Daily Archives: November 5, 2021

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THE HARDEST THING I’VE HAD TO DO THIS YEAR

November 5, 2021 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed

Happy November…Happy Thanksgiving.

The past two years have been challenging for everyone. I talked about this before, but I missed my writing goal for this year. But last month I was faced with the reality that I wasn’t going to meet my deadline and release date. Let me clarify. I could have put the book out, The Good Girl Part Four, but I would have been shooting myself in the foot because it would have been rushed.

Part of my release process is do a simple read through when my editor returns the manuscript to me. Then I wrestle with some of her edits. I step away a couple of days, then return to the story and review the edits. It’s usually during this process that more words are written and I do another mini edit. This process can take a couple of weeks. Then, if I can I’ll send out ARCs. To do this step right, I need to factor in another month at the least. Confession…I haven’t done ARCs on my last two books. Reason, I was rushed and didn’t want to disappoint my readers by missing the release date I promised. As it is, I’d already broken my promise not to end it with a cliffhanger. I forgot, I’m an Indie Author and I control my production schedule.

Now I was faced with breaking a few promises. Missing the release date. I have pushed the release date back several times and finally settling for a more realistic date of January 18, 2022. The other promise I broke which my readers don’t know yet is Part Four in The Good Girl Series ends on a cliffhanger.

It was never my intention to do that, but the book was getting way too big. When I split the book in half, the first half was at 62,000+. The book I sent to my editor was 74,000+ words. After tweaking and pre-editing, I had added an additional 12,000+ words. This lets me know that if I had kept the story as one book, it would have been HUGE. I felt that would have been too large for a romance.

The other reasons I pushed my release date back was personal. My mother had double eye surgery and she needed my help. Then I had an allergy attack which had me on a lot of meds. (If you’re on my mailing list then you read the email and know what happened.) My family and health come first. For these reasons, I had to do the hardest thing I have had to do this year, announce the pushed back release date of a book I promised would be out this year and that wouldn’t have a cliffhanger.

What made me feel better about sending that email was that I had received one from a best selling romance author explaining why she pushed her release date back. As writers we have to remember our health and family are the priorities. Self-care is one of the new buzz words, but it’s also a necessity if we want to continue doing what we love.

I really wrestled with sending out such a personal email, but I felt it was necessary to explain why I had pushed the release date back. When I sent the email I was prepared to refund any pre-orders for the book. Thank God, only one person cancelled their pre-order and I’m fine with that. I believe God will restore that one sale with many more. I was surprised to receive emails from readers sending their prayers and blessings to me and my family and fully understanding why I pushed the release date back.

So where does that leave my book now? My editor has it and the cancelled pre-order was restored. It was only on pre-order at Apple Books and D2D, but now it’s also at Amazon and Kobo. And as soon as I figure out Google Play I’ll load it there as well as Eden books. FYI, I just received my first Eden Books pay out. Adding more books to the site is on my To Do List.

I’m also going to be bold and put Part Five in the series up for pre-order as well. I’m doing a little experiment. I’ve never had a pre-order for more than a month at Amazon. I’ve read posts where writers said they really benefited financially and rank wise with a longer pre-order. We’ll see what happens.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and stay safe. See you next month.