Before I get to my personal contest woes…I’d like to mention that today is the Official Release Date for Diana Peterfreund’s debut, Secret Society Girl. As I mentioned in a recent blog, she’s been counting down the days, offering prizes to those who comment on her blog–I won a ‘Rose and Grave’ pin, and I can’t wait to read the book to discover it’s significance. Found out today that I’m also now the proud owner of some Pomegranate Martini lipgloss–that’s just about as alcoholic as I get… So pop over, let her enthusiasm rub off on you, and then run out and get yourself a copy of the book everyone is raving about!

Now on to my personal news, which is not nearly so exciting as it could have been. Yesterday I received a letter from Affaire de Coeur (a review publication in print for 25 years). It said that my debut Unladylike Pursuits had been selected as a finalist for Best Regency in their 2006 Reader/Writer Poll, having been chosen by readers and fans. Wow, right? My self-published book was listed right along side of novels written by Julia Quinn, Anne Gracie, Lynn Kerstan, and Edith Layton! I was stunned, surprised, excited, enthused, until I realized that it the letter indicated that the contest included books published between Jan and Dec. 2005.

My book was published in Dec. 2004.

How, you might ask, could this have happened? I won’t go into details–it’s a long story, but suffice it to say it was accidentally lumped in. So now I had a dilemmna on my hands. Should I contact Affaire de Coeur? Had they realized the special circumstances surrounding their review of my book and decided to include it anyway? Should I just wait and see?

I knew what I had to do, and I did it yesterday afternoon. I wrote to the publisher at Affaire de Coeur and explained the situation and then wrote, ‘so it would seem that I need to be disqualified’, hoping that I really wouldn’t. She promptly wrote back thanking me for my explanation, accepting my recusal, and graciously telling me I could indicate in all author/publisher press that I was indeed a finalist.

My first contest final…slipped from my grasp. So very bittersweet…
I doubt I’ll even be posted as a finalist on their website or in their magazine, which loses me the promotional opportunities. So if you’re a fan of the underdog, please tell all your friends about my sad, sad story.

Well, I think there was some good discussion over at Romancing the Blog yesterday, but it looks like the stigma is here to stay until a few more authors take the ‘road less traveled’ and do it with style. (I’m just going to assume that I did…) And I say, why not? Particularly to the more successful authors. If an author has already made a name for herself, she has the fan base. If she’s uninterested in the editing or cover design tasks, she could hire someone to take care of those aspects and still retain the rights to her books. Presumably she’s already a pro at marketing and promotion… She could write on her own schedule without editor conflicts, bad covers, and any of the other quagmire that published authors often complain of. But there is security in NY…

As I finished up commenting on the comments of others yesterday, I noticed the previous RTB post about a newly discovered blog Teach Me Tonight where romance novels are discussed by professors and students studying the genre. Very interesting…although I’m not used to such heavy reading.

My article showed up today! Thanks to Bookseller Chick for letting me know! Please stop over and comment…

http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/