Breaking Up with Traditional Publishing (and Finding My True Voice Again)
A Little Backstory for the Many New Readers On My Newsletter List and Anyone Else Interested in My Journey to Here
I published my first book with Harlequin in 2003, The Greek Tycoon’s Ultimatum and I loved that book. So much. Over the next two decades, I published dozens of books with four traditional New York publishers and one small press. I learned a ton about writing and myself. I got to works with some incredible editors, and connected with readers who became part of the fabric of my life.
In 2017, I got the rights back to a few out-of-print books from Kensington and Berkley. I rereleased them under Lucy Monroe LLC to keep them available to readers with no real plan to publish any of my new books independently. Things change and in 2019, I indie-published my first new releases: two books from series my publishers had lost interest in — Hot Alaska Nights (Northern Fire) and Viking’s Moon (Children of the Moon).
In 2020, I took back a book from Harlequin after they asked me to strip it down to the basic idea and rewrite it with new characters. Instead, I wrote a new book for them and indie released the book I still loved (The Maharajah’s Billionaire Heir). After 4 more books with Harlequin and more than one book gutting revision request, I made the difficult decision to go indie with the remaining books I was still writing for them.
Over the years, traditional publishing has changed. A lot. Since being purchased by big media parent companies and the merging of others, marketing now drives editorial decisions for many big New York publishing houses. Word count guidelines have tightened to the point of a stranglehold in some cases.
The midlist has all but vanished, with publishers dropping authors who would in the past have continued to write for them. Their books were still making a profit…just not big enough of one to satisfy the new stockholders. Amidst all this, incomes have plummeted for too many authors, requiring them to write more books per year to make ends meet or to give up on writing altogether.
Real life doesn’t happen in a vacuum and this is the environment in which I made my decision.
The Breakup
A lot of people assume my “breakup book” was Cinderella’s Jilted Billionaire — the one I bought back from Harlequin. But at that point, I still planned to stay hybrid: indie-publishing my paranormal and shorter contemporaries while continuing to work with a New York publisher for single title books.
In fact, I wrote what I believed would be my breakout book: Masquerade in Egypt.
Set in 1920s Egypt and blending action, suspense, steamy romance, and women's fiction, Masquerade in Egypt was the culmination of years of research and passion. I poured my heart into it. I was sure this book could launch the next phase of my career.
My agent and former publishers didn’t agree.
I was told it didn’t resonate. That it was too hard a sell. That it didn’t niche neatly into a single category. That I needed to “pick a lane.” But I had picked a lane — mine. And I didn’t want to backtrack.
Traditional publishing is risk-averse. And as much as I loved this book, it wasn’t the kind of risk anyone wanted to take.
So I had a choice: Try again with a more marketable book? Or write the stories burning inside me — even if they didn’t fit in a traditional box?
I didn’t have another 1920s book whispering to me… but I did have a suspense story clamoring to be written. I wrote it — and I loved every moment. (It’s still sitting on my hard drive.) But I wasn’t quite ready to leap. Not yet.
The Aftermath
A year passed. I took time off from writing to refill my creative well — and I read a lot.
On January 3rd, I picked up my first mafia romance by an author I didn’t know: Run, Posy, Run by Cate C. Wells. (Cate has since become a dear friend — thank you, Amanda Cinelli, for the rec!) That book was everything I had wanted to write but had never dared to.
I thought my love for mafia romance was a fluke, that I adored Aleksandr Voinov’s Burn This City because I love his writing. I was wrong. Not about loving Aleksandr’s writing, but about mafia romance.
Suddenly, I had found my genre.
I devoured hundreds of mafia romance books and fell in love with authors like Neva Altaj, Cora Reilly, A. Zavarelli, J.T. Geissinger, and Michelle Heard.
And something inside me broke wide open. The floodgates burst. Ideas poured in so fast I had to carry a journal with me at all times just to keep up. By the end of February, I had eight solid mafia romance ideas. (I have more than two dozen now!)
I started writing. And I haven’t stopped. I love my job!
Two years later, I’ve published:
7 novels in my Syndicate Rules series
1 novella
1 free bonus novella for newsletter subscribers
...and I’m now working on the first book in my new Irish Mob series: Syndicate Sins.
The reader response has been incredible. So wonderfully affirming. And it’s made one thing very clear: following my muse was the right choice.
Breaking Up With More Than Just Trad Publishing
Looking back now, I guess Masquerade in Egypt was my breakout book — just not in the way I expected. It gave me the courage to take a leap. To follow my creative instincts. To stop shying away from stories outside my “lane.”
I broke up with the me afraid to tell the stories out loud that I told myself in my head every night before going to sleep.
Will I write another 1920s story someday? Maybe. Will I eventually write those cozy mystery that came to me in a dream? Probably. Will I rewrite that thriller as a dark romance where the serial killer is the antihero? There’s a good chance! 😉
But what I know for sure is this: I’ll keep writing the stories I want to read. And I’ll be grateful every single day for the readers who want to read them too.
Until next time!
Lucy
P.S. If you’re missing your weekly dose of book recs from me, I posted Arranged to Love: Historical Romance yesterday on the blog. There are some delicious stories on my list of recommendations, so be sure and check it out.
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