Greetings, Readers!
This morning (actually, this afternoon, but I’m having a stupid low energy day so it still feels like morning), I bumped into an email from BookBub, letting me know that Letters to Kelly, a romance novel first published by Silhouette Books in 2003, is on sale in the U.S. for 99 cents!
That’s a grab-it-now price, and since I don’t know for how long it will be on sale, you might want to jump on it, ASAP, if you’re interested. You can find links to the various ebook sellers at my website at https://suzannebrockmann.com/books/letters-to-kelly/
Letters to Kelly had a long, strange journey to publication. I actually wrote it in 1993, back when I was just getting started as a published author. In 1992, I’d sold my very first book, Future Perfect, to a publisher called Meteor for their mail-order Kismet line of romances. Soon after that, they also bought two more of my early books (Letters to Kelly and Love Scenes1 ), which was cool, because they actually paid substantial advances to new authors. Also, it was confirmation that selling my first book wasn’t just a fluke, right? Right.
But then, a few weeks before Future Perfect’s August 1993 release (my first published book! I did a signing at RJ Julia’s in Madison CT, near where I grew up, and my proud mom and dad threw a party for me that same day and basically invited the town!), I got a call from my still-new editor telling me that Meteor was shutting down. Like, shutting down. Like they weren’t a publisher anymore. Like, nice knowing you!
(That was a bit of a shock. Kind of a crash course. Publishing 101. Don’t count on anything. Whew.)
In fact, I had the dubious honor of Future Perfect, my first book, being the very last book that Meteor ever published. Or should I say printed. Because they didn’t ship my book to their subscribers or to any bookstores. They just sent me my requested author copies (they gave me 1000! Reader, that is a LOT of author copies2), and then, I don’t know, they burned their warehouse down? Possibly. Probably? Definitely. By September 1993, they were gone.
But what about the two other books for which I had contracts? I’d received my advances, but… what was to become of Letters to Kelly and Love Scenes now?
Those two books went into a hellish place called legal limbo. And I tried and tried and tried, but it took me just about ten years to get the rights back to those titles.
So that’s why Letters to Kelly has a first publication date of April, 2003 instead of 1993. But it is an early work. It’s a little… I want to say enthusiastic…? Some of it comes across as wildly out-dated here in 2024, but quite a bit of it is still pretty fun. See the heroine wants to be a romance author and, well, the hero has a thing or two to teach her about that.
Anyway, LTK is on sale in the US right now, right this minute, and I honestly don’t know for how long it’ll be available for that low price. (Again, as always, I apologize to my readers in Canada and the UK and everywhere else, because this publisher never gives me details or tells me about sales in advance, so I honestly don’t know if Letters to Kelly is on sale in your area! Is it? Do give a shout and let me know in the comments if it is! Thank you so much!!)
Again, here’s where you can go to find (most of) the links to your favorite online bookstore, as well as more info (blurb! excerpt! trivia!) about Letters to Kelly:
Oh, if you want the Apple link to LTK, it’s here: https://books.apple.com/us/book/letters-to-kelly/id6442883293
One of these days I’ll update the Apple links on my website. But not today.
Okay, that’s all for me today!
Repeating this from my last e-newsletter;
If you’re looking for a way to live through 2024’s terrifying upcoming election and help democracy survive the current anti-democractic onslaught of BS, I highly recommend joining Simon’s Hopium Community. I’ve been volunteering with them (and getting Simon’s hope-inducing and inspiring daily newsletter) since the group started. His mantra is “Do more, worry less.”
Can confirm!
Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote! (And check your voter registration!!)
Love and hugs—and remember that love always wins! Don't stop fighting for democracy, equality, equity, peace, and hope,
Suz