Caitlin's Escape Route - a sneak peak

My first novel is, I believe, ready to publish. I went through the painful and tedious work of trying to find an agent. After sending out over one hundred queries, I received thirty rejections and the rest were no response. My research tells me this is normal. 

I sent the last of my queries out just before Christmas and made the decision to self-publish, also known as 'indie publish' which sounds better, at the end of January if I had received no offers or interest. In preparation, I started getting my manuscript ready for KDP, Amazon's self publishing platform. I also created a cover, which I already posted about here. One of my grandsons, a talented artist, offered to create the artwork for the cover, but he is in the throes of studying for his own future career, and when I discovered KDP has a very simple, free software to create book covers, I went with that, using one of my own photographs. 

Since I decided to self-publish, I have been listening to as much advice as I can find about self-publishing and marketing my book. I found a wealth of information on YouTube, of course, and a very useful course on my favorite website, The Writing Mastery Academy. 

Oh yes, I did self publish a book before, a memoir, but that was back in 2013,  KDP's site has changed a lot since then and while it is very much better, it is also a bit more complicated  When I published Peeling the Onion, I had no intention of actually marketing it. To be honest, I don't expect to do a lot of marketing in the real sense for my first novel. I will do some. Once the second novel is ready to publish, I will expand my marketing efforts. 

The two novels are part of a series. Number two in the series is at the beta readers stage and number three is starting to form in my head. Number one is Caitlin's Escape Route.

The story follows sisters Caitlin and Terri. They are both survivors of domestic violence. Keith, Terri’s husband, attacks her and leaves her unconscious in their home, which he sets fire to. Caitlin convinces Terri to move from California to Texas, as she believes Keith will try to silence her.

Once settled in Texas, they work with the local battered women’s shelter. They set up an escape route, helping victims get away from their abusers. Meanwhile, in the background, Keith is closing in.

Of course, there is more to the story than just the villain and the two sisters. We meet some of the victims Caitlin helps. Women and men, straight and gay. Each one giving Caitlin a reason to rethink her belief that only straight men are potential batterers.

The second book, currently titled Sally's Story, and I don't expect that to change, but it might, is well underway. It follows one of the victims who takes advantage of the Escape Route. More will be revealed about that as we get nearer to the release date. As my beta readers are doing their magic, I am working on a design for the cover. I also have my first proof copy of the first book. I need to study this and submit any edits.

All this has convinced me that self-publishing is way more fun than traditional publishing, and faster, even if it is a lot more work. The agent querying process is time consuming, tedious and no fun at all; and the biggest disadvantage is that from finding an agent to actual publication could take up to two years! I am way too old for that!

I will let you know when Caitlin's Escape Route is available to purchase on Amazon. It will be in both paperback and Kindle format.