by Carole Mortimer
I’ve been writing for Harlequin Presents for 36 years, and also the Harlequin Historical line for the past 5 years too, and yet the strangest thing happened to me in the middle of September this year—I dreamt a whole series of books, their heroes, heroines, and their storylines. I had even designed the covers for the first four books of the series while I was sleeping, too.
Nothing like this had ever happened to me before.
The books I dreamt about that night have now become reality in my new ebook series ALPHA. The stories in the ALPHA series have sexier situations and language, than my other books, and wanting to get the ebooks out to my readers as soon as possible, I made the decision to self-publish the series.
Which is when the adventure really began!
Never let anyone tell you that Indie publishing is easy, because it isn’t—but what it is a barrel load of fun! It’s also hard work and dedication, and I have a whole lot of respect and admiration for all you Indie authors out there who have been doing this for several years.
I’ve always written fast, and having written the novella to launch the series in just three weeks, I needed to also have my ‘team’ if I was going to become a publisher myself.
My son Josh is my #1 man—he is truly amazing, and has worked so hard to help me launch this series, with ads and blogs, designing the newsletter, and he always, always has my back.
My editor, Megan Stevens, was recommended to me by a close friend—and it has truly become a wonderful partnership. I can’t thank Megan Stevens enough for helping to make these stories better than I had ever dreamt they could or would be.
I had a bit more of a problem finding a formatter who could do the work in time for a November 8th publishing date—my fault, for being so eager—but luckily Julie Cupp, a Formatting fairy, proved invaluable. My son Matt is currently learning to format—so we are truly becoming a family ‘business’.
Having dreamt the covers, and then had those covers designed by my website lady, Jo, we then talked it over and decided to revamp my website page, to reflect this new ALPHA series, as well as my Harlequin books. The result is stunning, thanks to Jo.
Along with writing the books, and finding the editor, formatter, cover designer, there is also the little matter of Copyright, and ISBN numbers to buy and register.
Are you having fun yet?
Because I was, and I still am.
The first novella in the ALPHA series, Christmas Alpha, was published on November 8th, and is currently available for download on Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords. The second full-length ebook, Dark Alpha, is also available for pre-order on the same retail sites, with a publication date of January 18th 2015. The third and fourth books will be published in March and May of 2015. And there are more books to come in 2015!
Indie publishing is not for everyone, I understand and respect that, but for those of you who want to publish yourself I can’t tell you how wonderful this whole experience has been for me. I love everything about it, from writing the stories, editing, designing the covers, to choosing the publishing date. Christmas Alpha was written in September, and just 5 short weeks later it’s now published.
Now that’s fun!
Carole Mortimer.
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CHRISTMAS ALPHA is available at the following retailers:
Great to read this and learn about Carole’s life and hobbies, look forward to the next ones!
Jane, I would love do another blog on WriterSpace is they’ll let me!