My first ever published novel was called Born Again Virgin, a name I always hated but that did its job by catching the attention of an editor at Samhain Publishing, a new but very upwardly mobile e publisher. It was the beginning of what would become a long, satisfying, often arduous and sometimes–when I was very very lucky–profitable writing journey with that company. Save for a few special projects I remained with that same editor for almost 10 years (I was, she later told me, the first author she’d ever picked up out of the slush pile). Born Again Virgin. I cringed every time I saw the book after that because I didn’t expect Samhain to keep the title. I assumed it would be changed, but alas. Impulsively titled, it haunted me for a good seven years until my contract term was up and I requested a rights reversion. This was done with the almost sole purpose of changing that dang title. LOL.
So Born Again Virgin became Seducing Mr. Wrong. And it looked like this.
I loved the new cover, but I had zero idea how to market a previously published book that I wasn’t sure was still relevant in the modern market. I wasn’t sure if my older writing style would hold up, wasn’t sure if the readers I’d picked up along my journey to writing very erotic stories would be satisfied with my less sexy (though still very spicy) slightly comedic story. I did extensive rewrites on the book (I couldn’t believe how EXTENSIVE) and knew I’d improved it a lot, but I was always, still, a little unsure of it as a product. Also, it had a new title but I didn’t want to trick anyone into thinking they were getting a new story lest they buy it not realising they’d already read it, but releasing something new and constantly calling it ‘old’ seemed counter productive. So not knowing exactly what to do, I did basically nothing to advertise or promote it. Once I uploaded the book onto vendors I simply didn’t think about it any more.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t exactly take off.
Fast forward a couple of years. At the Romantic Times convention in Las Vegas this year, I met a woman named Michelle Hoppe, who is the proprietor of Book Boutiques. After a long and interesting chat (and a little squealing about possibly being mentioned in the same breath as Dakota Cassidy) I decided to sign some of my backlist* books over to BB for rebranding and redistributing. They are a very small but dedicated company that is helping me with some of this ‘distribution of backlist’ quagmire and they are fantastic to work with. So once again Born Again Virgin/Seducing Mr. Wrong has gotten a makeover.
TADA! The new and improved Seducing Mr. Wrong! Now (still) available at all the finest retailers. If you haven’t ever read this one, I hope you do so now.
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The Nook link is on the way!
*I also have something new coming out with BB very SOON. Like very soon. Announcement in a day or two, but my newsletter subscribers will hear about it first *hint hint* (the sign up form is on my contact page)
Cheers for now,
Sami