Last night on Twitter, fellow Carina Press author Marie Force asked for recommendations of movies that might become classics in the future. A short discussion ensued, and I mentioned Shakespeare in Love while Carina editor Deb Nemeth suggested Lord of the Rings.
But it got me thinking ...when does a book or a movie receive that 'classic' status? I think certain movies from the 50s have already passed the bench mark - Some Like It Hot anyone?
And what is the benchmark? For books is it that the book defines something in our society such as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird? Is it numbers sold or that it got made into a movie or became part of our vernacular? Lord of the Rings definitely qualifies on all fronts and I definitely think it should rate 'classic' status. (Considering it was voted the Best Book of the Century in 1999, it probably does.)
For movies, is it based on box office receipts or Oscars -- because I have to object to Titanic ever being considered a classic, despite its records box office receipts or the number of Oscars it received. (I must admit to laughing through the last half of it, begging the writer--Canadian James Cameron--to please please please give Rose something to say other than "Jack"! OMG That could have turned into a case of alcohol poisoning if I'd used that as a drinking game.) Or is it that there's a message embedded? Will Thelma and Louise become a 'classic'? Or The Terminator?
So tell me, what movies or books released since...oh, let's arbitrarily say since 1970, do you think should qualify as being future classics?
My newest book for Samhain, Brand New Me (released December 7), takes place largely in a bar owned by the hero. I know just what that bar looks like because it’s based on a restaurant/bar the hubs and I used to frequent in the Hill Country. I also know just what Docia Toleffson’s bookstore looks like as well as the converted barn where she lives with Cal Toleffson. I know all of these places because, of course, I created them and did my best to describe them to my readers. Coming up with mental images of my settings when I write is usually no problem. I write about places like the Hill Country that I know pretty well, so I’ve got a lot of possibilities to choose from.
But what happens when I’m reading somebody else’s book and I have to picture their settings in my mind? I blush to admit it, but it doesn’t matter how well the author describes the place—the mental images I usually end up with are most frequently based on places that are already cluttering up my brain.
Take apartments, for example. The first apartment I ever saw belonged to my grandmother in Wichita, Kansas. Oddly enough, even now when I read a book that’s set in an apartment, my mental image is frequently based on that rather cramped old lady space. Alternatively, it may be the first apartment the hubs and I lived in when we were grad students in Seattle. All the Stephanie Plum novels have taken place there for some reason, which is sort of difficult because it was a lot further off the ground floor than Stephanie’s place in Janet Evanovich’s novels.
Stories set in houses frequently end up in the house where I grew up. Grand dining halls in regency historicals often shrink down to the table for eight and the built-in china cabinet where my mother used to keep her Fiesta ware.
School rooms are relatively easy—they tend to be in one of the places where I taught. Urban settings sometimes draw on cities where I spent some time: Seattle or Philadelphia or San Antonio, for example. But sometimes they get reduced down to Wichita, which has occasionally subbed in my brain for Los Angeles or New York City.
Let me say here that this tendency of my mind to supply familiar settings has nothing to do with the ability of individual authors to describe their settings. The author may do her job quite skillfully, and I love a meticulous description as much as anybody, but my mind is still going to go straight to a setting I recognize as the story progresses.
I have no idea why my mind works this way, or if it’s just me. I’d guess it’s because I’m too busy following the story to take the time to manufacture a totally new mental image to go along with whatever the author is trying to describe. Classic mysteries, with their meticulous descriptions of the locked room where the murder took place, used to drive me crazy because I could never really picture the action as happening anywhere but my standard settings, and in a lot of books by people like John Dickson Carr, the solution to the mystery depended on having a solid mental image of the room where the murder took place.
So hey, you guys who are really great at descriptions, I appreciate the hell out of what you’re trying to do. But the sad fact is, as far as my reader’s imagination is concerned, your story takes place in my granny’s apartment.
