Ten-Year Anniversary of My Women’s Friendship Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT

This week is the 10-year anniversary of my self-publishing on April 7, 2008, the paperback format of my women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, which was inspired by my first nine weeks as a new U.S. Army Mrs. Lieutenant at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, in the spring of 1970 during the Vietnam War.

I self-published the paperback format with the predecessor of Amazon’s CreateSpace, and when Kindle ebooks became available, I added the Kindle ebook version. During these 10 years many opportunities have opened up for self-publishing authors, and I am grateful for all of these. I am also grateful for the novel’s readers — both women and men — many of whom over the years have written positive reviews on Amazon. (MRS. LIEUTENANT was a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist.)

In addition, I am grateful for the opportunities to be involved with active duty military personnel and their families as well as veterans and their families. These opportunities — “birthed” by the publication of MRS. LIEUTENANT — have enabled me to create more projects connected to the military, especially those promoting the awareness of PTSD (see, for example, www.SolomonsJustice.com).

In commemorating this 10-year publication anniversary, I wanted to share here what I wrote on Amazon about MRS. LIEUTENANT:

The novel MRS. LIEUTENANT took 38 years to be published.

The novel’s saga started when I was a new Mrs. Lieutenant in May 1970 during the Vietnam War and right after the Kent State shootings. The experience introduced me to the world of army wives that I would never have otherwise known.

About 20 years later and after I had started the Los Angeles Chapter of the national organization Sisters in Crime, I told the story of my military spouse experience to two female movie producers. They were intrigued and optioned the story for a movie.

They eventually told me that Hollywood people did not “get” the movie concept and that I would have to first write a book. By the time I wrote the first draft of the novel the producers had moved on.

For another 20 years or so I wrote and rewrote the novel. (It had to be a novel rather than a nonfiction book to protect the people whose stories I wanted to tell.) I created fictional characters and some fictional events for a more compelling story.

Many agents and publishers over the years turned the novel down. But I felt strongly that there was a place for a novel about this slice of women’s social history at the beginning of the women’s movement in the United States.

When POD (print on demand) self-publishing became an option, I decided to self-publish MRS. LIEUTENANT. At the same time I entered it in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. When the book was named a semifinalist of this competition, I felt vindicated for my 38-year belief in sharing this story.

At the same time I stumbled into blogging and social media for book marketing. From that point on I dove into learning as much as possible about this brave new online world.

Now ebooks have opened up the self-publishing world even more — and I’m engaged in publishing more fiction and nonfiction books via Kindle Direct Publishing.

Click here now for the Kindle and paperback versions of MRS. LIEUTENANT. And if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can read the Kindle version for free.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com

Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller