Re-release

I know it's not typical, nor is it recommended, but I have rewritten and re-released one of my books. Realizing I should have waited to publish it in the first place was difficult for me, as I don't like to admit to mistakes, but I've rearranged my publishing schedule to accommodate the fact that I had a free novella up that was not the best example of my work. So I rewrote it. I love the story now, and am proud to pimp it. The characters are developed, there's more of a mystery, and the MCs are more likeable, I think. Since some of my negative reviews were about "gratuitous sex scenes" I changed the classification to erotica, as I was unwilling to take out the sex, since it compelled the plot lines and was a major driving force for the characterizations.

Where before, it was a free novella, now it is a full-length novel. It is the first in the Stories of Serendipity series, and introduces a lot of the characters that have their own stories later in the series. That was a super fun scene to write, and gave me more insight into the characters that I have yet to write stories about, although their outlines are waiting patiently for me on my laptop.

Another thing I really enjoyed about writing this was revisiting old characters. Claire and Max were the impetus of my writing career. I have always been one to make up stories. I've always had a journal next to my bed. I've always been a writer. But Claire and Max were a story I'd been thinking about for nearly a year before I finally decided to sit down and write it. They'd been bungling around inside my head for ages it seemed, before I finally told my husband I wanted to try to write a book. His support was all the impetus I needed to make a go at it.

Initially, the novel sucked. I'm not gonna lie. But I loved the characters so much, I kept rewriting it. My marketing plan involved a free book to "hook" potential readers, so I cut it down after rewriting it a couple of times and decided to make a novella out of it. I was relatively pleased with the result, as in, it was better than anything else I'd written about Claire and Max so far. So I hit the publish button.

Reviews were mixed. Some people loved the story, others hated it, a lot thought it was okay. I'm alright with people hating my stuff. As long as they're not cruel in their reviews, I have no problem with people giving me one and two stars because it wasn't their cup of tea. But the reviews brought to my attention that there was so much I could have done with the story that I just hadn't done yet.

Hence my decision to rewrite it. While in KDP's details page, I updated the product description and decided to re-classify it as well. It is now in the erotica section of Amazon's search page. And now it's #29 in erotica. And #840 in free kindle books.

I'm pleased with that.