Plot twist!

Now I’ve got your attention 😉 In case you missed it, I recently shared the news on social media that my publisher, Momentum, is being scaled down and folded into its parent company, Pan Macmillan. Sadly, the new Hollywood Hearts series I’ve been working on will need to find a new home. Not exactly ideal.

But once I had a chance to process the news the overriding emotion isn’t unhappiness.

I’m grateful.

Grateful my City Love girls found a home with Momentum, grateful I had the opportunity to work with such a talented group of passionate publishing professionals, and grateful I’ve gotten to know my fellow Momentum authors during these last couple of years.

The business of writing

The other thing I’m grateful for is my marketing career for helping me to have some perspective on this news. Like Maddy in City Love, I’ve worked for big corporate companies and I’ve seen my share of restructures and redundancies in my time.

If you set out to be a published author it’s important to understand that it’s a business. It may not feel like it because of the blood, sweat and tears it’s taken to create your novel, but I signed a contract, the same way I’ve signed employment contracts in years gone past.

for the love of books

So yes, the publishing industry is a business, but guess what? It’s filled with people, just like me (and possibly yourself), who are passionate about books and writing. That’s why it beats banking or any other industry in my opinion (no offense intended if that’s your thing).

The support and enthusiasm I’ve encountered working on my City Love series with Momentum has been wonderful because those people love books and writing just like me.

authors in arms

The other great part of being an author? Other authors. I’ve never worked in an industry where people who would be considered direct competitors are so supportive! The reason why is that, like the publishers, we love the story and the more stories there are to go around, the better!

So while this news is hard, it’s served to highlight how lucky I am. The minute we received the news I had other authors contacting me, and I was doing the same. And as we navigate our next steps we’ll be sharing ideas and supporting each other.

In the meantime, I’ll take a deep breath and announce: