The first of novel in the three-novel series is finally done.  The adult contemporary romance introduces Mike and Helen Abramson as they take their marriage into a less traditional arrangement. This contemporary romance looks deeply into what is commonly referred to as the Hotwife lifestyle.  This novel focuses on their twenty-seven-year marriage, and how they are affected by approaching empty nest. 

Getting Published

The ultimate goal of most authors (I’m in that group) is to get published by a reputable publisher in the segment you write.  I write erotica from the perspective of the family.  Don’t confuse this as some other type of work.  This is about consenting non-blood-related adults. I am excited to have Deep Desires Press publish this book in 2022/2023 because they understand the audience for erotic novels.

It is impressive to see the catalog that they have, and more importantly to me, that they are willing to explore additional segments.  More impressive is that they understand the upheaval of small publishing houses in the erotica genres.  Self-Publishing on Amazon is easy, anyone can do it.  Yet, few are willing to take the necessary steps to provide a professional quality product.

Self-publishing is not cheap

Go to Amazon, pull up the adult contemporary romance of your choice.  Look through the reviews and you’ll see few of them on the majority of the books.  Look a bit deeper and you’ll see on many of the review’s comments about the quality of the work.  What are these quality issues? 

Thanks to Word, Grammarly, and a dozen other grammar checking programs, most of the grammatical errors and spelling errors or typographical errors should be caught and edited out.  My favorite erotica authors (those I come back to often) have this handled well.  Others I find, catch the ones that the computer will point out to you: to, too, and two for example are fixed.

What the computer’s spell checker does not catch is when you use ‘the’ but you meant to type ‘they’ and those are just as annoying as you read. Self-editing is a necessity. It is, however, insufficient.  I speak here from experience.  I had done three full edits of FIRST TENTATIVE STEPS when I sent it to Kathryn for the final major edit.

I lost count of all the changes she recommended.  Kathryn Hall is an amazing editor for the way I work. She understood the characters, she understood what I was putting them through, and helped me get the most out of the novel.  There was a significant cost to this great work.

If we’re going to self-publish, we should treat is as a business (see LLC article) and we should get help where it is needed.  I can work Photoshop, but I’m not a cover artist.  Covers sell books.  Bad covers get lost in the crowd and missed.  Paying for a cover, from a reputable and capable cover designer is not cheap.  The question is, do you want to stand out and get a click or not?

Professional costs you should seriously consider: Editor and Cover Designer. Other items to consider, using the proper typesetting for the printed book.  Scrivener does a good enough job, with a few minor edits, to get you the ebook version.

A Test of Patience

Yesterday I received a great email. It said the publisher was offering a contract for FIRST TENTATIVE STEPS to be published. 

That sentence till feels great to read, and almost as fun to write.

The reality of publishing professionally is that you have a lot of work to do to get a book into the public forum. Editors have to read it, changes – I’m sure – will be requested, art has to be considered, a lot of marketing and sales copy has to be put together, and a number of things I’ve not learned about yet.  It takes time to do it right.  It has to fit within the entirety of the about-to-be-published catalogue.  Time has to be carved out, and priorities have to be set.  Again, all this takes time.

Adult contemporary romance is no different, and authors are no different either. I’ve not met an author yet, who said, “Boy, I’m glad to wait a year to get my book out.” I don’t have the patience (read An Author’s Anxiety Heightened), but I can keep myself busy.

Adult Contemporary Romance

The foundation of the Stag-Vixen journey is the romance between Mike and Helen, but it goes deeper than that.  In the three-book series we’re going to see them take their first tentative steps into a new lifestyle. Like many people Mike and Helen have fantasies about the things they’ve not done in their lives.  They focused on raising their family and put their own personal interests aside, with minor exceptions.

As the author, I enjoyed putting them in a very difficult situation, put temptation in front of them, and had them hide from some of their problems.  Mike has some personal issues, unresolved since childhood, and they’ve affected his focus.  Helen has her own issues, that were put aside because the family came first. Now, they have to take this journey of self-discovery as much as sexual and sensual liberation.

If we’re going to give adult contemporary romance its due, then we have to take the situations we put our characters seriously.  We do follow Mike and Helen into their personal and sexual exploration, but it had to be done with a compelling story behind it.  That’s were my editor came in.  She made sure I focused on the story, while delivering on the erotic nature of their relationship.

What’s Next?

Book two of the series has over fifty-thousand words and I’m working towards its climax.  It picks up where First Tentative Steps leaves off and puts Helen and Mike into a very difficult situation.  This time the primary voice is Helen’s.  We explore many issues from Mike’s point of view, but this book was meant to be Helen’s and getting to know how dynamic, intelligent, capable and vulnerable she is.

My goal is to have the next book ready for professional editing by the end of December, while I figure out what I need to do on the first book.

This is a journey, certainly not a destination because there’s always more to write, more to learn, and more to experience.