Embarking on Publishing with Maddison Cole

    Dark Romance author, Maddison Cole, has been writing stories for years and published her first book in April 2020. 

    "When I first started writing, I was working in a school so, clearly I needed anonymity," remarked Cole when asked why she chose to write under a pen name. She was inspired to craft her pen name while having a book hangover aver binging Madison Kate's books. Tate James was another inspirational author to her, along with her aunt. 

    "My auntie was the first person in my day-to-day life who I could share books with," Cole reminisced. "She was diagnosed in September 2019 with stage 4 stomach cancer and I wrote my first book for her to take to chemo. She's in remission now and is still my number one supporter."

    Cole's first book, Exhiled Heir in the Moon Bound Series, was published in April 2020. Cole stated that the series is currently undergoing a rewrite and is planned to be re-released on March 22, 2023 as a completed duet. 

    "[When I first started writing] it wasn't easy! Working full time, at one point I picked up a night-shift job and have two children at home. I wrote when I could, mostly to escape until I was able to pursue it more seriously," stated Cole. "I left my day job within the last year and I haven't been happier since! I write for five hours a day and promote and network the rest of the time. I'm still putting in 12-14 hour days, but it'll all be worth it one day!"

    "I've learned to write what the market likes," Cole continued. "Sometimes I go on a tangent and write something nutty or crazy just to get it off my mind, but for the most part I read and research in my niche and try to stick to that."

    From the moment they start a book to the moment, they send it off to be published, an author's life is consumed by characters, sentence structures, realistic dialogue, and other facets of story development. There is a lot that goes into story crafting and every author has their favorite and least favorite parts of the process. For Cole, her favorite part is the end. 

    "Is it bad to say the end?" Cole asked. "It's not because it's over, but the sense of accomplishment and rush of emotion after a whirlwind of plotting, reworking, and editing is indescribable. I always find the first five or so chapters a bit of a steep hill to climb. Too much thought goes into overplanning, setting the scene, and making sure the characters are relatable. After this hurdle, the words seem to flow much more naturally."

    Like myself, Cole is what's called a 'pantser', meaning she doesn't like overplanning and plotting. She prefers to wing it and let the characters tell her where her stories are supposed to go. 

    "I'm a complete pantser over here," Cole remarked. "I'm trying to get better, developing on creating an arc of a story progression, but I always go off plan. I prefer creative freedom and have always believed if I find my writing exciting, so will the readers."

    Typically it takes Cole 4-6 weeks to write a book. She loves deadlines and finds that setting them helps push her to get her stories written and published in a timely fashion. 

    "I work much better and faster with a tight, approaching deadline," stated Cole. "Otherwise, reading in bed sounds all too appealing!"

    Once she has a story at a point where she feels confident enough to start planning its release, Cole uses her social media sites to hype up the book.

    "I would have to say I'm still winging it [when it comes to planning book releases] but I'm getting better. Sharing snippets on TikTok and building up hype on socials. I have an incredible street team who share for me without fail and so many incredible authors who let me hound their groups with graphics. Sometimes I throw multiple release parties on Facebook, and sometimes I forget...but I make sure to celebrate each one [book] in some small way!"

 

  Cole's most recent book is My Tweedle Boys, a dark romance retelling of Alice in Wonderland. The book is meant for adult audiences and contains graphic descriptions of violence, gore, and sex. It's packed with adventure, dark romance, and detailed settings. Each character has been aged up to the appropriate levels and redeveloped by Cole to create this alternate version of Wonderland that runs on lust. Alice, herself, is a psychiatric patient who finds her way back to the mysterious land with the help of the Tweedle boys and falls in love with all its inhabitants. 

    If you are a fan of dark romance, My Tweedle Boys is a great book to read. Also, the images inside the book are beautiful. I love the title headings. Cole really outdid herself with the formatting and designing of this story.

    To young writers and future authors, Cole says, "Everyone's journey is different. I, personally, wish I had multiple books ready to go before I hit the publish button. What can I say, I get overexcited. But with that, comes the instant pressure to get the next book out, and the next. If I could go back, I'd have a series ready to go, research and understand how to go about promoting better, and have built connections before diving head first [into the publishing world]."

    To learn more about Maddison Cole and her books, you can visit her here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2592610577678883