So am I the only one who does this? Does everybody else build a new mental image for each book? Or do you find your brain returning to those same old familiar places time after time?
Long Time Gone by Meg Benjamin
A future with the woman of his dreams is within his grasp…if the past will stay that way.
Konigsburg, Book 4
Erik Toleffson wasn’t looking to become Chief of Police. He’s got enough trouble trying to rebuild his relationship with his three brothers who, until just recently, ran the other way when he approached. He’s not the bully they grew up with, but bad memories are tough to overcome.
Morgan Barrett is as worn out as a vat full of crushed grape skins. She never planned to run Cedar Creek Winery, but there’s no one else to shoulder the load as her father recovers from an injury. All she needs is a little sleep. Just a five-minute nap in the booth at the Dew Drop Inn…if that guy across the bar would stop staring at her as if putting her head down on the table is a crime.
After Morgan yawns in Erik’s face, there’s nowhere to go but up. With time, though, their relationship warms like a perfectly blended Bordeaux. Until the shady mayor digs into Erik’s past and dredges up information that could drive a permanent wedge between him and his brothers—and sour any chance of a future with Morgan.
Warning: Contains hot sex with mango sherbet, crooked politicians, yuppie bikers, Bored Ducks, and a Maine Coon Cat with attitude.
Meg Benjamin is the author of the Konigsburg series for Samhain Publishing. Book #4, Long Time Gone, was a Romantic Times Top Pick for Contemporary, and book #5, Brand New Me, will be released by Samhain on December 7. Meg lives in Colorado with her DH and two rather large Maine coon kitties (well, partly anyway).
You know yesterday's post and how it ended with a picture of Karl Urban? Well, Gizmo Guy reads my blog. And raised an eye brow at the Yummy comment I'd left below Karl's picture. (he was smiling, don't worry.)
I started plotting book #4...oh, ages ago. And as part of the writing process, I gather pictures of people that I can envision as my characters. Over a year ago -- long before I saw the new Star Trek movie -- I collected the picture of Karl I used yesterday. (I've kinda had a thing for him ever since I saw him as Eomer in The Two Towers. Man, he looks good with long blonde hair. And he can act too!) Then on the weekend we went to see Red and OMG I just KNEW that I'd cast the right man as Troy, because the character Karl plays in Red is very similar to Troy.
So I figured I'd give Gizmo Guy some things to smile about today. By sharing some pictures of my inspiration for the heroines for Book #3 and my current WIP which, if my editor likes it, will become book #4 in the series.
My heroine in book #3 is named Lauren. She's a strong kick-ass former FBI-now secret agent/hostage negotiator. As well as Chad's ex-wife. The two of them have to battle not only a threat from outside but each other. Is it any wonder I was inspired by Ashley Judd (we'd watched a lot of her in Double Jeopardy).
And for my yet untitled Book #4? Well, the heroine is Sam's assistant, Sandy. If you've read Personal Protection, does she match what you envisioned?
So often we're told, that we're judged by first appearances. So what do these pictures tell you of Sandy?
It's still Monday, so I'm not posting this late. Exactly. I decided to put my writing before my blog posts today.
I'm going to try to wind up my publishing terminology posts today. I let my "teacher" side run wild last week...sorry.
While your editor is working on edits, there is a lot of other work to be done too. There are blurbs (or that short story introduction you read on the back cover of a book, usually referred to as "Back Cover Copy" or BCC.) Sometimes an author has input on this, sometimes not. It's a tough job to try to condense a story into a thousand characters or so (the limit Carina books have) and still convey the conflict and romance that a reader would want to buy it over another choice.
There's the cover to be dreamed up -- some publishers send the author an artwork sheet to fill out where they can describe the physical attributes of their characters (hair color, skin tone, height, anything that might be useful if a body is to be used in the artwork), any special symbols -- should the hero (or heroine) have a tattoo, and where. Does the heroine need to be wearing pearls or a broach of some significance to the story. Is it paranormal? Should there be a hint of wings or fangs or a tail? Again, depending upon the publishing house the author may have absolutely no input, this will be done by the overworked editor -- don't forget they're usually working on multiple books by multiple authors at the same time. While you'll often see an author squeeing over their beautiful new covers, there are also plenty of horror stories floating around about horrible covers. Just ask Lynn Viehl about her flourescent pink hero, or Christina Dodd about her three armed heroine. Yup, totally out of the authors' hands with some houses. I've been thinking about inviting a cover artist on to talk about how she goes about creating a cover. Would you be interested?
POD or Print On Demand: The larger publishers automatically print their books -- look at all those books in the bookstores and libraries, after all. But smaller publishers such as Samhain, while they do print some of their books, offer their books as Print On Demand or POD. This means that they don't print it until they have an order. It saves on warehousing and printing costs. The larger publishers may have a print run of 5,000 books (usually more) and if only 1,000 sell they have to do something with the extra 4,000. Usually destroy them, or offer them at a bargain basement cost (called remaindering which I'll explain below.) But they've already paid money for the printer to print them and the warehouse to store them.
Remaindered Books: For a better explanation, check this Wiki article. These are the books you find in the Half-Price book stores, or for bargain basement prices. As in $2 for a hardcover. Yeah, the author doesn't see much if any royalties from these ones.
Stripped book: As much as I hate to think about it, the bookstores do not keep all those beautiful copies of the books they receive. If they order in five copies of a book and only one sells, they can only keep the other four copies on the shelf for so long before they need to free up the space for new books that might sell. With paperbacks, they strip the cover off the book and return it to the publisher to prove they've not sold it. The rest of the book, sans cover, is tossed into the garbage. Yup. Thrown away. (That's why books often have a warning on the inside pages: "If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."" It's another form of piracy.
There are a million other terms out there, but my brain's running on empty. Got any you've heard that left you scratching your head?
Oh, just thought of one last term you may see me use: WIP - Work In Progress. Which is funny because I used to use that term for my sewing projects too. I've got three WIPS on the go right now, though only one I'm actively writing on, that's a Hauberk Book #4, a yet untitled project but it follows Troy (whom you haven't met...yet, though he was mentioned in Personal Protection.) Want to know whose picture I have posted up over my monitor for inspiration?
Just popping my head in to say hey! It's been a hellabusy week on so many fronts.
On the "Real Life" front: On Tuesday, the Jeep Gizmo Guy bought 29 days before (used, not brand new) was making a funny noise so he took it into the garage for them to look at. Which meant he needed to use my car to get to work until he got his back. Except I needed my car because Curly's been sick and not getting better and I needed to get him to the doctor. So (this gets confusing, try to keep up!) Wednesday I had to drive Gizmo Guy into work, then come home and phone the doctor who told me to come right in which meant we had to sit in his waiting room for an hour before we got to see him, but still I'm thankful we got in on such short notice. Turned out Curly's cold has turned into pneumonia, and we were sent to the X-ray lab for another hour long wait. Since he's feeling pretty lousy, I drove him home (it was noon by then) and dropped him off while I went to fill his antibiotic prescription and then pick up Gizmo Guy and go to our optometrist appointment. Good news there -- Gizmo Guy's eyes have actually gotten better since his diabetes diagnosis. The optometrist said that high sugar levels cause the lens of the eye to swell, so when the sugar levels drop they return to normal. Bad news, my eyes have worsened which means yet another pair of new glasses. Minor in the grand scheme of things, but annoying when the savings account has been drained to replace the car Guitar Hero crashed back in the spring.
Anyway, we got home from the optometrists at 4 pm to find a message from Gizmo Guy's car guy to say his Jeep is a write-off. Apparently whoever sold it to them had bodged something or other and the frame had actually cracked and was hanging down. Yeah, that was a real WTF moment. How the heck did it pass the safety inspection in the first place? But the phone call meant a trip to their garage out in another town to take a look at the Jeep, then a trip back to our town to talk to the salesman who luckily (both for us and for him) didn't try to play hardball and try the old Caveat Emptor routine but agreed to give us our money back.
