A Debut Author's Road to Publication: Guest Post by Teresa Roman

Fellow Kindle Press author Teresa Roman's debut novel, Back To Us, is a contemporary romance. 

Her absolute favorite things in life are her family and books. Her passion for reading is what inspired her to become a writer. She loves the way stories can take you to another time and place.

Teresa currently live in beautiful Sacramento, California, with her husband, three adorable children, and a doxiepoo named Parker that her son convinced them to adopt. When she's not at her day job or running around with her kids, you can find her in front of the computer writing, or with her head buried in another book. If you'd like to know more about her, she can be found at www.teresaromanwrites.com, where you can also sign up for her newsletter for exclusive book release information.

Take it away, Teresa!

Author Teresa Roman

I love reading author’s stories on how they eventually got their first book published, so I thought I’d share mine with you.

For three years I’d been working on a young adult urban fantasy novel. I struggled with it, agonizing over whether the pacing was too slow, or the world-building good enough. I finally decided to take a break from it and start writing a contemporary romance that I’d had in my head for a while.

Back To Us tells the story of Jessica, a college girl struggling to make ends meet, and Justin, a former Navy Corpsman dealing with injuries from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. They meet, and despite the issues they’re both dealing with, can’t ignore their attraction for each other.

After I finished writing Back To Us, I decided, after much internal debate, that I was going to self-publish it. I hired and editor, a book formatter and an amazing cover designer. Only days away from self-publishing Back To Us, I got an email about Amazon’s new Kindle Scout program.

Despite my determination to self-publish my book, I still feared the process, but the alternative—querying a hundred agents and waiting eons for a reply—was even less desirable. Kindle Scout promised a yes or no reply in just over a month. That appealed to me. So I went ahead and submitted Back To Us. I asked friends and family for nominations, but didn’t expect much. I was new to Facebook, new to the world of self-promotion, and quite frankly sure my book wouldn’t get selected.

No one was more surprised than I was when it did. I was also really excited. Another part of me was relieved that I wouldn’t have to figure out the right way to get started in the world of self-publishing.

While the Kindle Scout program might not be a perfect fit for every author, I’m glad that I published Back To Us through Kindle Press. I’ve gotten to meet a ton of authors, many who’ve written several novels before being published by Kindle Press. They’ve become not only friends, but have offered a wealth of advice on writing, publishing and marketing.

Back ToUs has been out for almost a year and is now joined by that young adult urban fantasy novel I mentioned earlier, titled Daughter of Magic.

You can find out more about me and check out my books on my website www.teresaromanwrites.com

Happy reading!

Thanks for stopping by, Teresa. 

Although I've been writing for more years than I care to count, and I had Seven Noble Knights accepted for publication before Awash in Talent, Kindle Press's swift action means that Awash will be my debut, too!