17 October 2014

Published!

Well, it's been a very very long time coming, but I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I am finally published! My début novel, The Vagabond Vicar, is now up for sale on Amazon. 

This book was in my brain for a while before I began it - the hero just wouldn't leave me alone even while I was working on other projects. The writing began in earnest for NaNaWriMo 2011. I can't believe that was nearly 3 years ago! To say my life has been turned upside down in that time is a huge understatement, but I'm now in a great place and ready to take on new challenges.

Now the huge job of marketing it begins, along with working on publishing it other stores and in print. And waiting for people to (hopefully) buy it, read it, and to get my first reviews... gulp! I just hope that someone likes it! Meanwhile, I need to get focussed on writing the next book(s). Never a dull moment!

I was very fortunate to have great beta readers/critique partners, who all highlighted different things for me to work on. I did the cover design and formatting myself, and I'm happy with the results.

If you are scared by the formatting process, don't be - it's not that complicated, it just takes time and a bit of care. Here are the resources I used:
  • Amazon's formatting guide
  • This website explains how to start with a new, clean document
  • This one gives a nice explanation of then how to format, with screenshots. I found this a little easier to digest than Amazon's document although they essentially say the same thing. Amazon's instructions have one extra thing around setting the TOC as a location.
For the blurb, the links to purchase and now an excerpt, head over to my books page.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me along the way. This can be a lonely road, and the community of writers is a unique and lovely blessing to ease the journey.

08 October 2014

Title and Cover Reveal for My Debut Novel!

I am in the throes of final preparations for publishing my debut novel... or at least what I hope are final preparations - everything seems to be taking much longer than I thought it would! The admin associated with indie-publishing, pre-marketing, along with many decisions small and great are extremely time consuming. But - very exciting as well. In the next couple of weeks I hope to have conquered (or outsourced) formatting and all the other last bits and pieces.

In the meantime, I am ready to finally reveal the name of my book and the cover, as well as the blurb, which you can read on my Books page.

My regency romance is entitled: "The Vagabond Vicar", and here is the cover! I instantly fell in love with this painting (Planning the Grand Tour by Emil Brack). The characters are exactly as I imagined them, and my vagabond is enthusiastically showing his potential lady where his travels may take him. It also gives the reader a sense of this being a traditional, sweet regency. I hope you like it as much as I do!

The Vagabond Vicar by Charlotte Brentwood