Sometimes I can’t believe it’s been almost 8 years since I wrote the first draft of Real Women Wear Red, 5.5 years since I signed with an agent, and 7 years since it was first published. The publishing world has changed enormously since those days when it was far less common to be an Indie author. But Real Women Wear Red isn’t just any Indie novel.

This was my third manuscript and I’d recently discovered chick lit – a little late to that party – lol! I was thrilled when an agent offered me representation – she was so sure she’d sell it at the New Jersey Writer’s Conference.

Most successful traditionally published authors have a story about the book that almost sold before they actually did sell. The publishing world is full of those stories. I have my own story.

About the time I signed with an agent, chick lit became a dirty word and nobody wanted to touch chick lit. (Romance readers were determined to kill the genre besides the fact that slapping a pink cover on any old book to sell it had backfired.) I remember much discussion in writing groups about how to sell your manuscript as a “romantic comedy” and that you must never utter the words “chick lit” ever again. But like any fictional story, not all was lost.

Then there was the thrill of being offered a contract for Real Women Wear Red from a digital publisher before the digital world exploded. With a true independent spirit before my time, I turned down the contract and published it myself. Real Women Wear Red and I were pioneers, you might say. 🙂

I’d received mostly positive feedback on the book. The writing community was very supportive of it and it seemed to attract its “right reader” because readers really got it and embraced it. The only negative review at that time was a romance writer who said  “first person makes me nervous.” Far more loved the book and let me know it and I will forever be grateful to you. And you’re the reason I wrote the sequel, Real Women Sing the Blues.

Written in a spirit of fun with a little something deeper, I hope you enjoy Real Women Sing the Blues. And please let me know if you do. And if you haven’t read Real Women Wear Red and it sounds like something you might enjoy, or you need a refresher before reading book 2, click on this link to purchase your Kindle copy.

Real Women Sing the Blues – available now on Kindle.