On this day four years ago...

On this day four years ago... I self-published for the first time.

To mark this amazing anniversary, I thought I'd share the story behind how I came to try self-publishing for the first time... I wrote seven books before I sold one in 2007 and ended up doing three books with my first publisher, who wasn't interested in the other books I had written. They rejected most of my earlier books, including Treading Water, True North, Fatal Affair and Maid for Love. Fatal Affair later sold to Carina Press, and the Fatal Series has had a happy home with Carina and Harlequin since 2010. But I had all these other books already written and no one was interested in publishing them. I had readers asking for more of my books, and we were trying to sell them, but the rejections kept on coming. In the summer of 2010, I came close to selling True North to a big NY publisher. My agent and I really thought it was going to happen until we received the rejection that contained the nine words that changed my life: "No one wants to read about a super model." Um, okay then. By then I had received tons and tons and TONS of rejections, and I'd learned to roll with them. They didn't bother me anymore, but that one did. First I cried, then I got MAD--really, really MAD. My unlucky-in-love super model was someone regular women could relate to because she wanted what so many people want: love and family and a place to call home. I believed in her, and I believed in True North.

The True North rejection led me to investigate the new trend of self-publishing through Amazon's new Kindle Direct Publishing program. At that time, it was a risky proposition for an author who had books coming from two different publishers a few months later (the second Fatal book and my third and final book with my first publisher). Self-publishing was so new to the ebook space, that no one knew for sure if I could be sued for publishing on my own ahead of publisher releases. I told my husband I was going to do something that could get us sued. To his credit, he said, "Let me know how it works out."  However, I was under no contractual obligation that would stop me from venturing into the realm of self-publishing. So on Nov. 17, 2010, I self-published True North quietly and without any fanfare. A month later, I self-published The Fall. I sold about 50 copies of True North in the first month and maybe 150 of both books the next month. A free offering of an earlier book the following February, gave a boost to all my books, and my self-pub numbers really took off. I sold nearly 7,000 copies of both self-published books in February 2011. I self-published The Wreck in March, the first month in which I sold more than 10,000 books in a single month. Maid for Love was released in April, Fool for Love in May, Ready for Love in June, Georgia on My Mind in September, Treading Water in October, Marking Time in November and Starting Over in December. I ended 2011 with 650,000 self-published ebook sales and on the last day of 2011, I left the job I'd had for 16 years to write full time.

Fast forward to the end of 2014... Every book I've written is now on sale--all 37 of them (22 are self-published). I've sold more than 3 million copies of my books, mostly in the last three years. I have six of my good friends and my husband working with me. I've been on the New York Times bestseller list 11 times as of last week and I've been blessed with loyal dedicated readers who have made this amazing career possible.

Oh and about True North.... It has sold close to 75,000 copies in the four years it's been on sale, and the dedication now reads: "To the editor who famously said, 'No one wants to read about a super model,' thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. A MILLION times over, thank you."

Now you know the rest of my story. Thanks to my amazing, awesome readers for making all my dreams come true. xoxo

The World According to Brandy: My Side of the Story

By Branderson Cooper "Brandy" Force

I understand my mom has been spreading malicious lies about me on Facebook. First, she told you about the...um...pooping incident in the car. Allow me to explain. They took me to the doctor and he gave me some medicine that knocked me out. When I woke up, my belly was sewed together and I had a lampshade on my head. That look really didn't work for me. The other dogs in the neighborhood were making fun of me. It was a mess. The people I live with kept shoving pills down my throat, and I blame the pills for the in-the-car pooping incident. Even I, who have a seemingly endless supply of poop at the ready at all times, can't poop twice in 20 minutes unless I'm on something. Agreed?

Now, about the welcome mat situation. Can I help it if they put a mat at the door that I find particularly tasty? What's a girl to do with that kind of temptation and nothing but time on her paws? Personally, I find rectangular welcome mats somewhat passe. I mean who doesn't have one of those? How many families can say they have an isosceles triangle for a welcome mat? When the triangle welcome mat becomes the "in thing" will anyone remember that I was the one who started that trend? I like to think of my design sense as avante garde. Deal with it!

The dog door I installed on the back deck was just practical. Easy in, easy out. No muss, no fuss. That's what I'm all about. Busting through the second screen to the big deck just seemed to make sense from an engineering standpoint. If I have access to the small deck, why not the big deck, too? I knew you'd see it my way.

Finally, about yesterday's sofa peeing incident. That was definitely Mom's fault. She went away for DAYS and DAYS and didn't even tell me she was going. Then she came back and rather than spend the entire day playing with me, she was busy on that damned silver thing with the apple on it. So when she put it on the downstairs sofa, I figured if I took a whiz on it then maybe it would have to dry for a while before she could use it. That would buy us some play time, right? Apparently I didn't pee hard enough because after she flipped out, she cleaned it up and went back to work. Rather than play time, I got a time out. Major fail. That silver thing is my enemy when it comes to scoring time with mom. I'm getting out my hard hat and protractor and going back to work to figure out a way to get rid of it. I'll report back to you on my progress.