New Release of Long Out-of-Print Book by Cheryl Bolen

In just a few days I’ll have a new release that’s not actually a new release. Allow me to explain. More than 22 years ago Harlequin Historical purchased my first book, though it was not the first book I wrote. A Duke Deceived was the first book I managed to get published. 

Original 1998 Cover

It was published in early 1998. In those days it was only available in paperback. It did very well. It sold about 80,000 copies its first year. It also managed to win some awards. Then it went completely out of print. That’s how “midlist” authors were treated.

When eBooks came along I was not able to get my rights back because Harlequin kept selling foreign rights to the book, and each time they did, they set the clock back seven more years on rights reversion, per my contract. Rights were sold in French, Italian, Portuguese, and three different times the book was sold in Japan!

Thirteen years after it was out of print in North America, Harlequin put it and many hundreds of other out-of-print titles out as a badly scanned eBooks as a “Treasure.” There was zero promotion. Sales were miniscule. 

After 21 years I was able to get back my rights on that first published book. But by then I knew (because I was now my own publisher) that solo books don’t sell. So I’ve sat on this book for more than a year while trying to decide what to do with it.

I think one of the reasons the book was so popular when it was first published was because I had two very satisfactory subplot romances in it, so readers got a three-for. Which basically killed sequels. In the nineties, we weren’t writing series.

It took a while for me to figure out how to pull a series out of this book, but I’m happy to say this first published book of mine is now the foundation not only of my career but also of The Deceived Series. 

New Cover

I’m completing a Christmas novella that takes place three years after A Duke Deceived and features a fresh romance. His Lady Deceived will release 90 days after the newly edited new release of A Duke Deceived. 

Now I need to think of a plot for a third installment in the series!

I loved my original cover. Harlequin had me fill out a 14-page art fact sheet, and I was thrilled with the final product. I am also happy with my new cover. Which do you prefer? —Cheryl Bolen has written more than 40 books, mostly Regency-set historical romances. Several of her books have won Best Historical awards, and she’s a New York Times and USA Today bestseller whose books have been translated into eight languages. In addition to being a PTA mom and team mom for both her (now grown) sons, she’s been a journalist, an English teacher, antiques dealer, super fan of college football and basketball (especially the Texas Longhorns), frequent traveler to England, and an addict of reading about dead English women. Check out these sites of hers:

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