by Ann Jacobs
November 2002—A personal revelation about erotic romance…and
electronic publishers.
Sure, I’d heard about ebooks way before 2002, but most of what I’d heard wasn’t good. I had the typical mindset of an author who’d battered her way
into the dog-eat-dog world of traditional big however-many NY publishers and
found modest success. I hesitated to screw my reputation, such as it was,
by delving into the world of epublishers where it was said one couldn’t make a
living, or even a pittance, taking part in this daring new venture.
What changed my mind? By 2002 I was getting desperate, not
able to make myself quit writing but also not able to sell another NY book after
Coming Home, which came out from a
dying line in early 2000. The owner of Red Sage Publishing, birthplace of my
Ann Jacobs pseudonym, had even turned down a novella I’d submitted to her for a
Secrets anthology, as being “not right” for the particular Secrets she was
trying to complete. One day at RWA National, I was whining to my good friend
and fellow Red Sage author Angela Knight.
“Ann, you can write steaming hot stuff. You ought to submit
something to Ellora’s Cave.” Angela then mentioned that there was gold out
there ripe for the taking, and I knew her well enough to be convinced she
wouldn’t steer a fellow writer wrong.
Everything I’d had rejected by Harlequin and
the NY houses had pushed the envelope on sex at the time with wide-open bedroom
doors and the one-man, one-woman protagonists doing things that must have
shocked the panties off the editors to whom two agents and I had
submitted them. I recalled Angela’s words. Her recommendation about Ellora’s
Cave echoed in my head until I gave in and submitted Commitment, a contemporary novella that Red Sage had declined as being
too sexy.
I’d been used to getting phone calls when an editor bought my book, but then I’d also been accustomed to spending big bucks shipping printed manuscripts to New York editors. EC’s offer came the following day via email—the same way I’ve now been submitting proposals and manuscripts over nearly eleven years. Still skeptical about the possibility of earning real money with an e-publisher but thrilled to be writing and selling again, I wrote a new novella intended for a program Kathryn Falk had envisioned for the 2003 RT convention, about magicians. That story, Illusions, was paired with Commitment in Love Magic, an e-book collection that released in November 2002. The two novellas were split out and released separately in 2010 with gorgeous new covers by Syneca.
Also released in late November 2002 was Love Slave, my Quickie introduction to the Black Gold series books that came out in 2003 and 2006 respectively. Its new cover by Dar Albert sizzles, don’t you think?
2 comments:
What a wonderful journey you're having, Ann. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I agree that Tina, Patty, Raelene and the EC editors are superstars in the publishing biz. Their marketing strategy, the "look" of their covers, the cutting-edge sub-genres, everything about EC has made me a very happy EC author.
Do you find time to breathe, Ann!!! Congrats on such a fantastic career!!!!
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