#Publishing tip- #The last Plantagenet? with Ocelot Press

Jennifer C. Wilson

Happy Saturday to you! 

I don't have any particular theme running on Saturdays just now, but today a good friend of mine has popped in with information about a different publishing venture. 

Jennifer has visited a number of times before though on those occasions she''s generally been discussing 'Kindred Spirits:... ', her highly original and entertaining historical fiction/fantasy series published by our mutual publisher - Crooked Cat Books. 

Today, her post is about a different sub-genre of writing that she's been involved in. 

I'm absolutely thrilled to say that Jennifer's here today to share with us that The last Plantagenet? will soon be re-published under the Ocelot Press banner.

As always, Jennifer, welcome.  Please give us an update...

In January 2017, when I had just submitted my second Kindred Spirits novel, I was looking about for what I wanted to work on next, and remembered a project I had begun a few years back, a timeslip historical romance, which looked like it might end at the ‘awkward’ length of ~15,000 words, and no longer fit the planned brief. 

The Last Plantagenet? had started life as a possible submission to the Mills & Boon Historical Undone imprint, but it wasn’t meant to be, and it had been consigned to the metaphorical bottom drawer and all but abandoned. Now though, with two books published, I was feeling a bit more confident, and besides, it featured Richard III, and I’d just spent a year working on a book set in Scotland, which hadn’t featured my favourite monarch at all, so why not have a bit of a break, do something different, and see if I could finish the project?

Having decided, I pressed on, and by around April, it was finished, now at ~20,000 words, and feeling a lot more like a rounded story, thanks to help from the writing group I attend. Speaking to my publisher, they confirmed what I had expected; it was too short for them to publish. Not knowing where else it could be placed, and now having other things I wanted to move onto as well, I decided that self-publishing was the answer, and set about those two critical items – a full edit of the text, and a great cover design.

I’d gone through both these processes before, but it was completely different going it alone. Yes, there’s more control (not that I have had any issue with what’s been done with Crooked Cat Books), but there’s also no safety net, that if you come up with an idea, say for a cover, and are adamant about it, there’s no publisher to gently tell you that it really won’t do you or your book any good. Nope, all decisions rest with you. Happily, I had a great design from SoQoQo Designs, and a reliable editor I could trust in Victoria Watson, so ‘all I had to do now’ was get myself set up with Amazon.

Amazon tackled, the ebook was released on, what else, 2^nd October 2017.

The last year has been a learning curve, but an enjoyable one. The key things I’ve discovered:

·       People are incredibly helpful. Yes, I already knew this to an extent through the great support network within Crooked Cat, but in this case, nobody ‘has’ to help you. Instead though, I’ve found that if you ask for help, writers in general are more than willing to help. And helping others back, helping build that lovely sense of community, makes everything win-win.

·       Forward-planning is key. Working to your own schedule sounds like you can sit back and relax, but I found that setting a release date at the very start really helped me. If I hadn’t, I suspect I’d still be thinking about releasing it now, rather than being almost a year down the line! Also, being wholly responsible for every aspect means getting blog posts sorted, marketing set up, and any edits sorted well in advance, or you could risk missing the boat.

·  You never know where an opportunity will take you. Taking advance from a writing friend at Swanwick this year, I’ve decided to start responding to the call-outs for guest blog spots which I’ve seen for the last couple of years, but never felt brave enough to respond to. One thing you can risk doing with a supportive group, is basically writing the same things to the same people every couple of weeks – it’s important to find ways to break out of that from time to time, getting you and your work further afield.

So what’s next for The Last Plantagenet? Well, I’m thrilled to be part of Ocelot Press, an independent co-operation of Crooked Cat Books authors (past and present), who have come together to support each other in editing, producing and marketing our books, while we individually retain our control as authors. To this end, I’ve reissued The Last Plantagenet?, under the Ocelot Press banner, and it’s really exciting to be part of this new venture.

The past year has been a great one in terms of learning new things, meeting new people, and honing skills – I cannot wait to see what the next year might hold in store!

The Last Plantagenet? is available as an ebook, or on Kindle Unlimited, here.

The Last Plantagenet?

The fireplace hadn't looked like a time-portal.

All Kate had wanted was a fun, relaxing day out, watching the knights jousting at Nottingham Castle. What she ended up with was something quite different.

Transported in a heartbeat from 2011 to 1485, how will Kate handle life at the Ricardian court? Even more importantly, how will she cope when she catches the eye of the king himself?

Find out in this 'giddily romantic' romp, set just prior to the Battle of Bosworth.

About Jennifer

Jennifer is a marine biologist by training, who developed an equal passion for history whilst stalking Mary, Queen of Scots of childhood holidays (she has since moved on to Richard III). She completed her BSc and MSc at the University of Hull, and has worked as a marine environmental consultant since graduating.

Enrolling on an adult education workshop on her return to the north-east reignited Jennifer’s pastime of creative writing, and she has been filling notebooks ever since. In 2014, Jennifer won the Story Tyne short story competition, and also continues to work on developing her poetic voice, reading at a number of events, and with several pieces available online. Her Kindred Spirits novels are published by Crooked Cat Books and available via Amazon, along with her self-published timeslip novella, The Last Plantagenet? She can be found online at her blog, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Thank you for visiting today, Jennifer, and for sharing your information. Best wishes for your 2nd October 2018 official launch of The Last Plantagenet?. I'm thrilled that you're my colleague at Ocelot Press and look forward to having lots more books published under our mutual Ocelot Banner. 

Slainthe!