If you have purchased, read, reviewed, promoted, pimped, blogged about, sold, talked about, preached about, or whined about any of my books . . . thank you.
If you are part of my very special reader group The Crowd . . . thank you.
If you have helped me make this dream of mine a reality . . . thank you.
If you have helped make my words better and helped me share them with the world . . . thank you.
If you have held my hand and helped me through the tough times when it feels like everyone’s against me . . . thank you.
If you help make the work part of writing the best job ever . . . thank you.
If you tolerate me being a horrible human and awful adult when I’m working . . . thank you.
I gotta give a major shout out to my girl gang for this one. Sometimes I have a character I think is just EVERYTHING. Hot, smart, difficult, interesting, and complex. But then I get caught up in wondering if I’m the ONLY one who thinks that way. I’m not wired like everyone else. I don’t like the same ol’ same ol’. I like to take risks and write different kinds of men and I wasn’t so sure Stark fit in in the Point and that I was expressing just how special he really was. My girls rode to the rescue. As always, I asked Mel, Rebecca Yarros, Denise Tung, and Heather Self all to give Stark a peek when he was about halfway done. It’s hard to ask someone to read a book that isn’t finished, but my girls showed up and gave me all the right words. They loved him and loved his story, and I honestly believe that has nothing to do with the fact they love me. The feedback was necessary and I needed them to assure me I hadn’t gone too far off the deep end. I’m cool with dipping a toe in the water but I’m not looking to drown anytime soon. So, thanks ladies for being there when I needed you most. I’m a badass . . . but even badasses need a confidence boost every now and then.
I also have a pretty special girl gang of professionals who help me turn my words into an actual book. If you are looking for an editor I can’t recommend Elaine York enough. I love getting to work with her. I adore her insights and her commitment to each project I send her way. She doesn’t pull any punches and she’s not scared to tell me that I’m not quite there yet. She makes me work for it, and as a result, my readers get the best book possible. She jumped into a long-standing series with no frame of reference to the existing storylines and characters and rolled with it. She’s smart as hell and has a way of seeing nuances in a story I’ll admit to never even thinking about. Unlike when I publish traditionally, I got to pick who I wanted to work with when it came to self-publishing. For me, Elaine was the only choice.
The same thing goes for Hang Le. She was my one and only choice to work with when it came to my covers. She’s brilliant. I love her style and her flare. She takes what I want and makes it better than I could imagine. Pretty sure her beautiful covers do more to sell my books than anything I do.
If you want the pages and the guts of your book to be pretty, then you need to hit up my friend, Christine Borgford. She’s one of the kindest, most supportive humans I’ve ever met, and not just because she’s Canadian! She really loves books, romance, and the reading community. She wants our words to be as pretty as possible. Formatting is important. End of story. It makes your book look pulled together and professional. Let Christine play with your pages, you won’t regret it.
My friend Beth Salminen handled all my copy edits and proofreading this go around. (I say my friend, which she is, but she’s also Cora’s roommate who just happens to be a word wizard so she doesn’t have a choice because she has to like me . . . lol.) Beth is wicked smart and super funny. The only thing better than writing books is getting to work on them with people that care about making your words the best they can be. It’s a bonus when that person also wants the writer to be the best she can be. Cora and I have been trying to talk Beth into editing full time . . . she’s that good at it. (She already works in traditional publishing during the day but I’m trying to lure her away into the world of Indie.) If you are looking for a pretty blonde to cross your t’s and dot all your i’s you need to give Beth all your money.
I did something different this go around. Ever since the beginning I’ve been a solo show when it comes to creating stories. I’ve never used beta-readers or critique partners. I decided to give it a shot with this book. I wanted to put the best product out possible and decided letting a few pairs of impartial eyes peep my words before the rest of the world wouldn’t be the worst idea I ever had. I want to thank Pam Lilley, Karla Tamayo, and Traci Pike for giving up their valuable time and precious moments to help me out. They don’t get anything out of the deal other than my undying gratitude and unwavering thanks. There are some very special readers out there in Booklandia and I feel like I’ve been so lucky to have most of them in my court since the very beginning. If you notice fewer errors and less typos in this book it’s all thanks to these lovely ladies.
You can also appease your inner stalker in all of these places:
. . . My fan group on Facebook. I’m very active in there and it’s often the best place to find all the happenings and participate in giveaways!
My website: . . . there is a link on the site to reach me through email. I would also suggest signing up for my newsletter while you’re there! It’s monthly, contains a free book that is in progress so you’ll be the first to read it, and is full of mega giveaways and goodies. I’m also in all of these places:
Follow me @jaycrownover on Twitter
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