S. A. Crow
- Feb 8, 2023
- 5 min read

Do you celebrate your novel's birthday?

Absolutely! Every year I mark the anniversary of when I published my novel. It’s a great reminder of how far I’ve come as an author and how my business has grown since I first started. You can make a special card for the occasion, or maybe even throw a small celebration. It’s a great way to honor all the hard work that went into creating this story.

Into the Fire is turning 2 years old.

Into the Fire Book 1 of the Fire Series Raven, a chef who longs to get out of the high-pressure environment of Seattle’s high-end restaurants. It might be the career path she chose, but it isn’t the right fit. While searching out a new path, she happens to meet her favorite actor and gets to cook for him. Confident about her cooking and little else, she finds herself falling in love with him. Is her attraction to her famous boss worth the risk of killing everything she has worked for and gained? Travis is regretting his decision to date his co-star Jessica and breaks things off. When he runs into Raven at a convention, he is in awe of her talent. He hires her to be his personal chef. Jaded about romance, especially after how toxic the end of his relationship with Jessica has become. Travis finds himself caring more and more for his new personal chef. But another workplace relationship could blow up in his face again. Raven’s life becomes endangered by Travis’ stalker, so he pushes her away for her own safety. He discovers with the help of his friends that what he feels for Raven is real for the first time.

Can he get her back before it’s too late?

Can Raven and Travis escape the obsession that follows him?

Can they find the courage to fight for what could be the best for both of them?

Into the Fire Book One of The Fire Series Is the first novel in the episodic contemporary romance suspense series, following a group of friends. Set mostly in Seattle, Washington. Each novel focuses on one couple of the group. Into the Fire is the story of Raven and Travis, how they meet and fall for each other while an obsession follows Travis and endangers Raven. Can they find the courage to fight for what could be the best thing for both of them?

The journey to publication

The year I wrote this story, our lives had been tossed into the air. We lost two close family members, two incomes, and they asked us to move out of our home by the end of that year. While I was in survivor mode, I found a story idea that blossomed fully fledged. Travis is based on the actor Christian Kane.

Sadly, I was new to the writer game and did a similar newbie problem. I set unrealistic goals for revision, editing, and formatting. This, of course, sent me into a cycle of anxiety and depression. I found my way back to the project by developing a new revision technique that works well for my dyslexia. You can learn more about The Bookend Revision Technique writing craft book, and/or workshop.

You can get the book on Amazon You can book the workshop anytime.

The next hurdle on the path to publication happened while the book was in developmental edits with my favorite developmental editor, Karena Van Horn. She’s touched all the novels in this series so far and will do the audio book for this novel. While we were working back and forth on Google Drive happily, it didn’t last long. When we were halfway through the draft, Google held my book hostage. They blocked me from the file, calming I didn’t own my document. We looked up the problem, and it is a problem that other Google users have encountered. I tried so many fixes but didn’t find a solution before it threw me into another bought of depression.

I was so lucky that my editor found a loophole around the problem and we could get back to working on the novel. I know the novel has issues and I will update the novel soon. You can chalk a lot of this up to the depression and difficulty.

Next I printed two copies of the novel out and me and a friend marketed it up with pens trying to catch as much as we could. Everything went well until the next hurdle.

Uploading the novel to Ingramsparks. I wanted to go wide with my debut novel so I uploaded the novel on Amazon so easily and then my writing buddy suggested I try Ingramsparks. This was a nightmare to upload, even just the ebook there. I was prepared to toss my computer out the window so my writing buddy helped me set things up to keep me from committing “technocide” meaning murder of technology.

I bought a plant (bamboo) to celebrate the novel going live. I could also do a book tour to California to give my grandmother a signed copy of the book.

1 year out and the new baby

The next year I celebrated, knowing that I would publish my second novel a month later. I attempted to do a giveaway or sale of the novel. Sadly, I learned that because my book was on other sites, I couldn’t do some promotions on Amazon. I also learned that I hadn’t sold more than one copy on the other sites through Ingramsparks.

It feels like someone else it holding my baby hostage.

I’ve attempted three times to remove this novel from Ingramsparks and delete my account. Each time I message them (believe me, I’ve looked for a number to call.) They have informed me that my request is under review. Thank goodness I didn’t use this company again. I’ll be working with Draft to Digital and Amazon KDP from now on. If you would like to learn more about publishing to these, here are a few great videos on this topic.

What I’m doing to combat this?

I will release a box set in 2024 that will include Into the Fire, Home Fires, The Fire Inside, and Code of Fire. I will also do a new release of Into the Fire will updates and more. Keep your eyes open.

How I would love to celebrate?

I would love to throw a party and invite some of the beta and ARC readers that made the novel possible. I will do something on my Tea Time since I’ve been reading the novel there.

Why you should do what you can do something special?

If you have published a piece of work, celebrate this achievement and the novel. Because like a child, once it is out in the world, it grows with each reader and how they respond to your characters and more. It will be some readers’ favorite novel.