Hi, it's me. The book launches in 3 months!
Some background on this book deal thing (and the giveaway roundup).
That January Day When the Book Deal Came
Hi. It’s only been…let’s see…12 and a half months since I hopped on the video call, where within minutes, I was being offered a book deal from Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. As some of you know, Wattpad is much more than a reading app these days—they’ve published many books available in bookstores North America (and some overseas, as well), and of course have gotten all kinds of content made into movies, released in theatres and on streaming platforms.
Their latest endeavour? To launch an adult imprint, focused exclusively on women’s commercial fiction for 2022.
So there I was, in January 2021, being offered a chance to have my book on the roster.
WHOA. Don’t scream. Act normal. Take a sip of your drink. You’ve earned this.
It was my Wattpad story 24 Hours in Paris that had caught their eye, something I had written on the platform in 2015, just for fun (and that had garnered nearly 2 million reads across all chapters). The story is about two college kids on a class trip, who through a series of mishaps, miss their flight back home to New York. That leaves them stuck in Paris for another 24 hours. It’s a shame they don’t like each other. Until they do.
Since Wattpad’s new imprint is focused on adult fiction, I was asked if I’d be willing to “age up” the characters. I took another sip of my drink and processed this information. Aging up the characters would mean starting the story from scratch—a total page 1 rewrite. A.k.a. a shit-ton of work, when I already have a full-time gig of writing ad copy for a bank.
But you know what? I couldn’t have been more thrilled.
It’s not like I was eager to toss the original version because I didn’t love it or something. I did, and I do, but the whole thing about writing—or any creative pursuit, really—is growing, learning, and getting better with time. So a chance to publish something reflective of my writing skills today? What an opportunity.
The deal wasn’t announced until April 2021, and the book was scheduled to launch on May 10, 2022. It was a crunched timeline vs. some other deals that are announced much further out, but that was fine, as tight deadlines have always had a way of fuelling my creative fire (insert several memories of pulling all-nighters to write essays in university the night before the deadline).
By April, I had myself a (*checks notes*) chapter-by-chapter outline. And yeah, that was it. This left a daunting 85,000 words to write, do developmental edits for, do line edits for, do some final line edits for, and then do some copy edits for.
I finished that process just a week ago, and as I write this, the book is now in the typesetting stage, on its way to becoming all perfect and pretty for print.
Which kind of blows my mind.
I know some of you have read my other books (for which I’ll always be grateful), but given that they were all self-published, this process is very new to me. It’s just so cool to work with an editorial staff who wants to get the best out of me, and a marketing team who wants me to be successful (more on that next time). What’s also new and cool, is knowing that three months from now, when I walk into an Indigo bookstore in Canada, I will actually see my book on the shelves, something I had always dreamed of.
Truly, wow.
Anyway, I wrote the new, rebooted 24 Hours in Paris (about two co-workers who miss their flight out of Paris) in the thick of the pandemic, when I wanted to go back to Paris so badly, but couldn’t. Instead, I poured my love for the City of Light into 85,000+ words. I hope you’ll see that love on the pages when you’re reading the book on May 10th—and yes, I obviously expect you to start reading the book from the first available second you can get it in your hands! I feel that this is a reasonable request.
So that’s how I got here, and over time, I’ll be sharing a lot more about where I’m going. This newsletter will be the place to pull back the curtain on the book publishing journey and the writer journey. It’ll be more personal than my public blog (because while that’s personal too, it does have a sarcasm quota to uphold), and it’ll be more detailed than the snippets I can share on social media.
And I hope you’ll enjoy reading all about it.
À bientôt,
Romi
Giveaway Roundup
Thank you to all who entered the Paris book swag giveaway through the social platforms and my newsletter. I’ll be contacting winners today, and for those of you who won, this lovely collection of swag will soon be yours!
Why Preordering is Cool
If you’re interested in preordering a print or e-book copy of 24 Hours in Paris, the links to buy are up on my publisher’s book page, which you can check out here. Preorders make my publisher very excited, and also help get the book into libraries (very important!), so if you’d like to pick up a copy for yourself or your friends, I encourage it :-).