This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
The lights were blazing on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh, the street bustling with night goers and black cabs, and I was huddled in the doorstep next to a buzzing bar. We were out in the city celebrating my friend’s birthday only a few weeks after her wedding. It was a reunion of the small bridal party and we were recapturing the good cheer of the occasion.
We’d just eaten at one of my favourite restaurants in Edinburgh, The Buffalo Grill, and chased our meal with a mystery shot the guys swore to me was delicious. It was only a traumatising reminder never to listen to mischievous “adult” men when they group together to agree on something.
Although discussion had centred around lots of different things, it kept coming back to the fact that my self-published adult contemporary romance On Dublin Street had just become a national number one bestseller in the US and was the subject of a bidding war among six big publishers. I’d self-published On Dublin Street, a romance set in Edinburgh with an American heroine and a Scottish hero, on August 31st 2012. Less than two weeks later it was in the top 100 lists in America and sitting pretty at No.16 on Amazon.com. After receiving emails from publishers I signed with my fantastic agent and together (as well as the rest of my friends and family) we watched ODS climb to No.1 on Amazon. It hit the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller lists, as well as Indie Reader. It garnered over a 1000 reviews on Amazon within weeks, and tens of thousands on Goodreads.
It was absolutely surreal.By the time I was huddled in that doorstep on George IV Bridge ODS had sold 150,000 digital copies and my nerves had been frayed by telephone calls from my agent updating me on offers from publishers and what kind of deal we should anticipate. I felt like I was living in a freaking dream world.
And then as I was walking down George IV Bridge with my friends I dug out my phone only to discover I had missed calls from New York and an urgent message from my agent. I ducked in the doorway, a jittery, emotional mess and called her back, uncaring of the chilly wind or the revelers all around me.
It was there my agent told me I’d received a seven figure offer for a two book deal on ODS and its sequel from New American Library – a Penguin Random publisher.
Of course I said yes, trying to remain cool and not hyperventilate.
I celebrated that night in the city that had given me On Dublin Street, but the wonder of the book deal never really sunk in.
Six book deals later and it still hasn’t. I never want it to.
I’ll always want to feel the wonder.
Samantha's latest book, Echoes of Scotland Street, was published on the 7 October.