Because he knew I needed my own wheels, and because he'd fallen in love with having a 4-wheel drive for the winter, Gizmo Guy wanted to go car shopping. Which meant a trip to the various dealerships around. So he found another Jeep, this one a year newer than the last, in another dealership in yet another farther-away town and put the money down on that, along with the last of our savings. (Akkk) We arrived home at about 8 p.m. Which meant not much writing got done.
BUT Gizmo Guy's now got his new Jeep now, Curly's on his antibiotics, and I think he's feeling better. Sorta. It's hard to tell considering he's still hacking and coughing. But he's eating better now which I'm taking as a good sign. And I've ordered a pair of new glasses which means I won't have to be playing shove-the-chair-back-while-enlarging-the-monitor-font-to-200% for much longer.
On the writing front: You're probably wondering when I'm going to tell you why I was happy dancing last week and the week before. I really can't say much other than I've received two offers from my two publishers on two stories I've submitted to them. But I don't really want to say much more than that until I have the contracts. *Fingers crossed all the contract stuff goes through well* Once everything's in place, I'll be able to give you more details. But it's also created an interesting dilemma. Which book do I write for which series next?
And also on the writing front, the great people over at Bitten by Paranormal Romance have created the Top Bite award for "Excellent Books read in 2010" I'm thrilled that Texas Tangle has been included on their list even though it's not paranormal.
Oh, and don't forget that the two contests I'm participating in are still ongoing. But time is running out on them both. There's the Spook-a-palooza contest to win a Kindle, put on by the Samhain authors on the Samhellion site. I'm also giving away a print copy of Personal Protection in the Raven Hallowe'en Hunt. You've got a week left to enter. Go to the sites, follow the directions to enter. Get cracking. (You can click on the links above, or on the graphics on my sidebar.)
Earlier this week, I’d started a series of posts about the various terms authors may use that someone outside the industry may not be familiar with. So far you’ve created your manuscript, written a query letter and a synopsis, submitted it/them to an agent or editor, as well as submitting the partial, and have progressed to the stage where they’ve also read the full. You may have even received an R&R letter (Revise and Resubmit – where an editor says “I really like this book but I’m having a problem with XX character or Such-and-such a situation. Can you change…” )
Some editors have the power to offer a contract to you using their own discretion. Some editors must send your submission on to an acquisitions committee who will discuss all the other editors' recommendations as well. Your editor may love your book but another editor will have a book they love just as much and they'll have to battle it out for the one free spot on the publishing schedule. It can come down to who is more passionate, or who has a better standing with the committee. It may also come down to which story has the better synopsis or query letter or blurb. (Or maybe they just flip a coin. It's a mystery ;) )
So now you've made it past the acquisition committee and you’ve received “The Call” or “The Email”. After you're done your happy dancing, you’ve agonized over some clauses in your contract and now, possibly after some negotiation, you’ve got a signed contract from your publisher sitting on your desk so you feel confident in crowing the good news from the rooftops.
It may have taken only a few weeks or it may have taken a year or more to get to this point (from subbing to your editor/publisher, not writing it, that may have taken you many years.)
What can you expect next? You may receive a whole flurry of other paperwork – W7, W8 and W9 forms that have to be filled out. If you’re not American, and you’re being published by an American publisher, you may have to supply an ITIN number which means you have to gird your loins and face the US IRS. OMG that’s a post that’s just too confusing because everyone gets a different answer/experience.You may be invited to join the publisher's insider loops, or encouraged to get active on their forums.
At some point you may be asked to fill out a cover art sheet (it depends upon the publisher) and I'll talk about that in Monday's post.
The main thing an author must concentrate on, and stress over, since they're usually on a deadline, is the edits.
