Author name: Annie Ross

This has been such an exciting month!   Seeing my book published and seeing the printed paperback and hardback.   They look great!

   One of the best parts has been reading the reviews and getting feedback on what my readers like.  That direct contact is not something I’ve had before when following the traditional publishing model except occasionally at book signings.   It’s so stimulating to have that direct line to my audience.     I’m looking forward to making contact with book clubs and readers’ groups next!   if you’re a member of a group and would like to follow up on this please contact me through the website.

    It’s so liberating  to have this outlet after being stymied by the publishing gatekeepers for so long!     It’s motivated me to go back to a manuscript which has been languishing in a drawer!    This is another crime novel – but very different from my previous mysteries.   It’s set in the present day in the north of Scotland in an area which has a very unique culture and language.   Watch this space!

Although I’ve published one non fiction book and three crime novels, ‘Frontier’ is my first self-published work! And it feels great! I have so much more control over so many elements in the process. I was closely involved in developing the cover image. And I am not at the mercy of gatekeepers like an agent and the publishers’ marketing department. I feel as if I’ve taken matters into my own hands and it’s liberating!

Frontier was written over many years and involved a great deal of research. As a student at the University of Kansas, I was confronted daily with that pioneering spirit. I met an elderly woman who was extremely wealthy, but still talked about her Pa being out ploughing ‘the back forty’. It felt as if people were still intimately connected to the land and that legacy of homesteading. It is a history to be proud of – especially the role played by women. Their contribution was overlooked for so many years and it was feminist historians who began to research their stories in the 70’s and 80’s. What I find so inspiring is that these were ordinary women with no sense that they were making history who achieved extraordinary things without any fuss. And I’m sure that there are ordinary women doing the same today.

I hope my readers enjoy my story!

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