Why We'll Never Read The Liar Society Again. Ever.

As most of you know, the publishing industry is TOUGH. And the really tough thing about having your first book published is that sometimes those big, amazing moments you have built up in your head kind of fall flat to the sound of a very sad trombone (wah wah wah).

The great thing about being debut authors is that you have so much energy. So much excitement. So much confidence that your book will be THE NEXT BIG THING.

And that very rarely happens.

And if you're like us, the road to publication doesn't have mere speed bumps. Oh no, our road was buckled and littered with fallen trees and sometimes it just sort of dead ended in the middle of nowhere.

But at the end of the day, our little book was released into the world. People actually bought it. And The Liar Society is in its 5th printing. Do you think anyone even remembers that the wrong cover was released on Amazon? Or that the book was originally supposed to be hardcover? Or that there are naked pictures of the cover model floating around the interwebs?

Nope. No one cared about any of that crap except us. Well, us and a handful of prison inmates with a thing for girls with pink hair.

Fast forward a year and we've gotten a little bit better about taking things in stride. The release date for The Lies That Bind has changed 3 or 4 times, but I think we're now officially settled on November 1, 2012. (YAY!) The original cover comps totally freaked us out, but they ended up settling on a gorgeous blue haired Kate who we fell in love with. We had to rewrite the damn thing more times than I care to remember, but we finally have a book that we'll be proud to have next to The Liar Society on shelves. Everything really does work out in the long run.

And in other news, we have a new book coming out with Soho Teen, um, well, sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Here's the blurb from Publisher's Marketplace:

Lisa Roecker and Laura Roecker's THE HUSH FUND, when a girl drowns at an annual private school picnic a group of friends pool their trust funds to expose the high society culprit, to Daniel Ehrenhaft at Soho Teen, for publication in Spring 2014, by Catherine Drayton at Inkwell Management (NA).
catherine@inkwellmanagement.com

We are so excited! I should be jumping up and down. YAY! But instead, the OCD writer in me is obsessing on the details. THE HUSH FUND takes place at a country club, NOT a private school. Rose doesn't drown at a picnic, she drowns at this crazy party on a yacht. And the release date? News to us. We thought it was coming out in Fall 2013. A big part of me wants to call Publisher's Marketplace and MAKE THEM FIX IT.

But the new, more rational Lisa, remembers that this is all small stuff. Yes, it's our book. Yes, we're super excited to share it with the world. But the little things don't matter. They really really don't.

What matters is that we're taking baby steps toward our dream. Every day. Every hour we spend at our computers tip tapping our key boards into the dead of the night.

So, my advice for debut authors out there? Don't obsess over what's going wrong. Focus on everything that's right. Close your eyes and let yourself truly appreciate the weight of your first finished copy in your hands. Marvel at the beauty of your book on a bookshelf. Run your fingers over your name printed on the cover of an actual book.

And do yourself a favor, NEVER read a final copy. You'll only see comma splices and the places where your copy editor trumped you and replaced "peeing your pants" with "peeing in your pants" which is clearly not as funny.

Whatever you do, make every effort to enjoy the journey. Dead ends and all.