My publishing schedule hell, and the 1-star reviews because of it.

I decided to start a blog to communicate with everyone about my writing process, including my publishing schedule and the 1-star reviews people post because The Dark Romance Series isn’t finished – which I think is truly unfair.

I’m very aware this is going to be a taboo subject and could cause conflict, but I feel the readers (you) need to hear my side.

As anyone who follows my journey knows, I’m a slow writer. I can’t write on demand. I can’t write because people tell me to. And yes, I get blocked when the pressure piles up. Worst of all, when I see people saying they loved BLAI2E but because I take a year to publish they splash a 1-star review all over it, I find it disheartening – and that blocks me even more.

Like most people in the world, I have to work and earn money to live, between running my house and taking care of my family - including my poorly partner – marketing my stuff, promotions, covers, banking and accounts...the list of what I do really is endless (because I am an indie author). Writing and publishing as I go means I can continue writing full-time; I can continue bringing you - what I hope you think are – amazing stories. If I were to stop and decide to write the whole Dark Romance Series and publish it in succession, it could take years, which would mean I’d have to get an employed full-time job – which would take even more time away from writing. Each book in BLAIRE so far has been at least 120k long, and that’s a lengthy process of writing, content editing, having beta readers scrutinize, then doing 3-6 rounds of personal editing with my betas before my actual editor gets her hands on the manuscripts, and then we have to do final read-throughs to ensure it’s ready for publication.

I’m very aware some authors knock books out the park every few months, but I am not them. Your daughter, friend, mother, brother, or sister, might also write that quickly, but again, I am not them. And in the traditional world, it’s very common to publish one book a year.

Now, about the traditional world: I actually turned down a lucrative deal for my readers – which would have probably set me up for the next ten years – to avoid the crazy-long process of publishing (and yeah, I’m sure that sounds hilarious coming from me). The traditional process consists of writing a book, spending a year and sometimes even more working on it with an editor who might try to change my writing voice, and then we’d spend another year building up publicity to publish. That’s at least 2 years for every book.

Getting to the point, I can’t force a book out due to demand – believe me, I’d love to, but it would feel rushed and sloppy, and trust me when I say, no one would enjoy it. This might shock some of you, but I actually wrote BLAI2E at the beginning of 2017 and it was 200k words long. It didn’t feel right, so I deleted it and started again, and that brought you the BLAI2E you’re reading today. The same has happened with BLAIR3. I wrote the whole book but it didn’t have all the feels - the direction was all wrong, focusing on the action in the back story rather than Charlie and Blaire's growth as lovers and friends - so I deleted it and started again to bring you the best of what I can do. I pride myself on publishing fully developed, exciting, adventurous and erotic work(s) and charging low prices for them, and I hope you can appreciate that. It would be better for me financially to charge $5 for each of my books, but I as a reader know that's super expensive when reading is your hobby and your passion.

I also hope after seeing the process of what it takes to write a book, you can appreciate the struggle – without bashing me for my publishing times. I owe everything to the bloggers and the readers who truly support me and respect my process as an author, who pick me up when I'm feeling low, giving me the fire in my belly to keep writing and never give up. (You all know who you are. I'm sending electric hugs and kisses).

Feel free to post comments. I will try to write back to everyone. Please, don’t be nasty or rude, or the comment will be deleted. I just wanted to let you all in on what my writing process is like in hope you will understand.

(P.S. This isn't a rant or a dig at anyone specifically. I just really think it's great for readers to know what happens in the world of writing and publishing. I love all my readers, good and bad, and appreciate feedback, the time you take to write reviews, and everything beautiful in-between <3 )

~ Anita