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Sunday, April 12, 2015

Book Overload - Kate Walker

One of the greatest delights  for a writer is the arrival of the publication dare of a brand new book. 
 Like Anne McAllister (waving hello to Anne and wishing her a happy anniversary) I may be celebrating 30 years of publication – and the friends I’ve met along the way. (If you missed that post it was last month’s blog!) but even after 30 years and  63 titles, it’s still exciting to see the newest title.

  The design of the cover, the images of the hero and heroine are so important. Sometimes they’re a disappointment. Sometimes (OK – occasionally ) the design team have got the characters just rights. But it’s always intriguing to see  what the book actually looks like.

And to hold it in your hand. To know it’s a real book – those words on a page on a computer screen or in a manuscript just don’t look the same as when they’re printed and bound into a proper book. Sometimes I’ve looked at a newly-published book  and not really recognised the words! I almost wonder who’s written them! Specially if it’s a book that I wrote some years ago, like the ones that get reprinted in the Mils & Boon 3 in 1 By Request collections.  That’s happened recently with two books – Kept for Her Baby and The Konstantos Marriage Demand which were both published in 2009, and have just been reprinted  in this format this year.  That’s like getting  new books all over again.


The only problem with the arrival of these books  is that boxes of books are heavy. So I have to feel sorry for the postman as he trudges up the path with yet another box of books. I’m thrilled to see them – he’s thrilled to get rid of them!

This last month has been even worse (if you’re the postie) or even better (for me) with even more book box deliveries  that are not just the copies of my novels.    I’ve just reworked and revised the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance- with a brand new cover and a slightly lower price. The ebook came out on Kindle last year (with special thanks to Lee who helped me organise that), and this time I decided I should publish a new paperback edition for all those people who asked for a print copy so that they could highlight parts of it,  make notes on the pages, and flick through easily to find them. I completely understand that – books I’m studying have to actual pages for me to underline, highlight, scribble in the margins. So there’s a new edition of the 12 Point Guide to Writing Romance  – and  a box of that new edition arriving at the house  to burden down the postman yet again!


Finally, as some of you know, my DH is a writer too, and this month, by a lovely coincidence two of our books shared the same publication date.  There was my   Olivero’s Outrageous Proposal and his brand new book Uncle Albert – a collection of humorous short stories with ‘a Yorkshire voice’ (DH was born and grew up in  Leeds West Yorkshire)   Hello again, Mr Postman!
I think that the rush of new titles, new books has eased now. I’m sure the postman hopes so!  I don’t have the heart to tell him that the next thing that happens is that sets of foreign editions will start to arrive.    But at least he’ll have a chance to have a rest before that happens!
Meanwhile, I’ve been busy with the revisions for the latest novel,  which is planned for publication in December – just in time for those boxes of books to arrive along with all the Christmas parcels! Oh dear, perhaps I’d better warn the postman now!

  My latest title with Harlequin Presents  - Olivero's Outrageous Proposal is out now in the April releases.

The new paperback edition of the 12 Point Guide is   published this month too and should be around on
Amazon, Barnes and Noble  etc. Or you can order from the Book Depository where it's  at a discounted price with free delivery.    The Kindle edition is also available.

You can keep up with all my news over on my blog   or visit my web site   and my Facebook page

2 comments:

dstoutholcomb said...

Congratulations!

Kate Walker said...

Thank you so much