Thank You
I want to say thank you to everyone who has preordered my novel, Cash and Gravity. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a published author. Just what that means is different depending on who you talk to, but the older I got, the more I knew I wanted to be traditionally published. I wanted to go into a bookstore and see my book on the shelf. I wanted to share my writing with people I'd never met. I wanted my words out there.
And why that is, I don't know, although I'm sure there have been studies done on the topic. Why do artists want to share their art? Can't the creation be enough? Maybe for some, but for me, that final step of getting my books into the world was always just beyond reach.
Then, in 2021, after a particularly soul-draining day at work, I came home. I remember standing in my bedroom, staring at the wall, when I realized, I needed to do something. I was miserable at work, and it was making me constantly grumpy. I could just keep doing what I was doing, but that seemed like a loser of a plan, or I could invest my passion into something else.
A few months later, I learned about the University of California Riverside Palm Desert, Low Residency Master of Fine Arts program. (Yeah, not a short name.) This was a program I could attend, allowing me to pursue a lifelong dream, and I could keep my job while attending. I could invest my passion somewhere other than my work.
I started at UCR in September of '21. The program was magical. My husband started calling in writers camp, and it was, hands down, the best thing I've ever done for myself.
I picked the UCR low residency program because it not only focused on improving my writing, but it also focused on teaching me the industry. So many other MFA programs roll with the vibe of art for the sake of art, and while I think it's great to live in a world where we can art for the sake of art, I had a day job. I wasn't going to just quit a career and upend my life to spend 2.5 years at a MFA program that didn't even talk about how to actually get your writing into the world.
But the low residency UCR MFA did talk about that. And long story short, it was in this program I met my agent, and a week after I graduated in December of '23, I was agented. (Disclaimer: This is NOT normal. While I like to think my writing is good, I was also very, very lucky.)
In April of '25, my agent sold my book Cash and Gravity in a two book deal, meaning, there will be a second Cash and Gravity. Book one comes out May 26, 2026, and book two will release in May/June of 2027.
And while I am now officially in the publishing industry, it is still not a clear-cut world. So much of it is shadowed and opaque on purpose. Ultimately, I've boiled the industry down to the following: It's capitalism. Things are always changing, but everyone is always focused on their bottom line. The best way to get answers is to follow the money.
Which loops back to the beginning of this article. THANK YOU to those who have preordered my book. In today's publishing world, preorders are the trail to the bottom line.
While I am no expert, what I've learned is that now, companies decide how many books to order based on how many preorders they see. And, the preorders do unknown magic in the algorithms. So for every preorder I get, my book moves up the chain in terms of how many companies are willing to buy, and where the book sits in the algorithms. The higher it sits, the more people will see it when browsing the Internet.
And, for me, I am hoping that the Chevy Cole series will be a trilogy. Of course, it only will be if I sell enough of book one, Cash and Gravity, for the publisher to agree it is fiscally worth their while to sign me for a third and final book in the series. So everyone who has preordered a copy has gotten me one book closer to hitting the publisher's bottom line, except that pre-orders really count for more than just a single book purchase. They help determine how visible and available the book will be once it actually releases, so a preorder doesn't equate to a simple one book sold. It is more than that.
So thank you, thank you, thank you to anyone who has preordered. And if you preorder after this, thank you too!
And for those of you who don't know anything about Cash and Gravity, here's the summary you won't get on the Simon and Schuster website.
Cash and Gravity is Western, sci-fi, thriller. The protagonist, Chevy, isn't the smartest cookie in the box, but she does get to punch some deserving people in the face and get away with it. The stakes are high, the government is disappointing, but the book is hopeful, even if the world is burning down.
And to conclude, thank you!
If you do want to preorder, right now, I'm being asked to direct people to preorder through Barnes and Noble.
THANK YOU!!