Now, the number of edits an author receives depends upon a number of factors such as how clean your original manuscript is, and the publishing house’s standards. How long you get to do to them varies depending on a lot of factors.
Some editors work strictly on hardcopy, so they'll courier your manuscript with lots of notes on it. Or you may just get a letter (usually multiple pages) outlining the changes your editor requires on a point by point basis. Once you're done, you have to pay to have it couriered back to them. And you have to factor that delivery time into your deadlines.
Some publishing houses, especially the epublishers such as Samhain and Carina, do electronic editing where we can send Word documents using Track Changes. (I’ve included graphics below so you can see what it looks like – additions are often shown in one color (blue perhaps) and deletions are either struck out or changed to red. (In the sample below, my version of Word strikes through a deletion ,strike through, like this. And then there are lots of little comments scattered throughout that appear as balloons on the side.
I’ve only ever had electronic edits, so I’m going to be talking about that process.
Developmental edits are usually changes you need to make to strengthen the story or tighten a section where it's sagging or develop a character to a deeper depth. Your story may or may not need them. And sometimes they're done at the same time as the copy edits below. An example of a developmental edit is a note I found on the very last page of Personal Protection:
“For some reason, I’m left feeling that his [Sam’s] feelings for Jill and her death aren’t completely resolved, like Jill will always be the specter that looms over their relationship...[not] convincing the reader of their HEA. I’m not sure what would do it. A love scene? Something more in the way of him convincing her rather than her coercing him? Any thoughts?”
Obviously, the original version of Personal Protection ended quite differently. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I ended up cutting out the last 2K of the original ending, and writing a whole new ending that was more than 5,000 words. I was worried for a while that it might be too dark, but I love it, and I’m so glad my editor liked it as well. With Texas Tangle, I ended up adding over 8,000 words, including deleting one scene and replacing it with another (where Dillon's watching Nikki train her colt while he talks with his father.)
Once any bumps in the story are smoothed out, then your editor turns her attention to the actual writing or the Copy Edits. It’s really interesting because a single line notation by your editor can either lead to a small easy change, or a really long intensive edit.
The second graphic shows you that a short note can end up in quite a lengthy change as in several pages, or having to go back to foreshadow something earlier on or follow up on it later. You'd be surprised how a small change in chapter one or two can cascade throughout the entire story.
I can tell the difference between my editor's comments and my own because Word inserts the initials of the comment creator as well as the # comment it is. So LB26 would be the 26th comment/notation made by Leah Braemel (me) and RMS84 means that's my editor's 84th notation. (yes, that number got a LOT higher.)
And I mustn’t forget the little notes Rhonda and Angela have made either within an email or within the document. Comments like “You like the word ‘really’ in this manuscript. Can you go through and see how many you can get rid of?”and “There are an awful lot of em dashes. Go through and get rid of at least half.” Getting rid of all the incidents of really was a fairly quick and easy fix. The em dashes? Well, it turned out I am a serial em-dash addict. (What’s an em dash? It’s a triple-long dash that is used to show interruptions in thought or speech.) Authors -- sometimes your critique partners may pick up on this. I also use a program called Autocrit.com. I plug in my manuscript in 8K segments. It analyzes the number of times I've reused a word or phrase and suggests how many to get rid of. (It does other things as well like look for cliches but there are other sites available, or as I said, a good critique partner who can look for them.)
FLEs or Final Line Edits: Once you’ve returned the changes and your editor has approved them, the manuscript gets handed to a line-editor who checks the grammar and punctuation. They are also very talented at spotting inconsistencies such as the hero had blue eyes on page 36 and green eyes on page 97 or that you like repeating certain phrases. VERY talented. And very thorough.
