The Cinderella Deal $1.99

Once upon a time, I wrote a book called The Cinderella Deal about a painter named Daisy Flaherty who had some father issues.  Harlequin bought it, but they wanted a few changes: Her name couldn’t be Daisy, artists didn’t sell so she had to have a different occupation, and HG heroines didn’t have father issues.  I found out later that they didn’t the want the book–the fools–but they didn’t want to void my option clause.  So instead of saying, “How about a completely different book?” to which they would have said “GREAT IDEA!” I tried to rewrite The Cinderella Deal.  Never do that.  I ended up with a book that was not what I wanted at all.  HQ wanted it, and they published it as Strange Bedpersons.  Fast forward a year or two . . .

So now I’m between publishers, trying to get a single title published, and my agent, Meg Ruley, wants to make a deal with Bantam so I can eat while I’m trying to fix the mess that will be Tell Me Lies. “Do you have any unpublished manuscripts?” she asks.  “Well, there’s The Cinderella Deal,” I tell her.  “I rewrote it so much that it’s not really the same book as Strange Bedpersons, although there’ll be a lot of similarities.”  “Give it to me now,” Meg said and presto, I have a two-book deal with Bantam starting with The Cinderella Deal, a book that achieved a 97% sell-through (which is a bad thing, but still 97% of the copies printed of that sucker sold, so there). 

All of which is to say that The Cinderella Deal goes on sale for $1.99 today as advertised in Book Bub, or so I’ve been told.   My Bantam editor is lovely, I’m sure she wouldn’t lie to me.  

Note: I’d put the blurb on here, but I just looked at it and it’s awful.  I did not write that blurb.  I keep forgetting that long ago I wasn’t as hands-on with the whole marketing thing as I am now.  Argh.

Another Note: The cover here at the bottom was the first one they did.  I hated it.  The one at the top is the one I asked for on the reprint.  I love it.  The one at the bottom probably sold better. BECAUSE IT HAS A DOG ON IT.

Moral: Always put a dog on the cover.  (Kidding.)  (Kind of.)

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