Category: city of legends

City of Legends Book Release Wrap-up!

Yesterday was the release date of my teenage superhero series (in case you didn’t see the bazillions of tweets about it) and today I’m still riding the high of having a new book out in the world. It’s not just one book either–it’s all THREE in the series. I’m so glad we got to release them all at once so that readers don’t have to wait for the next book.

I am still anxiously waiting to hear what people think of book 3, Empire Rising, but I am thrilled to see that City of Legends already has 5 reviews on Amazon! You guys are totally the best!!

I thought I’d put together a little recap about my book birthday.

The morning started off with a bang. My publisher tweeted about my book release! This is especially exciting because until now, I’ve been an indie author that published everything myself. This is my first traditional book and it was really great to have a team supporting me and my series.

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I also got mentioned in tweets by the official Pretty Little Liars (my favorite show!) account and the official Vampire Diaries (one of my favorite book series ever) account. Suffice it to say I was fangirling all day long.

Alloy Entertainment sent me flowers for my book release. It’s funny how now flowers from my spouse or friends are no longer as exciting. Once a publisher sends you flowers, you experience a happiness never before known.
But my best friend also sent flowers, along with one of the greatest greeting cards ever. Thank you, Susan! This is why you get the longest paragraphs in my acknowledgements 😉
And then I went to my sis-in-law’s house to watch the new episode of Pretty Little Liars. Only, they are the coolest people on the planet and had organized a City of Legends cupcake party for me. HOW AMAZING ARE THESE PEOPLE?
It was such a great release day! And I am so glad to have Alloy as my publisher for this series. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve stared at their book submissions page over the last three years. I used to think about submitting a book to them about once a month, but I never got the guts to do it. And now I have a series published by them. It’s really crazy how life works sometimes. But I am so thrilled and honored to have my name next to the other authors on Alloy’s page. It’s funny how how matter what happens, I still always have this fear that I’m not actually a “real” writer, whatever that may be. But after yesterday, I’m feeling pretty legit for the first time ever.
Thank you so much to everyone who has read or blogged or tweeted or reviewed or shown love in any way for City of Legends. I’m so glad to share this series with you and I hope you’ll love it as much as I do!
PS- Come back tomorrow, I have a great interview with author Cassandra Giovanni!

City of Legends Release Day!

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YOU GUYS! My YA superhero series is released today! All three books are now available on Amazon and I am so so so excited about it.

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I can’t believe it’s been ten months since I first got that email from my editor at Alloy. That email forever changed my writing career. I went from being a one woman indie publishing operation to a hybrid author with a fantastic team at Alloy Entertainment. My editor saw the potential in my superhero story and helped me polish it up and revamp the entire series. I really hope you guys will love the new versions and also be happy with the conclusion in the final book!

In celebration, I’ve painted my nails to match the cover.

Now that this series is over, I’m looking forward to diving into a new series that has been in my head for a while. There is no rest for the writer! If we did that, then the book ideas would pile up and drive us insane. Well, more insane. 

My Behind-the-Scenes year

I know the year isn’t over yet but given the infrequency in which I blog, I think it’s a good idea to write this end of the year blog post while I have the energy/time to do it. So here’s the deal: these last few months of being a full time writer have been a little blah. I’ve spent a lot of time lamenting poor book sales and watching them slip further and further into the black abyss that is the Amazon KDP flat line of zero sales.

I wondered why the books weren’t selling as well as they always had in the past. I knew that promoting books is a big part of success and I also didn’t bother doing any of that. Why? I don’t know. Apathy? Fear of rejection if I ask a blogger to leave a review? Social awkwardness and a severe hatred of trying to “sell” myself to people? Yeah, it’s probably all of that.

But then I realized that I haven’t published a single thing this year, and it all kind of clicked. I’ve spent all of 2015 doing behind-the-scenes work that I am unable to talk about right now, and because of that, I didn’t get any books published. No books published = total author obscurity.

So that’s why everything is so blah lately.

But that’s okay. This was a behind-the-scenes year. I was able to quit my corporate job to pursue writing full time which was a huge blessing and a challenge all in one. (Turns out sitting at home in your pajamas DOES get old after a while. Who would have thought?) And for the last nine months I’ve been working really hard on a project that I’ll hopefully be able to announce before the year is over. And that project is going to make 2016 totally rock.

Although I am blown away by how fast this year has gone by, I am really looking forward to next year. Expect to see many new books from me and even a web serial that I’ve been planning for a few months!

Looks like 2016 is coming up Milhouse.