Behind the Book with The Tycoon’s Convenient Bride…and Baby and Shoshanna Evers

The path to publication for The Tycoon’s Convenient Bride…and Baby has been the most convoluted path of any of my books. Hang on tight, I got a story to tell…

I was living in New York in 2011, and at the point I was relatively new to the game — I’d been writing for ten years, but had only recently gotten published in 2010. I had a couple of books with Ellora’s Cave, a short story in a Berkley Heat anthology, and I’d seen some success with my very first self-published story, Overheated.

I was at a chapter meeting for the New Jersey Romance Writers of America, and super excited to be at this particular meeting because they had literary agents and editors there speaking on a panel. In retrospect, being at this meeting was one of the best things I’ve done for my career — if you’re a romance writer, I highly recommend joining RWA and getting involved on a local level with your region’s chapter! That meeting is where I met the woman who became my first agent, as well as the woman whose agency I am currently represented by. I also met the lovely Stacy Boyd, a senior editor at Harlequin.

Stacy came up to me and said (I was wearing a name tag, it’s not like I was recognizable or anything), “Shoshanna Evers! You write erotic romance. We’ve found erotica writers do really well with the Desire line. Do you have something to send me?”

Needless to say I was totally excited by this prospect, and as luck would have it, I just happened to have Snowed in With the Tycoon handy (that’s another tycoon romance I wrote, but at the time it wasn’t published). I sent her that book, and she said she really liked it but it wouldn’t work for Desire. She needed something else, and would I be willing to work with her to figure out a new book?

Hell yeah, I was willing! Stacy and I emailed back and forth, and she helped refine and eventually approved the plot for what is now The Tycoon’s Convenient Bride..and Baby. I sent her a draft, she read it and gave revision notes. I rewrote it, and sent it to her again (by this point it was going through my agent).

*cue violin playing*

When she got back to me, the news was not what I was expecting. The book, she said, had a strong story… but it just didn’t feel like a Desire after all. It wouldn’t fit her imprint.

Harlequin, at that time, was the only publisher who was known for publishing category romance novels in well-known imprints. So while Mack and Lauren’s marriage of convenience and all their chemistry and heat and drama still filled my thoughts, the book had to go on the back burner for a bit… Until my agent said, in 2012, “Entangled is doing some amazing things with category romances. We should really submit The Tycoon’s Convenient Bride…and Baby to them. What do you think?”

And I said hell yeah.

In April 2012, my now-editor at Entangled, Erin Molta, emailed my agent saying “This sounds like exactly what Entangled is looking for.” In February 2013, with the contracts signed and everyone happy, I got a “Welcome to Entangled!” email.

Erin gave me great edit notes that opened my eyes to what was missing and made the story even better, so I revised the book again. I thanked both editors in the Acknowledgements. Without Stacy Boyd, this book wouldn’t exist in the first place, and I am so grateful to her for all the time she spent with me on it. Without Erin Molta and Entangled, it wouldn’t be the book it is now, and I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to connect with Entangled readers.

For various scheduling reasons on both sides (including six other releases I had with Simon & Schuster/Pocket Star, and me moving from New York to Florida to Los Angeles to north Idaho), my book that started out in 2011— and traveled along the twistiest path to publication (evah?) — will release from Entangled Indulgence on July 28th, 2014!

*throws confetti*

I’m so excited about this book! I wouldn’t have stuck with it for so long if I wasn’t. And my sincere hope is that when you read it… you’ll think it was worth the wait. :)

All my best,

Shoshanna Evers