BECOMING LIZA MALLOY
- Liza Malloy
- Apr 10, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: May 6, 2019
Phew- the past six months have been a whirlwind of activity for my writing career. I thought writing a full length book (or twelve) was hard, but whoa! That challenge has nothing on adopting an entirely new persona and launching a new business from scratch. Then again, no one ever said following my dreams would be easy.
The journey to the upcoming April 15 publication of Sixty Days for Love has been long and arduous, to say the least. I’ve been writing stories since childhood, but nearly a decade ago, I began querying literary agents. By the time I had a few polished manuscripts, I started to get some nibbles from agents and eventually I signed a contract for representation by a big time literary agent in NYC. I wish I could say the rest was easy, but where’s the fun in that? My agent offered me some valuable tips, but ultimately it became clear that because of the way the literary market had changed over the past several years, working with her was not the quickest route to reach my goals.
I wanted to be in the driver’s seat as I launched my writing career, so I terminated our contract and began sending my manuscripts to small publishers. Much to my joy and amazement, a few companies expressed interest. I signed the preliminary paperwork to grant one of the publishers the rights to Sixty Days for Love, even going so far as to discuss cover design, the ad campaign, and other details with them. But when it came time to finalize everything and give them the full rights to my book, I couldn’t do it.
It was not a deep-seeded arrogance or excess of confidence that led me to decide to go the indie route for my first novel. Instead, I think it was my mommy instinct. This book is my baby. Just bringing this novel into the world took lots of hard work, tears, and sleepless nights. Now that it’s here, I’m not about to pass off my baby to anyone else. I realize in making this decision, there is a very real risk of failure.
But then, I stumbled across a simple little poster. It said: “Be the Girl Who Decided to Go For It.”
I wanted to be the girl who decided to go for it. I wanted to show my daughters that when you have a crazy, seemingly unattainable dream, you can choose to be a realist and take the safe route, or you can work your ass off, take a deep breath, and go for it.
In a few weeks, when I’m sifting through the reviews and trying to focus on the launch of my second book, choosing the cover design for the third book, and polishing the manuscript of the fourth, I anticipate a few tears and a lot of chocolate.
But over the next several years, when all this work finally starts to pay off, and someone asks how I made it happen, I’d love to hear my girls answer like this:
Follow your dreams, people! And please… leave book reviews. It helps us indie authors so much!
Love, Liza
Connect with Me
Email: authorLizaMalloy@gmail.com
Website: www.LizaMalloy.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/authorLizaM
Instagram: www.Instagram.com/authorLizaM
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/authorLizaM
Pinterest: www.Pinterest.com/authorLizaMalloy
Local? I LOVE chatting with readers and book clubs, so if your group is interested in reading any of my books or just talking with an indie author, please send me an email.
COMING SOON!
Sixty Days for Love will be officially released on Monday, April 15, 2019. You can order paperback or ebook (or both if you’re indecisive). Sixty Days for Love will be available on Amazon, ibooks, Kobo, and BarnesandNoble.com. Or, you can follow the links below to buy.
Can’t wait till next week? You can pre-order your copy of Sixty Days for Love on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Once you finish Sixty Days for Love, be sure to look for my next book, For Love and Italian. The cover release will be coming soon, and For Love and Italian should be available for pre-release by May 1, 2019.
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