader’s eye. The Wedding Shroud is already on promotion. The Wedding Shroud is on sale while The Golden Dice and Call to Juno are on pre-sale. The next step on the journey begins!

So my advice is to don’t give up!  You never know when opportunity will knock (or a fantastic email will land in your inbox). The girl in red, yellow and turquoise told me so.

Elisabeth Storrs is the author of the ‘A Tale of Ancient Rome‘ series. Learn more at www.elisabethstorrs.com. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter for inspiration, giveaways, and insights into history – both trivia and the serious stuff! https://elisabethstorrs.com/subscribe

 

 

The post Never give up – the journey of the girl in red first appeared on Elisabeth Storrs Historical Novels.