thriller Archives - Page 9 of 11

Please Release Me (Let Me Go)

October 19, 2012 By JPMcLean 2 Comments

Release Date for Awakening. What made me think publishing a book meant I’d have a release date? Maybe it’s all the release date announcements I’ve seen for other people’s books. And music. And movies. Even cell phones have release dates.

A release date is supposed to be part of the fun: a “Ta Da!” moment. Adults don’t get enough of those, and I’d been looking forward to Awakening‘s release date moment. But, as you can probably guess, my Ta Da! moment fizzled like a damp sparkler.

I’m still learning the publishing ropes, so not having a firm release date came as a surprise. The indie model is very different from the traditional route. I’ve partnered with FriesenPress, so I have even less control. Regardless of where you are in indieland, a release date is not so much a set date as it is a process that rolls out in dribs and drabs.

Coming Soon

For me, it started when I returned my final proof to the publisher. FriesenPress worked their formatting magic, and a few weeks later, the book moved to the “coming soon” shelf. It wasn’t quite a Ta Da! moment, more like a “yippee” but it was right up there – felt a bit like graduation.

With my business hat on, I figured I should take advantage of the book’s “coming soon” status to raise awareness. I knew I had some time – I’d been told it could take two weeks for the book to hit the “available” shelf. So, I got busy, sent out a newsletter, posted on my blog, and Facebook. Splashed the “coming soon” status around wherever I could.

Two days later the book was published.

That I learned about it after the fact, and that it happened without ceremony, is not quite what I had imagined for my big “Ta Da!” moment.

Regardless, published is good (yippee!). It was time to make my big announcement, right? Not so fast. The book is available, but only from the publisher at this point.

The publisher now hands it over to their distributor. Once the distributor has it, they make it available to retailers. Ta Da! Not quite. Retailers need anywhere from one day to three months to upload the details to their websites and make it available for sale.

As the process unfurled, the book slowly leaked out. Amazon’s American site picked up the book in all three formats right away (yippee). Within days I had sales on Kindle in the US. It didn’t take long for Barnes and Noble to offer the hardcover and trade paperback on their website (yippee), but it’s not yet available for their Nook. The Canadian Amazon site now carries it and friends have reported successfully ordering it at independent retailers (yippee x 2). Both iTunes and Kobo have listed it (yippee, yippee) and I’m anxiously waiting for Chapters to pick it up (pending yippee).

So, I may not have had my big Ta Da! Release Date moment, but I’ve had a number of smaller yippee moments along the way. As I said, it’s been a learning experience and I’m learning to really appreciate the yippees.

Yippee!

Update: The release date for Awakening has long passed. and the Gift Legacy is now widely available. You can find it here.

Awakening Hits Local Press

October 10, 2012 By JPMcLean Leave a Comment

Awakening Hits Local Press. Last month I wrote a blog post about my initiation into book promotion and writing press releases. Today, I’m thrilled to report that our local Comox Valley Record picked up my press release and reported on Awakening. Best of all, they published the news of my debut release right beside an article about JK Rawlings. Nice!

You can read Awakening Hits Local Press online here.

Following is a summary of the article:

Traditional publishing houses maintain their vigil at the door, but the windows are wide open.

Comox Valley author J.P. McLean is set to fly in through one of those windows when her debut novel, The Gift: Awakening, is released by Friesen Press later this month.

Just as there are listeners who want indie music and filmgoers dedicated to indie movies, so too are there readers seeking books that are published independently and online.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of this movement,” says McLean. “Some readers will continue to seek out the books that have been vetted by traditional publishers, but I like the fact that there’s a choice out there.”

Growing interest in indie books and e-books is providing that choice.

“It was never my intention to become part of the Fifty Shades of Grey print-on-demand or self-publishing phenomenon, but if it’s good enough for E.L. James and recently J.K. Rowling, it’s good enough for me.”

Authors today have a myriad of new publishing avenues open to them.

