IT’S TRUE.
I’M PUBLISHING.
THIS. SUMMER.
Joy’s Summer Love Playlist is a sweet little project I typed out like a rocket blast in March 2019. It sat for a while as I handled some other projects, but lo and behold, I could not let it sit through yet another summer, so it’s become my debut novel.
Hold up. Let me just take a breath. WHEEEEZE
If you’ve read my newsletter (sign up here if you haven’t) and or if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you’ve probably heard about this book. So here are some more details about how it got started and where I am now.
The Beginning
March 2019, I had a dream involving a group of teens in the summer by a lake and they liked each other. With some rad ideas and heart-throbby scenes in my head, I wrote this little book with the working title Watermelon. It took eight days to finish that first draft.
It was crap but I was still impressed with myself.
The Middle (part one)
I made some changes early on, like removing unnecessary characters and killing scenes. It was a project to test my newly acquired storytelling skills. I focused heavily on Joy’s core motivations, fears, the message of the story, and following the beats from Save The Cat as best as I could manage. Then I let it sit for a long time until early this year, when I knew I’d have to spend months getting it ready so I could have it published in the proper season: summer.
Once I had a good trajectory for the story (and literally five endings and two title changes), I got some beta readers on it to help me work out the kinks. They have been incredible! I saw the weak spots more clearly and tweaked certain characters and scenes. It’s so much stronger now.
The Middle (part two, aka now)
So here we are. Thanks to Coronavirus (not really), I suddenly had lots of time to focus on this book and so did a few other very necessary people. I just sent the manuscript to my editor/friend. I also hired a book cover artist.
Guys. I cannot EVEN EXPRESS how excited I am!! My cover is looking so much PERFECTER than I ever imagined. And my editor is fast, solid, and a great human being with a beautiful soul who I absolutely trust with my baby. I’m stoked!
The End (aka the near future)
But yeah, I still have a lot of work left. I have to pick a release date, choose my marketing strategies, format my book (among other logistical self-publishing feats) and BLAH BLAH BLAH, you get it!
I still have to publish this thing! And I know that pushing the publish button is not the actual end. But, that will be my transformational moment. My graduation from aspiring author to published author… HOO BOY I can hardly wait!
One day soon, you will have my book in your hands (if you buy it haha). Be on the lookout for updates, because I promise, LOTS of new developments will be happening very, very soon!
~Piper Bee~
Piper Bee 