New Aria Contract

Posted in Publishing deal by heatherbwriter

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve just signed a new three book contract with Aria at Head of Zeus. Again, it’s for a series of three books but I’ll probably extend the series to four books in the future. Although all of the books have a common background they will each tell a different story. Book one will introduce the characters and setting, and each subsequent book will focus on one of the characters’ own story.

I’m already making progress with the first book, which will be available next summer. In the meantime, Vendetta, book three in my Manchester trilogy is due to be published on 2nd October, and is currently available for pre-order from Amazon. If you haven’t yet bought your copy, here is the link: http://viewbook.at/VendettaMcr.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Ritherdon, Editorial Director at Aria. Sarah has worked closely with me virtually since I signed up with Aria for my previous contract. She is brilliantly supportive to work with and a great editor who is able to spot areas of my novels that can be improved and make useful suggestions. It was lovely to be able to put a face to the name.

During our meeting we discussed Aria’s plans for my writing career, as well as my ideas for future novels. Aria have some very exciting plans in terms of promoting my books and getting them into the hands of even more readers. In fact, as part of ongoing promotion, both Slur and Born Bad are currently on sale. Slur is available for 99p at the moment and Born bad at £1.87, giving readers a chance to try the first book in each of my trilogies at a bargain price. If you would like to take advantage of the sale price, here are the links:

Slur: http://getbook.at/Slur.

Born Bad: http://viewBook.at/BornBad.

I’m very excited to be working with Aria again, and will keep you updated regarding the publication of new books.

——————

26Mar2018

Exciting Opportunity for Crime Authors

Posted in Publishing deal by heatherbwriter

If you’re an author of gritty crime fiction then I’ve got good news for you. My publisher, Aria Fiction, is currently looking for submissions in this genre to add to its ever-growing list of successful authors. So, if you have ambitions of becoming the next Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers or, even, Heather Burnside then this is an excellent opportunity.

Aria is an imprint of the award-winning publisher Head of Zeus and, although Aria has only been operating for 2 years it is expanding at a dramatic rate and achieving much success along the way. The staff there are very friendly and professional and most of them have years of experience in the publishing industry. Aria has already helped many of its authors to achieve bestseller status, including debut authors!

I have been contracted to Aria for a year and a half now and I couldn’t be happier with them. The first book I published with them, Born Bad, became an Amazon bestseller and was selling over 1000 books a week in the first two months of publication. I know that I couldn’t have achieved sales figures of anywhere near that number without the backing of the Aria team. Their terms are favourable too and they offer good royalty rates compared to the rest of the industry.

Apart from helping authors to succeed, Aria has a very friendly and supportive approach and the staff are always happy to offer help and advice. To be published by Aria is very reassuring as an author. It’s good to feel that you’re not out on your own and the staff make their authors feel special and proud to be a part of their success. I can’t tell you how pleased I was when I received a bunch of flowers through the post on publication day!

So here’s the deal;

If you have a gritty crime novel up your sleeve, then submit via Aria’s submissions portal. And then, one lucky author with lots of promise will be selected for me to mentor you and give valuable feedback on your first novel. It would be lovely to have a fellow author as my partner in crime (or crime novels anyway) and I look forward to reading your future bestsellers.

To be considered for a contract with Aria, just send your manuscript via the submissions portal which can be found here.

Any questions, please email melanie@headofzeus.com

Good luck!

—————-

26Aug2016

I’ve Been Signed – Yay!

Posted in Publishing deal by heatherbwriter

Some excellent news for a Friday afternoon. I’ve just signed a three book deal with a publisher. We’ve been in contact for several weeks during which I sent a detailed synopsis to the publishers for a new trilogy and they came back to say they were happy to run with it. The first book in the trilogy is ‘Bad Brother and I’ as previewed in the back of my latest book, ‘Danger by Association’. The title will change but it will be the same book.

Now, if you follow this blog you’re probably thinking that this is a major turnaround for me as I’ve always been a big supporter of independent publishing. I still am. In fact, I think that because I had already had a degree of success as an independent author that probably brought me to the attention of the publishers in the first place. I had given up on approaching publishers and agents and was happy to plod along doing my own thing. However, I was then approached by a publisher and their offer was very tempting.

Because I’ve started to earn an income from my books I was able to view their offer objectively instead of through rose-tinted spectacles, which I would have done a few years ago before independent publishing enabled authors to create their own successes. The publisher is Aria, an imprint of Head of Zeus. It’s a relatively new publishing house, which combines a wealth of experience by staff who have held senior roles with the big 5 publishing houses, together with a forward thinking approach.

Needless to say, I’m extremely excited and will be doing a lot of celebrating this weekend before knuckling down and continuing to work on the first novel in my new trilogy next week. There are a lot of changes taking place in my life at the moment and I feel that I am entering a new and exciting phase in my life. I would like to send a big thank you to everybody who has helped and supported me along the way.

———————–