Patricia Stoltey

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Will Write for Food … by Eileen Goudge

August 7, 2014 By: Patricia

I have an ironic T-shirt that says WILL WRITE FOR FOOD. I laugh whenever I put it on because it’s not far from the truth. There were some lean years in the beginning when a check meant the difference between grocery money and going hungry. 15 published novels later, I no longer worry about putting food on the table (just about where it’ll end up on my middle-aged body!). But here I am reliving those days of uncertainty by leaping into the vast unknown of indie publishing after 30 years of being traditionally published.

Suddenly my T-shirt is seeming a lot less ironic.

It all started a little over a year ago with lunch with friend and fellow author Josie Brown, who took the leap a few years ago and has been very successful at it. As I was launching into the usual litany of author complaints, she stopped me mid-rant and asked, “Why not self-publish?” I replied, “Who me?” I couldn’t envision a different path even though the one I was travelling wasn’t the same one I’d set out on all those years ago, given how radically different the publishing landscape of today is from yesteryear’s. Still, I was resistant. Until Josie said, “Then why don’t I give you a tin cup and you can beg for quarters?” Her point: If something isn’t working, try something different—what do you have to lose? It was the kick in the butt I needed.

Thus began my odyssey into self-publishing. Terrified by my own audacity, I felt like I was walking a tightrope—butterflies in my tummy, breaking out in a cold sweat whenever the doubts crept in. Was I doing the right thing? Could I get up to speed on all the stuff I needed to know and do? Starting with all those mysterious acronyms. (What the heck did BISAC stand for, anyway?) But I also realized something wonderful: I had the freedom to write whatever I damn well pleased. I’d always wanted to try my hand at mystery, having strayed in that direction with some of my women’s fiction novels (most notably WOMAN IN RED). My very first short story, in fourth grade, was titled “The Secret of the Mossy Cave,” so I guess you could call it destiny overdue.

Good-bye Beaten Path, hello Cypress Bay! My series is set in a fictional northern California seaside town inspired by the one I lived in before moving to New York City in the 1980’s. The title came to me, fittingly enough, while I was taking a stroll on the beach. The first book, BONES AND ROSES debuts August 4th 2014. It introduces Tish Ballard, property manager extraordinaire and recovering alcoholic with a mouth the size of the flambéed blowout that ended her career as a realtor and persistence to burn. The discovery of human remains in a storage locker sends her on a quest to find answers that takes her to some dark places, not the least of which is the ghost of her high school indiscretion with lead detective Spence Breedlove.

Because I’m smart enough to know I can’t do it all, I signed with a distributor, INscribe Digital—good move, as it turns out. I also hired a marketing person, someone with whom I’ve worked in the past, and have my social media guru buddy Susie Stangland, to help with all things social media related. Fab book designer, Mumtaz Mustafa, designed the covers for both BONES AND ROSES and Book #2 in the series, SWIMSUIT BODY. So far, so good.

The rest is in the hands of Fate and those of Dear Reader. I’m trusting that my existing audience will follow and I’ll gain new readers. And, hey, I’m not too old to do handsprings if I have cause to celebrate. Come visit me on my website. I love to hang out with my fellow authors online. Sharing about our growing pains makes them seem less awful and more laugh-worthy—like my ironic T-shirt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eileen was born on the Fourth of July, and her career came into being in much the same way: with fireworks. Which is to say bursts of inspiration accompanied by dazzling displays of verbal pyrotechnics (or so she believed at the time) and culminating in self-immolation in the form of rejection letters. She persisted and went on to publish numerous YA novels and 15 women’s fiction novels, starting with the New York Times bestselling Garden of Lies.

With the first title in her Cypress Bay mystery series, she boldly ventures into territory she has long wished to explore, ever since her love affair with Nancy Drew as a young girl. You can find Eileen on Facebook and Twitter.

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Comments

  1. Eileen Goudge says

    August 23, 2014 at 12:06 pm

    Good question, Sarah. I’m actually a hybrid author because I’m traditionally as well as indie published. Nine of my back list titles are with Open Road Media. Because the main focus of Open Road is digital, my older titles continue to have a presence and are finding a new audience. It’s the best of both worlds. For now at least :)Who knows what the future holds?

  2. Sarah Sullivan says

    August 23, 2014 at 10:47 am

    Thanks for the informative post! I’m so impressed with your ability to write in multiple genres. With so much success working with a publisher what was it that spurred you to make the switch? You stated you could write whatever you wanted so I am assuming that was the impetus, but will you continue to also use a publisher?

  3. Eileen Goudge says

    August 10, 2014 at 1:47 pm

    I’ll need all the luck I can get, Li,so thank you. With a lower price point, you have to sell a lot of books to make a profit. Fingers crossed.

  4. Li says

    August 8, 2014 at 5:49 pm

    Good luck, and it’s always refreshing to see a traditionally published author either taking the plunge or just supporting indie publishing.

  5. Eileen Goudge says

    August 7, 2014 at 6:33 pm

    Thank you! I applaud all those who forged the path before me. They were the true pioneers. And may I say I loved, loved, loved writing a mystery. I have found my true calling.

  6. Margot Kinberg says

    August 7, 2014 at 4:14 pm

    Pat – Thanks for hosting Ellen.

    Ellen – Thanks for sharing your experience. I give you credit for going for it. I wish you all success.

  7. RichardK says

    August 7, 2014 at 1:29 pm

    I wish you the best of luck on your endeavor, Eileen. I decided to go the self-publish route right off the bat, even establishing a publishing company — Wooden Pants. I’d rather do it on my own and produce all the volumes of material I have instead of waiting…waiting…waiting.

  8. Eileen Goudge says

    August 7, 2014 at 12:46 pm

    BISAC stands for Book Industry Standards and Communication. I know, a mouthful,isn’t it? It has to do with how titles are classified for SEO. This was only one of many acronyms I had to learn the meaning of. Some days I still feel like a 5-year-old driving a bus! But if you keep at it, you’ll know enough. Good luck, Karen.

  9. Karen Walker says

    August 7, 2014 at 12:02 pm

    LOL, so what is BISAC? I’m in the process of making this decision as soon as final revisions are done on my first novel. Thanks for this.

  10. Eileen Goudge says

    August 7, 2014 at 11:00 am

    Thank you! I couldn’t have done it without my brilliant team. I shudder to think what would happen if I had tried to go it alone. I’m not as bad as my sister, who freezes at the “oncoming headlights” of something unfamiliar on her computer, but I’m still far from pro status.

  11. Mason Canyon says

    August 7, 2014 at 6:37 am

    Congratulations on making the change. Sounds like you’ve done your homework and have things in place to make it a success. BONES AND ROSES sounds intriguing. Wishing you much success.

  12. Alex J. Cavanaugh says

    August 7, 2014 at 6:18 am

    Congratulations on taking the plunge. I know a lot of very successful hybrid authors. It seems the way to go now.

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. My most recent release, In Defense of Delia (Five Star/Cengage, November 2022), is available in hardcover and will soon be available in ebook and trade paperback. Read More…

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