In June, my first fantasy YA novel, Roses, came out in paperback. I was completely overjoyed to receive it and fell in love with the new edition. Roses had been out in hardback since November 2013 so the paperback was a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. With a new cover design in-keeping with the fairy-tale-theme (Roses is based on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast) and new pages in the back of the book describing the next in the series (!), I couldn’t help but adore it. I sent special packages out to youtubers and bloggers who had been so supportive and kind when the hardback was published, and I was overwhelmed by the love and kindness of everyone who supported my paperback release too. I know such wonderful people!
Then later in June, I had my own fairy-tale-ending… and got married (so cheesy, but I couldn’t help it). It was a wonderful day and after all of the planning and crafting (I did a lot of DIYing) it was amazing to see it all pulled off. I had a brilliant time and then we went off on honeymoon to Italy and it was all just very lovely.
Not long was I back from my honeymoon when book two was due to release at the beginning of July! Feathers, the sequel to Roses and the second in my YA trilogy, was released in hardback in early July. This was my second fantasy novel to be published and I was nervous to see it venturing out into the world. It’s another fairy tale retelling, based around the story of Swan Lake, except instead of a female main character called Odette, we have a male main character, Ode. Again, I was so impressed with the look and design of the book – I think my publisher, SkyPony, have done a fantastic job. I love it!
To top all of this off, I had a tweet from a friend recently that said she had seen the paperback of Roses in a UK bookshop: Foyles. My publisher is based in the US and although my books are distributed online in the UK, I didn’t realise that they were stocked in a UK shop. When I heard, I squealed with excitement. I’m going to be visiting it myself very, very soon and I can’t wait – another awesome event to add to this great summer!
“When I first took the plunge into self-employment, Isabel was there to guide me, inspire me and help me get my work published. I’ve worked on over 15 books and none of them would have been possible without her.”
Bethany Straker, Creative Authors Client