Undoubtedly, the road I've taken with Cypress Walls is one that any Beatles fan would appreciate. It's been almost five years since I began writing it, more than two since publishing it and it was this time last year when I had my first conversation with Cissy Tiernan at Blu Sky Media about distribution. A synopsis of events since that phone call with Cissy, too, is full of twists and turns. I signed with Blu Sky in March, sent them books in April, and learned on my birthday that most of them were damaged in shipping. Eventually, those books were given new covers, hand-delivered back to the Blu Sky warehouse and, finally, by mid-summer, copies of Cypress Walls were getting into the hands of retailers. Approximately six weeks later, on September 8th, Blu Sky announced that it would cease operations.
Last month, I circled back with Cissy to see what she was contemplating for her next move. When we spoke, she mentioned Jerry Simmons, an industry veteran who she had collaborated with on several occasions during her career. Jerry recently launched the INDI Publishing Group, a venture whose overarching objective is to become the Focus Features of the publishing world. Aside from helping authors like me manage all of the tedious steps that must be taken when independently publishing a book, Jerry also has connections on the distribution side. Cissy thought Cypress Walls might be a good fit for INDI so I sent Jerry a copy. Shortly thereafter, Cissy sent me a note letting me know that Jerry liked Cypress Walls and wanted to talk.
The three of us had a conference call a couple of weeks ago. Jerry was not only gracious in his praise of my book, but he also wanted to know if I was working on my next one. By the end of the call I felt good about working with Jerry and Cissy and today I signed an agreement with INDI which I'll drop in the mail tomorrow. I have absolutely no idea what will happen next, but in the meantime, I'm going to start outlining thoughts for my second book.
Happy Veterans Day. Thanks to all of you who have sacrificed so much to make our country the envy of the rest of the world.
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