Cassandra Carr Guest Post

I'm thrilled to welcome Cassandra Carr to the blog today.

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My road to publication

One question I get asked a lot is, “How did you come to be published?”. Everyone has a different road, and I was extraordinarily lucky that mine wasn’t as long as some others’ have been. I started writing seriously in 2008. I wrote a contemporary romance titled Should’ve Known Better and started shopping it to agents and editors. I attended a conference in Connecticut (the CT Fiction Fest – highly recommended) and met some more agents and editors, some of whom expressed interest in my novel.

After a while, though, as a writer you need to move on. So while I continued to shop Should’ve Known Better, I began another book. This one was started in July 2009 and was an erotic romance. I titled it Talk to Me, and that book was my first sale! I actually wrote much of the first draft over a three-day writing retreat in early August 2009. I went back to CT Fiction Fest in April 2010, but still wasn’t ready to submit Talk to Me, so I pitched Should’ve Known Better then too. I got some more interest, and I continued to work on Talk to Me.

A writer friend of mine, Miranda Baker (hi Miranda!) read Talk to Me and suggested some fairly major changes. I pored over the changes in my mind for a little while and made those I felt comfortable with.  In late September 2010 I submitted Talk to Me to a couple of publishers. I also continued to query agents.
In October 2010 Loose Id contacted me, asking for my full manuscript. I sent it, and in early November Loose Id contacted me again, offering me a contract. I jumped up and down and hyperventilated, and then told Loose Id I had to let the other publishers know about my contract. This is accepted and even expected in the publishing world, and they were fine with it. In the end, I stayed with Loose Id, and Talk to Me was published on March 22, 2011.

Since then I've sold Head Games (which is the first in the Buffalo Intimidator series) to Siren Bookstrand, another story to Loose Id which is titled Caught, and Impact, a bull rider story, sold to Ellora's Cave. I've also sold a couple of short stories in there and expect to sell book 2 in the Buffalo Intimidators series imminently.

I never did statistics about how many agents and editors I sent the manuscript to – there are only a few that are important to know, most notably Loose Id, who bought the book.

What questions do you have about the process of getting published? Ask them below and I’ll do the best I can to answer them!

 Cassandra Carr is a multi-published erotic romance writer who lives in Western New York with her husband, Inspiration, and her daughter, Too Cute for Words. When not writing she enjoys watching hockey and hanging out on Twitter. Her debut novel, Talk to Me, was released by Loose Id on March 22, 2011. Head Games, Buffalo Intimidators book 1, released on November 2, 2011 from Siren Bookstrand, Caught will release December 13, 2011 from Loose Id, and Impact is coming in early 2012 from Ellora's Cave. For more information about Cassandra, check out her website at http://www.booksbycassandracarr.com/, "like" her Facebook fan page athttp://www.facebook.com/AuthorCassandraCarr or follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Cassandra_Carr.

BUY LINK: http://www.bookstrand.com/head-games-0

BLURB: Leo Laporte and Scott Schaeffer are teammates on the ice and roommates off it who also share women. They’ve been coming into Kelly Chase’s bistro after games for months, and they know they want her. As the attraction grows, the men realize they want more than a one-night stand - they want forever.
Kelly’s not so sure. Yes, she wants both men. But a permanent ménage relationship? That’s taking giving her heart away to a whole new level, and a chance she’s hesitant to take. Then Leo is injured and Scott’s on the trading block, and she realizes this may be her only shot at true, everlasting love.

There are so many questions swirling around inside Kelly’s head. Can she believe in Leo and Scott’s love? And will her business and her reputation survive once people find out she’s with two men?

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Thanks so much for joining us today. Caught is on my Kindle as we speak.

Ella