Considering I usually go through a manuscript dozens of times, and at least three critique partners have also gone over my document before I even submit it, AND my editor and I have gone through the document multiple times again as we’re editing, I often feel like pounding my head against a desk at some of the things the copy editor still manages to find that we’ve missed. I’m not cursing the editor but that I’ve missed them myself. I’m very grateful that they are finding those errors because I’d hate to think that the book might have been released with an error that a reader would notice. And they WILL notice. Count on it.
Galleys: the final phase of edits. This is once the book has been put into the format it'll be printed in. The author may receive them either in print form, or in a PDF format. It'll have those neat little swirls or special graphic figures separating scenes. Maybe you'll have a special drop cap at the start of each chapter (that's where the first letter is about an inch high and the other text scrolls around it) Maybe there's a slightly different font for the first few characters of the first line. You know, those things that make a book special, unique. Lynsay Sand's Argeneau series often have a drop cap with a gothic type font. Sarah McCarty's Hell's 8 books from Spice have a graphic of two guns crossing barrels above the chapter number. The pages will also have the title on one page and the author's name at the top of the alternate page. You know, all the formatting that makes a book look like a book, not a Word document.
This is where an author, especially a first time author, stops and thinks "OMG, this is actually coming true. I'm going to be in print!" They then have to go through them line by line from start to finish checking that everything is correct from the copyright notice, the dedication through to where it says "the end". This is the author's FINAL opportunity to correct any errors -- at this stage you should only be finding small things, such as a missed space or too many spaces. Hopefully. I'm not sure what happens if you discover a major plot flaw.
I think I've covered everything about edits, and of course each house, and each editor does things a little differently, so your mileage may vary. I'll pick up the rest of the terminology next Monday. Have a great weekend!
Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! I’d like to say a big thank you to Leah for having me do a guest spot on her blog!
I’ve been crazy busy these past few weeks as my second book, His Darkest Embrace hits the shelves on Tuesday, October 26th! I’m excited, scared, excited and freaking terrified! Writing a book is like having a baby…it cooks for a long time and then the inevitable happens…it arrives and you go Holy Crap….I made that?
But enough about that. I’ve been doing a lot of guest blogs etc and want to talk about music instead of my jaguars.
I am the kind of writer who can’t listen to music while actually writing. I’m a singer and well when a song is playing that I know, I can’t turn it off and will start to sing. It’s hard to write and sing at the same time. I will however listen to music to get me in a certain frame of mind for a scene. For example, at the end of the last book I wrote there was an intense fight scene and I listened to the soundtrack of BlackHawk Down. The music was heavy, aggressive and perfect for where my head was at.
The same goes for when I’m writing an emotional scene. Nothing words better than listening to a sad song that pulls at the heartstrings.
So my question today is, what song brings you to your knees? The one that makes you cry no matter where you are?
What about your fave party song? The one that lifts your spirits whenever you hear it?
I’ll check back and share my picks and am looking forward to hearing yours!
His Darkest Embrace
A solitary hunter with no regard for the human world, Jagger Castille is a shifter living on the edge. A woman who calls him enemy will give him reason to live . . .
Jagger is a creature of the night—Skye Knightly soars in the sun. Natural adversaries, they are now joined in a mission entrusted to Skye's family centuries ago: nothing less than the salvation of the Earth.
Wounded and bitter, Jagger sought escape in the solitude of the jungle, driven by a need to disappear forever . . . until a mysterious shifter who calls to his soul and feeds a yearning long forgotten pulls him from his dark path. A courageous warrior, Skye's passion is equal to Jagger's—but can she trust a man whose secrets are as devastating as her own?
Each is the other's sole hope for survival. But a dark and twisted truth is leading them toward the ultimate sacrifice for a love they may never live to claim.
