I Wrote and Released a Romance Book In 14 Days

Estimated Reading Time: 9min

I did it! The book is released and available as an eBook on Amazon and I can now proudly (somewhat) say that I have written and released a book in just 14 days. Was it the 7 days I was hoping for? No. Is it better now, having given myself another week for structural edits. Yes. Let’s look at what it took to get this book out there into the world.

The Book Itself

So, what the heck is the book about?

Bex isn’t looking for love; she’s just trying to buy a truck. But one misdialed number lands her on the phone with Nick, the owner of a small‑town construction company who drags her into his plan for payback. What starts as a funny mix‑up turns into the realization that Nick is Bex’s new boss… but she doesn’t date co-workers.

When Bex moves to his quiet coastal town with her retired parents to start over, she finds more than fresh air and friendly faces. When she stars working in Nick’s office, she agrees to use her background in banking to try and solve the mysterious issues the company is having. Nick is trying to ignore their chemistry, now that Bex is working for him, but seems determined to keep her close, even when she insists she doesn’t need protecting.

Sweet, cozy, and full of heart, this closed‑door romance blends small‑town charm with a touch of intrigue. And it all begins with one wrong number.

Writing

So, the goal of this was to see if this was possible. An exercise, if you will, of my creative genius (just kidding… chaos, is more accurate). Going into writing this, I don’t think I would have done it without a pretty in depth outline. Knowing exactly where the characters were going to end up, how the chapters were going to be written, and having a full week off with not much else to do.. all of that went into it being possible. Having said that, once the initial grammatical edits had been made, it was pretty clear when I got a manuscript analysis that A LOT was missing.

Before I go any further, apparently it’s important for some people to know this: I DID NOT USE AI IN THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK.

Whew. Sorry to yell at you, but I wanted to make that crystal clear. Does this mean I would recommend authors to write a book and release it in 7-14 days? No. I would not. I know that I did, and I posted it, and I’m even working on the next few books in the Hartwell Grove world, however under normal circumstances, yeah, this was not a great plan. It was difficult, stressful, and in general, not an incredibly creative experience. Having more space to write these will definitely make the output a lot better. Eventually, I may look back at this first book (which length wise really sits more comfortably in novella territory) and give it an update, but for now, we’re rolling with it.

Edits

ProWritingAid has a manuscript analysis report that you can run for one credit. When I signed up, I got a free credit, so I though this was the perfect moment to use it. Boy, it spat out a lot of information for me, and lots of it was really great advice. There were massive plot holes, pretty dangerous messaging that I hadn’t picked up, and in general, a few missing beats that needed to be cleaned up.

Once I went through a week of re-writes and 2nd draft style edits, I had the story in a MUCH better place that I was honestly a lot happier with anyway. I know that if I had been able to do a few more full book self-edits, it would have been even better still… having said that, I’m pretty proud of where it was at for just 14 days. There are plenty of Amazon released books that read like they had NO editing, so I’m already working with a leg up on the competition… I think

Cover Deisgn

One of the most important decisions you can make for a book, is the cover design. It’s what draws people initially to checking out your story, so it had to be good. Only problem was, I had no money to pay someone. Good news for me, though, is that I’m a graphic design student who LOVES designing things exactly like this. So, I did.

I’ve read a broad range of fiction, so I’ve seen a ton of different covers, including romance. I thought that, along with being a graphic designer myself (starting out still counts!), I was pretty qualified to create it, and I am so proud of the cover design, actually. Does it look like many of the other covers out there? Yes. Is that a good thing? Also, yes. It makes it clear to the reader what kind of story they can expect (along with them actually looking at the description, of course). Familiarity is a plus for this particular project. Deciding to screen record the process, was also so fun. I can now go back and watch the process any time I want 🙂

Release

Social media is not my fav to have to deal with, but I did post a bunch in the leadup and for the release of this book. A lot more than normal. While I don’t tend to get too much traffic generally, I’m hoping this does at least a little in terms of telling people about the book itself.

Now we get to the release decisions. There are a lot of options these days for releasing a self-published book, one of which is Amazon. I know, I know… Amazon’s business practices are not the best, but let’s talk about why I made the call.

Firstly, I knew that I only wanted to start out releasing this book as an eBook. I know a lot of people don’t actually read eBooks, and that’s okay. I wanted to get a feel for whether people would actually even care about this book before committing to other formats (although, I am a pretty good book narrator…). Amazon also gave me a few great options.

No ISBN

Last time I published a book, my ‘publisher’ handled the ISBN’s for me. I didn’t even know they cost money until I looked into this challenge. Fortunately for me, Amazon doesn’t require an ISBN, they give you their own version of this. However, I did originally plan on getting one anyway. The only problem? I’m broke, and they cost money. $88 for 10 ISBNs is not actually a large amount in the scheme of things, but I didn’t have it. So, by the time I released, I just had to roll with the free number from Amazon. Annoying for the future, but oh well.

Amazon KDP

KDP is a great way to get my book out there to readers who may not have originally considered buying it. They get to read it as part of their kindle subscription, and I get the views.. win-win. Maybe. There are a lot of competing books out there, so I still have to hope that mine gets its way to people, but fingers crossed.

Free Chapter One

Don’t worry… if you don’t support Amazon, I decided to give people a link to chapter one of this book for free. It will give people a chance to test out the story and see if they think reading the full thing would be worth it. The link won’t be up forever, but at least for now people can check it out and have a nosy look… then hopefully want to continue the story with the full book.

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You know, after going through this process, I can safely say that writing this quickly is not super ideal. However, I also know that I can create something that I’m still pretty proud of in a quicker turn around time than one book a year… so long as it’s not a fantasy book because that world building is nuts!

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace