#DFRAT Guest Author (+ a Giveaway): Ruthie Knox

Today we have Ruthie Knox joining us to discuss her experiences as a Big Six Digital Author. Please join us in welcoming her to Book Binge.

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Big Six Digital-First: One Author’s Experience

Hi, Book Binge readers! I’m happy to be visiting to participate in this series about digital-first publishing.

The topic is near and dear to my heart, because, well, it’s how I’m published. Also, it’s new, it’s exciting, it’s flexible, and it seems some days like it’s changing everything.

Today, I wanted to share a bit about my own experience with publishing digitally through an imprint of a Big Six publisher. The term “Big Six” refers to the six largest New York City publishing houses: Random House, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Macmillan. Romance readers might be more familiar with the names of the lines at each publisher that specialize in romance: Ballantine, Bantam, Dell at Random House, NAL and Berkley at Penguin, Pocket at Simon & Schuster, Forever and Grand Central at Hachette, Avon at HarperCollins, and St. Martin’s at Macmillan.

A lot of the Big Six publishers have introduced digital-first lines in the past year and a half, but I believe Loveswept at Random House was the first out of the gate–or at least the first to start publishing original fiction in addition to reprints. The first Loveswept title came out in November of last year, Jessica Scott’s powerful debut Because of You. The second was mine–Ride with Me, a love story set about a couple who are bicycling the entire forty-two-hundred-mile length of the TransAmerica Trail–which released in February.

I got hooked up with Loveswept more or less by kismet. I started writing about a year and a half ago, and like many aspiring romance novelists, I modeled my first few manuscripts on my favorite Harlequin category romances. Sort of. I knew I’d done something a little bit offbeat, setting my novel on a cross-country bicycle trip, but even so, I’d followed most of the conventions of category romance. Close enough, right?

I was aiming to get the book published as a Harlequin Blaze, and I landed my agent, the amazing Emily Sylvan Kim, with that goal in mind. But while the book was still out on submission to Blaze, it just so happened that Agent Emily got talking to Random House editor Sue Grimshaw about the new Loveswept line at a conference, and Agent Emily (being the enterprising sort that she is) pitched her my book.

Long story short, Ride with Me turned out not to be a Harlequin Blaze (in retrospect: duh), but that was okay, because Sue was really excited about acquiring it for Loveswept. So she bought the book, it went through Random House’s fine-toothed-comb editorial process, and the next thing I knew, I was published! Huzzah!

Since then, I’ve sold three more books to Loveswept–my second release, About Last Night, came out June 11–and I’ve been thrilled with every step of the journey.

What do I love about being published with Loveswept? Lots of things, but I’ll summarize:

–A more flexible publishing model means more editorial flexibility. I’m not sure it would’ve been possible for me to find a print-first publisher for Ride with Me–or even for About Last Night–but the digital lines have lower overhead and are more willing to take risks. That’s fabulous, because I know I’m not the only romance reader who likes to see the fresh twists brought to familiar stories.

–Skilled editorial, production, and marketing. Had it not been for Loveswept, I never would have been able to get my advance copies in the hands of so many amazing authors for quotes, nor would I have been able to set up such an extensive blog tour on my own or reach so many readers with the novel in the weeks after release. I’ve been extremely pleased with the support I’ve gotten for my novels at Loveswept.

–The sky’s the limit! Nobody knows quite where romance publishing is going next, but it’s fun to be with a publisher that’s trying hard to figure it out. I feel like Loveswept is a place where I can learn the ropes, stretch my baby chicklet authorial wings, and try new things out. I’m working with a team of enthusiastic people who are keeping an eye on the market and trying to stay one step ahead of this crazy shift in the World of Publishing and Reading, and I have to say, it’s really fun (and strange) to be starting my career at such a fascinating, exciting moment and to know I have an amazing group of allies at Loveswept behind me, supporting my work one hundred percent.

About Last Night, coming from Loveswept (Random House), June 11, 2012!

Sure, opposites attract, but in this sexy, smart eBook original romance from Ruthie Knox, they positively combust! When a buttoned-up banker falls for a bad girl, “about last night” is just the beginning.

Cath Talarico knows a mistake when she makes it, and God knows she’s made her share. So many, in fact, that this Chicago girl knows London is her last, best shot at starting over. But bad habits are hard to break, and soon Cath finds herself back where she has vowed never to go . . . in the bed of a man who is all kinds of wrong: too rich, too classy, too uptight for a free-spirited troublemaker like her.

Nev Chamberlain feels trapped and miserable in his family’s banking empire. But beneath his pinstripes is an artist and bohemian struggling to break free and lose control. Mary Catherine — even her name turns him on — with her tattoos, her secrets, and her gamine, sex-starved body, unleashes all kinds of fantasies.

When blue blood mixes with bad blood, can a couple that is definitely wrong for each other ever be perfectly right? And with a little luck and a lot of love, can they make last night last a lifetime?

And here’s an excerpt. In this scene, Cath and City (her nickname for the hero, whose name she doesn’t know yet) are taking each other’s measure the morning after they’ve, erm, fallen in together. Which is to say, Cath found herself on a very bad blind date, got accidentally plastered, took the train home, required rescue, and woke up the next morning in City’s bed. In this scene, they’re discussing what happened next, since Cath’s recall of events last night is, uh, fuzzy…

“I was much more impolite than you,” she said. “What with the passing out and all. You’re being very nice about it.”

City scrubbed his hand over his jawline, pensive now. “I would appreciate it,” he said after a moment, “if you would stop calling me ‘nice.’”

He took a step closer, and her heart rate spiked.

“You are nice.” Her voice came out all weak and wavery. This was how Little Red Riding Hood had felt when she’d discovered the Big Bad Wolf wearing Grandma’s bonnet.

“No,” he replied. “I’m not.”

Another step, and his eyes traced a path over her arms, down her stomach to her hips. The brightly lit art studio made her purple underwear visible through the white T-shirt. She could tell that City noticed, and that he was enjoying the view.

She sat down on the edge of the table. “You brought me here with impure motives?” The idea gave her a stupid thrill.

He shook his head. “No. I developed them after you arrived.”

Cath fingered the hem of the shirt where it hit her mid-thigh. “You shouldn’t admit to that sort of thing. It’s perverted to lust after half-naked drunk girls.”

“Not perverted.” He stepped closer until his thighs brushed her knees. “Only male. And at any rate, you didn’t get me lusting with the strip show. Though it was . . . fetching.”

“No?” It was a wonder she could speak at all, considering there was a tall, hard, hot man crowding her and using up all the oxygen. “What irresistibly attractive thing did I do, then?”

One more step, and he was between her legs. “You talked. Rather a lot.”

“About what?”

“All sorts of nonsense. You’re not very fond of my country, I gather.”

Cath shrugged, sheepish. “Sometimes I miss Chicago.”

“I’d never heard you talk before. You ought to do it more. It’s charming.”

“People who talk to themselves at the train station are generally understood to be crazy. Especially in your country.”

“You could talk to me.”

“I hardly know you.”

“I’m superb,” he said. “You’re going to like me.” Big, warm hands covered her bare thighs, and she shivered. “Though I should probably reiterate, I’m not at all nice.”

iBooks — http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/about-last-night/id479800484?mt=11

Book page at Random House — http://www.randomhouse.com/book/219015/about-last-night-by-ruthie-knox

Ruthie Knox website — http://www.ruthieknox.com/

Follow @ruthieknox on Twitter — https://twitter.com/#!/RuthieKnox

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