My Mind STILL Can’t Wrap Around It

So in case anyone actually managed to miss the news the day before yesterday, I’ve been signed to Permuted Press to have my little series of novellas called The Becoming published as a trilogy of zombie novels. In case you did manage to actually miss the news, the announcement is located here on my website and also on Permuted Press’ facebook page:

Permuted Press is proud to announce signed Jessica Meigs’ THE BECOMING zombie novel trilogy. Jessica published the first 2 parts in the series OUTBREAK and SAFE HOUSE–to be published together by Permuted as Book 1 of the trilogy–and they have been tearing up the Amazon Kindle charts. Read Jessica’s take on this transition to Permuted Press on her blog at http://www.becomingzombies.com

As I said in my post, I’m absolutely thrilled at the news. I really, really am. I think “thrilled” is actually an inadequate description of just how excited this news has made me. I’m also happy to inform everyone that conracts have officially been signed and mailed, and, even better, I’ve actually already turned in my completed version of the first book for editing way ahead of schedule. This is good, because the sooner I get it to them, the sooner an editor can start working with me. We’re already debating cover art.

My life has become one big bucket of unreal.

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that by April I’d be discussing publication with an actual publisher, I’d have called you crazy. I probably would have inquired which drugs you happened to be using that week. In no way, shape, or form would I have even imagined that I’d be sitting where I am right now, writing this post and trying to wrap my head around the news. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I did to catch the attention of Permuted; I’m totally baffled.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from other indie writers over the past couple of days or so. Most of the questions have consisted of the, “How did you do it?” variety. They want to know how I marketed my book, how I promoted it, how I managed to get it onto the bestseller lists on Amazon, and how I managed to do it so quickly. (Keep in mind that Outbreak was initially released on December 20, 2010, with Safe House soft launching February 23, 2011.) I am more than willing to write up a series of blog posts discussing techniques, but first I need to know what exactly would you like to know? Feel free to comment to this post or email me or nudge me on facebook or twitter or whatever you’d like to contact me by with your questions, and I’ll get busy on these blog posts in between drafting and writing!