“The rules have changed,” says McLean. “I’d have been foolish not to investigate my options.”

The Gift: Awakening, the first in a trilogy of novels, is an urban fantasy thriller set in coastal British Columbia. McLean calls the book “a getaway vehicle.”

“Everyone needs an escape,” she says. “I wanted to write a story that transported readers to a place so familiar they would not only believe the impossible, but they might even believe themselves to be entangled in it.”

Thank you Comox Valley Record! I’m thrilled that Awakening has hit the local press

Awakening is Now Available

October 4, 2012 By JPMcLean 2 Comments

Awakening is now available! I am very happy to announce that Awakening is rolling out at a steady pace. It’s now available on all Amazon stores in trade paperback, and Kindle e-book formats.

FriesenPress distributes Awakening through the Ingram Book Company, who make it available to over 25,000 booksellers worldwide.

Watch for it soon!

It’s on its way to Chapters-Indigo, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Nook, and iBook.

I’ll post updates here the moment its availability expands.

Thank you for your continued interest and enthusiasm. I hope you enjoy the read.

Every Gift Has Its Price

For Emelynn Taylor, the laws of gravity are more like suggestions. And gravity doesn’t play nice. It abandons her without warning and sends her airborne, terrified and unchecked. Vowing to tame the phenomenon, she returns to the seaside home where it began. Here, she discovers a dangerous underworld. One that knows her secret and has been awaiting her return.

What readers are saying:

A thoroughly enjoyable read

J.P. McLean captures your attention from the get-go, and you’re hooked before you flip the first page. Before too long, she skillfully manages to have you question what you once thought impossible. A thoroughly enjoyable read that had me looking forward to her second book, long before I was through with the first.

—Island Gals Magazine

Fun…sensual, full of adventure

This book is a lot of fun…sensual, full of adventure, rooted in the underlying story of a young women coming to terms with her life and yet managing to incorporate the burden of her gift. I am hooked and am deeply in to part 2 Revelation.

—Bill Engleson, author of Like a Child to Home

Everything you’re looking for

I don’t give 5 stars easily, but I gave them to J. P. McLean’s Awakening with no hesitation. It has everything you’re looking for in a contemporary fantasy: masterfully crafted characters, exciting plot, believable magic. What a treat!

—J.F. Kaufmann, author of The Langaer Chronicles

Why Write a Trilogy?

September 28, 2012 By JPMcLean Leave a Comment

Why write a trilogy? The Gift Legacy didn’t start out as a trilogy. When I wrote Awakening, I concentrated on producing one story that was strong enough to call a book. It was a personal project for me—a bucket list accomplishment. Publishing wasn’t even on my radar at that time.

I Missed Writing

But in the lull after I’d sent the draft off to the editor, I realized that I missed writing. I don’t know why that surprised me. After all, I’d been writing almost every day for six months and loving it. It had become a habit. Soon, I found myself back at the computer picking through the story, rewriting, adding bits, and rethinking scenes.

The writing process, and writing fiction in particular, is harsh. With each re-write, perfectly good, but ill-fitting or excessive ideas and scenes are cut. But with computers the cuts are never really gone—just pasted inside another document.

While I was busy incorporating the editor’s input into the next draft, I realized that the document I had titled “discards” could be renamed “ideas for book 2.” That’s when I started toying with the idea of a continuation of the story.

Book 2 Takes Shape

Before I knew it, an outline for a second book took shape. It surprised me and at first I didn’t even tell anyone (friends and family were still reeling from the revelation that I’d written the first one!).

There were huge holes in the second outline, but I knew a good and unique story was there. From that point on I knew The Gift Legacy would be more than one book*. I didn’t know three books were lurking, and perhaps there are more, but what I do know is that I’m not going to stop writing. It’s too much a part of me now.

Tap here to learn more about JP McLean.

Update to Why Write a Trilogy: There are now 7 books in the The Gift Legacy. You can get started with Book 1 here.