Blog by VONNIE DAVIS -- International, Award-Winning Romance Author: Adventurous...Humorous...Amorous.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Re-Birthing My First-Born

Roughly five years ago, my first book STORM'S INTERLUDE was published. I'd just turned sixty-two a couple weeks before I held the first copy in my hands and cried like a baby. Since then, I've gotten the rights back and tucked them away, going over possibilities of what I'd do with it to make it sell better. Odd a book that won two awards just slept away on Amazon's shelves, but it did. Still, no one knew who I was. Heck, some days I still don't know who I am.

Kelly Moran, an author friend, approached a few of us and asked if we'd like to join her in putting together a bundle for February. I said the only thing I could contribute would be my first book. Several others, who also have busy writing schedules, jumped on that idea, too. Just to make sure I could do this, I contacted legal at Random House since I'm writing exclusively for them now. They were very co-operative and told me the clause in my contract only applied to new material. I could self-publish previously published works with no problems from them. I was good to go.

Kelly made me a new cover, since I wasn't allowed to use the one from TWRP.


Isn't it pretty? Imagine, next year I'll join the ranks of hybrid authors. Whoot!

Before I began reworking the manuscript, I read all my reviews to see what things readers did not like. I made a point of correcting those issues as well as updating things like cell phones that opened and closed. And, of course, my writing has improved slightly since then. Newbie goofs needed corrected. Working on my first-born book took longer than I'd expected. Once finished, I set it aside while I attended RWA, came home, and wrote and rewrote the first two chapters of my wounded warrior series. Now I'm ready to give STORM'S INTERLUDE one final read through. I'm thinking I was a little heavy on the male internal thought. Men just don't think and rethink things like we women do. Sometimes we wonder if they think at all, but they do...just in a different manner.

Here's a picture of our bundle cover. See any other names and titles you recognize?

8 comments:

Alison Henderson said...

How fun! Best of luck with this, Vonnie.

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

Thanks, Alison. It's not often you get to go back and redo.

Sandra Dailey said...

It sounds like a terrific idea. I wish all of you the best of luck.

Angela Adams said...

I remember "Storm's Interlude." Might you do the same thing with "Tumbleweed Letters?" I just love that story!

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

I'm excited, Sandra. I've often felt it was the best book I'd written, but then we all carry a soft spot for our first. I'll be tickled to see it have another chance at life.

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

I have all my novellas still with TWRP. So, no. Besides, Tumbleweed Letters has an audio contract. The only way I could get that was to sign an additional 7 year contract with TWRP in addition to the additional years of the first contract. The only projects I took back were my full-length books. Storm's Interlude and books in The Red Hand Series--Mona Lisa's Room and Rain is a Love Song. I'd planned a third book in the series and was 2/3 of the way through writing the first draft. I could see the first two books, also award winners, weren't selling well due to the lack of distribution of the publisher and never submitted it since it wasn't under contract. I'll finish the third novel, update the first two, and self publish them eventually.

Rolynn Anderson said...

Good business sense, Vonnie! I'm glad you got the Red Hand Series...adding one more will make that a great little package. Prolific, you are! It seems as though series are the cats pajamas...have you seen that sales on series are better for you than stand-alones?

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

Yes, readers get invested in the characters, Rolynn. Especially if you give mention about the next couple or one person in the romantic couple in the next book. For example, in book two of my Highlander series, the youngest of the three brothers and his childhood friend were the romantic couple. When Effie mentioned to Ronan, the middle son, it was his turn to find someone special to love, he boasted he was too busy to go hunting for a woman. "She'd hafta drop out of the feckin' sky and knock me on me arse." What a foolish thing to say to a witch, for you now know what happen--just nor how or why. I keep inserting a single man or two as fodder for the next books. We're talking about books 4 and 5, intermingled among the wounded warrior books.