Happy Book Birthday, The Goblins of Bellwater!
On October 1st, I can officially and proudly welcome The Goblins of Bellwater by Molly Ringle into the world. This cross-category novel, based on Christina Rossetti’s sensual poem, Goblin Market, is set in the majestic Pacific Northwest about four young adults who have the misfortune of encountering a local tribe of goblins has been one of the most anticipated releases we’ve had to date. There’s been so many wins:
- The #1 most requested New Adult title on NetGalley.
- #9 most requested Teen & YA title on NetGalley.
- Positive reviews from Publishers Weekly, Foreword Reviews & Shelf Awareness (forthcoming).
- National listing and in-store promotions at Barnes & Noble.
- Listed in the top 100 most popular titles releasing in October 2017 on Goodreads.
- Nominated for library young adult awards – (more news on that as it’s released.)
- Scores of amazing blogger reviews – and more to come! (Here’s just one example.)
We are truly honoured and pleased about these initial successes. Of course, not everyone has loved the book; in fact, we’d gotten so many bad early reviews of the book, that not all that long ago, we were starting to doubt what we had created. It seems that some early reviewers didn’t care for the romance, or the fact that the protagonists were older adults but could appeal to a slightly younger audience, or that there wasn’t enough fantasy; or that readers felt cat-fished by what they described as a beautiful cover. Honestly there were so many complaints. Early on, we did listen to a few of these issues, and changed small things based on the helpful suggestions from these reviewers. In the end, we released a book that we felt good about while staying true to the original story. This whole pre-release has felt like riding a roller coaster, full of ups and downs from minute to minute. Throughout this process, we kept our sanity by deciding that this meme accurately summed up how we felt:
So, like it or love it, The Goblins of Bellwater is finally here, (but we truly do hope you love it though). To celebrate the release, we are giving away some really fun prizes, enter to win here!