The Write Stuff with... June Moonbridge

Today it's my pleasure to hand the reins over to author June Moonbridge to talk about the stressful lead up to publication of her latest novel At the End of the Summer which was published earlier this month. 

Planning the publication of my last novel – At the End of the Summer – I never thought I could’ve made such a mess… Yet, I did.

At the beginning of this year I found myself again at the crossover. I needed a change and I needed it fast. For the past eleven plus years, I worked for a steel industry company focused on export and for the past seven years my role was Senior Buyer. I loved doing what I did. I had daily contacts with half of Europe if not quite with half of the world.

We went through different kinds of times. Good and bad for business, yet we survived and strived.  I was proud. Still am. But I started to become… restless. I think that is the best word to describe how I felt for the past few months.

Slowly everything started to get on my nerves. Don’t get me wrong, I was still doing my job as it needed to be done and better. I was raised that way.

Then it happened.

I scheduled the publication of my third novel – At the End of the Summer. You’ve heard a lot about it this past few months. Then I joined Pict Publishing. 

And then… I was offered a new job. In a new company. In a new city.

Two weeks after, at the beginning of March, I handed in my four weeks’ notice and continued working till the end, at the beginning of April, like I had not resigned.

They were an interesting five weeks. Intense. For a few weeks some of my colleagues didn’t believe what I had done. However slowly the realisation hit them. It also hit me. 

While I worked in the office like nothing happened… my ‘other’ professional life almost crashed and sunk…

I planned the publication date for my third novel way ahead. I marked 1st May 2018 to be it. I scheduled almost everything, so that the publication date would go smoothly, with as much as possible notice to you readers ahead. Open pre-order possibility a month prior the publication date, so that the word would be out and around.

And after I made all the plans for the publication I managed to screw things up almost completely.  Instead of marking the publication date for 1st May, 2018, I marked it for 1st April 2018. When I tried to correct it, I got a ‘friendly’ notice from Amazon, that if I do that, I was about to lose the right for the pre-order for a year. I was, mildly saying – shocked.

With all my apologies to the Pict Publishing ladies, which already scheduled everything, I was advised to approach Amazon directly and explain them my honest mistake.

Due to almost every answer I got from Amazon was negative, I didn’t have my hopes high. But nevertheless, I wrote them a letter and surprisingly, got a very quick reply, letting me know that they understand the mistake I’ve made, however…

… they said that I need to correct the publication date myself and only after this will be done, they are going to be able to give the right for the pre-order status back to me.

PHEW!

I couldn’t believe it.

But they did as they said. I corrected the day, and the day after that, my novel was on pre-order!

And a month later, my novel was published. Somehow, I managed it, without causing too much damage on my life. 

Well, sort of… The lessons I learned in the past few months are: 

• Things don’t go always according to plan. (I knew that before, but I was reminded once more about it).

And 

• Don’t do everything at the same time. It’s too stressful. 

I hope I will remember…

You can find me:

http://www.junemoonbridge.com
https://www.facebook.com/JMoonbridge
https://twitter.com/JMoonbridge
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/june-moonbridge
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13887820.June_Moonbridge
https://www.instagram.com/jmoonbridge

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Waking up the next morning, Caroline has no idea what happened. She flees out of the hotel room mortified, convinced she’d become another of the band’s trophies. Determined never to meet anyone from Burning Ruins ever again, she has no clue people around her have different ideas.

In a summer that takes them from London to Wales and to the sultry heat of Rome, they’re desperately fighting their demons from the past, while trying to protect their broken hearts. Will they ever let each other mend their broken hearts or will they try to heal them alone?