I would like to welcome Shelley Munro, author of the ebook,The Spurned Viscountess.  She is going to tell us about how she got her ebook published from start to finish.

An EBook: From Inception to Finished Product  by Shelley Munro

Hi, my name is Shelley Munro and I write romance for Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Liquid Silver Books. I’d like to thank Teddy for having me to visit So Many Precious Books, So Little Time today to talk about writing and my latest release, The Spurned Viscountess.

The Spark of an Idea:

I originally wrote the very first scene of The Spurned Viscountess as a writing exercise for the Auckland Chapter of Romance Writers of New Zealand. I can’t remember what the topic for the exercise was now, but I wrote about a man who had lost his memory. His family told him he was Viscount Hastings, but the man didn’t believe them. He recalled nothing of his childhood years or any of the time before he met his wife in Italy. His “newly found family” expect him to go through with an arranged marriage. Lucien doesn’t wish to marry again, but he wants a reason to stay at the castle while he investigates the murder of his first wife.

I really liked my finished scene and started to think about where the story would go. I added all my favorite elements from historicals including smugglers, a gothic element, a scarred hero and a heroine in peril plus a creepy castle. The Spurned Viscountess is the end result.

The Writing:

For me this is the most enjoyable part—day after day of putting my butt on a chair and just writing. I’m not a plotter. I start my stories with a germ of an idea, let it percolate and work out my character conflicts. The rest of the plot unfolds as I write. There might be the odd time that I flounder, but mostly it all turns out in the end.

Once the manuscript is complete, I try to let it sit for a while, although this isn’t always possible. I polish the manuscript, sometimes working with critique partners and at other times alone.

The Submission Process:

I choose the publisher I think will suit my story best after studying their guidelines, their blogs and taking note of any particular genres a publisher is interested in acquiring. When I was looking for a publisher for The Spurned Viscountess, Carina Press put out a call for historicals. Perfect timing for me. I checked the guidelines and formatted my manuscript accordingly then emailed it plus a synopsis and query letter to Carina Press. Then begins the waiting…

There’s a lot of waiting in the publishing business. We writers wait months and sometimes years to receive a yes or a no answer to our submissions.

The Decision:

In my case with The Spurned Viscountess, I waited five weeks for a decision. The good news came in the form of an email from Angela James, telling me Carina Press wanted to offer for The Spurned Viscountess. Color me excited. I was thrilled to accept the offer and become a Carina Press author.

The Edits:

I hooked up with my wonderful editor Deborah Nemeth and started working on edits almost straight away. With Carina Press we go through three rounds of edits, two with our editor and one with the eagle eye of a copy editor.

I’ve heard people say e-published books are poorly edited. Let me say this couldn’t be farther from the truth. I worked long and hard on my edits and I’m thrilled with the final result.

The Cover:

We complete cover sheets, specifying our likes, dislikes, suggestions and character details. The talented cover artists take this sheet and transform it into an appropriate cover. I fell in love with the cover for The Spurned Countess the moment I saw it. I think it portrays my story and characters perfectly.

[Insert cover here]

Publication Day:

I received my offer to publish in May and my book came out at Carina Press on 20 September. That’s a pretty quick turnaround, especially with edits and all the other work in between. Things work quickly in the e-world.

For the two months before release date and since, I’ve been working on promo, updating my website, writing blog posts and organizing tour dates at blogs.

I love e-publishing. I like the freedom of writing wherever my muse takes me and the speed at which things happen. With the increasing availability of e-readers, e-books are big business and definitely a growth industry. While other parts of the publishing industry are floundering, readers are embracing technology and taking their books with them wherever they go during the day. I’m certainly proud to be part of the e-world.

If you have any questions about the writing journey with an e-publisher please ask and I’ll do my best to answer.

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