Traditional publishing houses maintain their vigil at the door, but the windows are wide open.
Comox Valley author J.P. McLean is set to fly in through one of those windows when her debut novel, The Gift: Awakening, is released by Friesen Press later this month.
Just as there are listeners who want indie music and filmgoers dedicated to indie movies, so too are there readers seeking books that are published independently and online.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of this movement,” says McLean. “Some readers will continue to seek out the books that have been vetted by traditional publishers, but I like the fact that there’s a choice out there.”
Growing interest in indie books and e-books is providing that choice.
“It was never my intention to become part of the Fifty Shades of Grey print-on-demand or self-publishing phenomenon, but if it’s good enough for E.L. James and recently J.K. Rowling, it’s good enough for me.”
Authors today have a myriad of new publishing avenues open to them.
“The rules have changed,” says McLean. “I’d have been foolish not to investigate my options.”
The Gift: Awakening, the first in a trilogy of novels, is an urban fantasy thriller set in coastal British Columbia. McLean calls the book “a getaway vehicle.”
“Everyone needs an escape,” she says. “I wanted to write a story that transported readers to a place so familiar they would not only believe the impossible, but they might even believe themselves to be entangled in it.”
The Gift: Awakening follows the heroic journey of young Emelynn Taylor in her quest to overcome the burden of an extraordinary gift and find her place in the world. Emelynn’s new powers, bestowed unceremoniously and unasked for, thrust her into a vortex of mystery, wonder and intrigue that promises to change her — and her world — forever.
J.P. (Jo-Anne) McLean lives with her husband and two spoiled dogs. A Bachelor of Commerce graduate from the University of B.C., McLean has lived in various parts of North America, from Mexico and Arizona to Ontario and Alberta.
The Gift: Awakening is J.P. McLean’s debut novel. The second book in The Gift Trilogy, The Gift: Revelation, will be released in early 2013.
Visit www.jpmclean.net to read excerpts, her blog and keep apprised of upcoming events.
— J.P. McLean