Join the Rowena's Song ARC Team!
Debut part deux: Getting my novel into the hands of readers ✨
This post was first published on my new author Substack, but I’m reposting here so all the romantasty fans have a change to join the team ❤️
There is a widely quoted statistic out there stating 97% of writers who start a novel never finish it. Only 2-3% of those that do finish ultimately go on to publish the work in some form or another.
I could not find any stats to describe me: the self-published author who pulled the trigger too soon. Three months after publishing in August 2023, I unpublished, decided to add 10k words, changed the genre from fantasy to romantasy, and had the finished manuscript line-edited by a proper human.
It should not be surprising that I’m not really sure how to celebrate this milestone. What is appropriate for a relaunch? It’s a little embarrassing to say, hey, I messed up that first time. But PLEASE give me a second chance because I added back in all the sexuality stuff that brought up a ton of body shame issues from my youth.
Oh nooooo—I’ve realized my real dilemma. Imposter Syndrome is back, and as bad as ever!!!
I am NOT going to let it win again. I flubbed my first launch in part because I knew deep down I wasn’t ready. Now, I’m just nervous, but stand behind this book 100%. But I need help in getting the word out.
Step one: REVIEWS, which are so appreciated! Without reviews, most independent authors cannot survive. Ready to help a girl out?
I am looking for a team of ARC readers who would enjoy reading:
💗Historical Romantasy 🌶🌶.5 (One open door scene)
👱♀️ First person female POV of a legendary figure described by the early Christians as a tool of the devil
🧙♀️ Wind Magic
🧟♂️Monsters inspired by Anglo-Saxon and Norse lore
💋A kind, intelligent love interest
🎵 Lyrical writing for fans of Rebecca Ross and Naomi Novik
The blurb for Rowena’s Song can be found in my first post on this Substack article.
Does this sound like your kinda read? If so, and you are willing to provide an honest review on Goodreads and/or Substack, please send me a DM to be considered:
If you are on Substack and do author interviews, I’d love to have a chat with you about my novel! I’ll even pretend I am not socially awkward and do a podcast. If you don’t know much about me, head over to my original Substack, Romantasy Realms, to see the topics I’ve written about in case they are of interest to your audience.
Thank you in advance!
Congrats again, Ivy! I would offer if I didn't take forever to finish reading books these days. 😂 (Still moving slowly through Iron Flame even though I enjoy it.) But I'd be happy to purchase it when it's released!
Hey you're not alone with the oopsies! I self-published that science fiction novel in 2012, back when I had no idea what I was doing. (Back when CreateSpace still existed lol.). By that, I don't just mean book publishing norms, formatting, and writing. I mean the content itself lol. I wrote this before I knew I was queer and trans nonbinary. So I wrote some ignorant stuff.
I took a lot of time to fix stuff. The basic plot was still the same, but the structure, writing style, and even some plot/ characters were all different. Even included a new character. And one of my main characters changed her personality... So I pubbed that as a second edition with a different cover and new title.
Lol but sometime last year, I created a third edition. I didn't change the content this time. I just changed the cover to something that looks more professional and doesn't use my own drawings. XD Oh and I changed the title a third time. 🙈 Lol hope my story makes you feel a little better!