Tomorrow’s Pub Day For Fool Her Once, But…

It’s finally here. March 1, 2022. Publication day for Fool Her Once. It’s the day my new thriller is officially released into the world by my publisher, CamCat Books. But, it’s not exactly the joyous day I thought it would be…

I’ll get to the why’s and wherefores in a moment. First, however, you should know:

Some Facts & Figures

It took me six years to write and edit and revise. Plus, another year for FHO to go through the publication process. I wasn’t in a hurry. I didn’t feel the same pressure to get a book published as when I was writing my first two (Scandal and Delusion) back in the 90s.

I also wanted to get this one as perfect as I could. Perfect doesn’t come cheap, however. I don’t want to do the math right now, but it cost me a tidy sum to see Fool Her Once through from start to finish.

I paid to attend seminars, workshops, writer bootcamps, online masterclasses, and webinars… You get the picture. The most expensive was  the Algonkian Author-Mentor Workshop in February 2017. It was $2,100 for the five-days of mentoring plus room and board in St. Augustine, Florida. Okay, not a bargain, but in addition to getting some good pointers, it was a lot of fun and I made new writer friends who are now old writer friends!

The least expensive were the online Masterclasses with James Patterson,  Dan Brown, David Baldacci, Shonda Rhimes and Margaret Atwood. Each is a bargain $99 for several hours of tutoring and a workbook that comes with. However, $180 will buy you a year’s worth of access to as many Masterclasses as you want to sit through.

So, in addition to spending time with James and Dan and Shonda (all of which I’ve blogged about) I also checked in with Serena for some pointers on my tennis game and with Alice Waters in order to up my cooking game.

 More $$$

The $$$ didn’t stop flowing there. There were research trips (like renting a motor boat to cruise around Peconic Bay to find my “murder scene.”)  And, fees for a freelance editor (three pass-throughs, but worth her weight in gold!)

Then, there were the little costs I didn’t even notice at the time. These were for e-books in my genre so I could learn what to do and what NOT to do from those psychological thriller writers who were already published. Amounts like $7.99 or even $12.99 don’t sound like much but, boy do they add up!

Enjoying It All

Mostly, I enjoyed the writing of my thriller. I wasn’t thinking of desperately rushing to the finish line. I took time to meet other writers and authors. I swanned around at lunches of the Palm Beach Writers Group; I hung out at the annual Palm Beach Book Festivals.  I occasionally attended author signings.

I spent a lot of time during the summers exploring the North Fork of Long Island where I’d decided to set Fool Her Once. I loved looking for the perfect location for a certain scene, or visiting marinas to find the perfect boat for my male protagonist.

Learning New Stuff

It took me time to learn new stuff; like grasping the basics of “building a platform” by establishing a website and posting blogs on it; and to get into social media like Twitter and Instagram. I’m still not good at it, but sometimes these days it almost seems like fun!

It also took time to wade through the tsunami of advice, tips, and other blogs and posts that are available online these days for writers and authors.

I’ll be writing more about my publication journey in the future: rating the various classes, workshops, webinars and bootcamps I attended and what I took away from each of them. I’ll also fess up to the mistakes I made and what I would do differently next time. I’ll talk about the parts I loved most over the last six years and the parts that made me want to vomit.

The New Normal

Right now, however, let me get to the big downer: Don’t be running out tomorrow looking for the hardcover copies of my new thriller at your favorite booksellers. Or, expect to find the copy you pre-ordered weeks ago to be sitting on your doorstep by the end of the day.

Eventually, your pre-order will appear, and yes, tomorrow you can ask for the hardcover edition at your preferred retailer, or order it online, but you may have to wait a few days, maybe a few weeks to get it into your hands.

I, too, am disappointed that I’m not going to be holding a hardcover copy of Fool Her Once in my hands tomorrow on publication day; that I’ve still got to make do with the lonely ARC (advanced review copy) that I received several months ago.

However, delays (shipping,  and printing) and shortages (paper and staff) have become the new normal for the publishing industry. Thankfully, no printed copies of Fool Her Once have fallen overboard off a container ship sailing from China as did hundreds of copies of two illustrated cookbooks earlier this year.

And, just this weekend, I got word that a first run of hardcover copies of Fool Her Once have been printed and should be shipped out this week.

In the meantime, e-book and audiobook editions of Fool Her Once will be available as of pub date tomorrow. These should also be available, upon request, at your local library as a result of a 30% discount offered on them to librarians for the month of March.

Happy reading.