Not quite ten years ago, when Babycakes was just a couple months old, I decided to submit a manuscript for consideration to a couple small presses who would accept unsolicitied work directly from authors. This manuscript was the result of an experiment in both first person POV and present-tense writing. Beta readers thought it was cute and funny. I hired a high school friend, who had started her own editing business, to give the manuscript the once-over before I sent it out in to the world.

Babycakes was about four and a half months old when an acquiring editor from Soul Mate Publishing offered me a contract for a multi-book series based on that manuscript.

That manuscript became BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE, and that contract resulted in the four books that make up my Sweet Somethings series. With a publishing schedule of about six to eight months between releases, I soon found time – somehow, in the midst of raising an infant, moving 750 miles from my hometown, and going back to teaching full time – to write WHEN IN ROME, THE ONE I’M WITH, and HE TAKES THE CAKE.

Plans were soon made for a spin-off trilogy about Marissa’s three besties from THE ONE I’M WITH, but subsequent babies, family obligations, work, the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, and prioritizing freelance work that gave us a little extra “fun” money kept pushing that project onto the back burner. But my editor, and later the owner of Soul Mate Publishing, Debby Gilbert, kept encouraging me, granting me so much grace and extending my original contract when I wasn’t quite ready to take on self-publishing.

About a month ago, the authors of SMP received some bittersweet news – Soul Mate Publishing is closing its doors, officially, on September 30th. All of us are receiving our rights back, and our books will be taken down from Amazon that day.

This is bittersweet news for all of us. I was a rookie author who didn’t know anything, and SMP opened the door to seeing my work in print. A lifelong dream come true!

The SMP authors have banded together to create something of a support group, both to mourn the end of an era but also to provide each other with support and suggestions as we all begin to decide how to handle our next steps. There are many ducks that need to be arranged in rows, and ducks keep arriving to join the lineup, from making sure we have the correct info from Amazon (ugh, metadata) as well as necessary steps to republish either wide or KDP-exclusive.

It’s a little scary. But I’d been mulling over whether to go indie for some time and using the excuse of “babies” to put off the leap. I kind of don’t have a choice with these books, though.

For me, here’s what I know will be happening going forward:

1. I am allowed to use my current cover art, though if/when I set up POD, I will need to recreate the spine and back cover. So all front-cover images you will see on my socials, here on the blog, and my once-ever-two-years email newsletter will stay the same for now.
2. There is no required timeframe for me to republish, and I have to decide whether I want to keep it simple and stick with Amazon, or go wide and have the option to be available anywhere books, be they ebook or print book, are sold. At this point, I don’t see this happening before the holidays, so keep an eye out for news.
3. All four SMP-published editions of the Sweet Somethings series will be gone from Amazon and Kindle Unlimited on Monday, though exactly what time, I do not know. Anyone who thinks they want to purchase a Kindle copy before then…. hey I’m not going to say no to a final uptick in royalties.
4. If you have previously left me a review, THANKS, and know that it will not disappear from Amazon. When I republish, there’s a process to link the new edition with the old, and all reviews should repopulate. (If you’ve read my books but having left a review yet, also wouldn’t mind if you took a minute or two and left one, please and thank you.)

Print books haven’t been available via Amazon in quite some time (if you see one available, it’s through a third-party seller and the pricing seems to be all over the place). I have a small inventory of print copies I got for book signings, so if you think you’d like print editions (either individually or the four-book set), please do contact me directly for info on how to buy them. I hope to get something set up in the next month or so to more easily facilitate this. For now, just email me at jlynnrowanliterature@gmail.com and put “Sweet Somethings Print Editions” in the subject line.

In the meantime, you can still grab a copy of my historical fiction short, THE FURLOUGH, and find my historical romance short, “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”, in LOVE IN THE LOWCOUNTRY VOLUMN 2: A WINTER HOLIDAY COLLECTION,

Going into the next couple months, I’ll be wrapping up another romance short for the next anthology from Lowcountry RWA and getting my full-length historical romance FINALLY sent out on submission (I only have room for so many ducks).

Make sure you’re following the blog and/or receiving my newsletter (I seriously don’t send it out unless I have something real to share) to stay up to date with announcements!