Kaily Hart, a seemingly straight-laced mother of four left corporate America and a high-powered, lucrative career to be a stay at home mom. Ha! That lasted about four weeks, during which time she realized she had a deeply repressed dream - to write. Romance! By day, Kaily plays conservative wife and soccer mom, but at night crafts hot and steamy tales of romance and love with gorgeous heroes who wouldn’t dream of leaving the toilet set up. Ever. She’s smart and sassy, at least in her own mind, and is trying her best to bring the alpha male solidly back to contemporary romance, one hot story at a time. Two years ago she never would have thought she’d be doing this, but now that she is? It just feels so right…
Reader Comments
Before I was published I used to think about, dream about, fantasize about all the fantastic reviews I’d get LOL. When I published my first book, I received a lot of reviews. I thought they were all great (thankfully J) and very gratifying. I read and re-read many of them, loving how the book was interpreted, how the characters came across and I enjoyed hearing how others had enjoyed something I’d actually written! It was a great treat and a wonderful experience. Since then, I’ve come to realize that while reviews are fantastic and validate to some degree the writing, what really matters is what general readers think. At least to me. I recently had my second book, PAY UP come out from Ellora’s Cave. When I say recently, I mean that literally, as in last Friday! It’s early days for the book of course, but I’ve received some incredible comments so far from readers. One in particular had me smiling so much, I thought I’d share it and say why it struck me so strongly.
This book made me whimper...seriously, whimper! Wow, talk about intense! Two very sweet characters who finally hook up together and the sparks fly. What was really awesome though was how amazingly well the emotional connection came through from start to finish. (My husband's going to thank you for this one when I get done with him!)
I love this comment, I really do. Why? I can tell she connected with my characters. The intensity I was aiming for came through in the story for her. The characters, although not perfect, are sweet in a way, although the hero is unquestionably alpha. Rio is a little different than my typical (rough, tough, mega-alpha) hero. He is a little sweeter, a little ‘nicer’, and I wrote him deliberately that way. I’m so glad that came across. The most important thing for me when I write romance (and erotic romance especially) is the emotional thread of the story. I work hard at getting that right—through dialogue, actions, and the sex/love scenes in particular. The characters aren’t just connecting physically, they’re merging in other ways. It’s the core of the story for me and my goal is to create an emotionally satisfying read. I think that came through for this particular reader. It seems like she thought the sex was hot (yay!) but I think I touched her emotions (and other things) as well J. I really was so delighted to read this. She made my day, my week and possibly my month!!
It’s had me thinking a lot about feedback over the last couple of days. Receiving comments like this is so touching, so special. They just mean so much. When I read it, I was immediately inspired and energized to get with it and complete the current book I’m working on. It had me wanting to get something else out there that someone else could enjoy and perhaps this reader would also like. As a relatively new author, I don’t get a great deal of these comments. I hope that increases over time because I just love hearing from people who’ve read a book of mine. SO, it had me wondering…do you leave comments on publisher or book seller sites? Send comments directly to authors? Why/why not? Do you take notice of other comments left about a book from others?
At least that’s what Carly Wagner wanted Rio Reyes to be. She’d settled for two out of three for almost a year and it just wasn’t enough. Not anymore. When Rio proposes a shockingly sexual bet, she knows it’s out of character and he’s not really serious, yet she can’t resist. The pay off could be finally getting her hands on the gorgeous firefighter she’s drooled over since she moved in next door.
The timing had never seemed right for him and Carly, but that hadn’t stopped Rio from imagining wild and wicked things about her. It had been a joke—sort of, but Rio’s shocked when she takes him up on the dumbass bet. Now he’s in a world of hurt, because regardless of who wins, he might be crossing a line he never thought he would and jeopardize a friendship that means more to him than anything.
A couple of housekeeping notes before I get into the rest of the day's posts: I'm participating in Spook-a-palooza contest with other Samhain authors. Go on over to www.samhellion.com for all the details--you can win a Kindle along with other prizes.
The Raven Scavenger Hunt is also still on. If you haven't had a chance to head over, there are a lot of books (both print and e-copies) in the pot, including an autographed print copy of my Personal Protection. Head over to www.RavenHappyHour.com for the details on how to enter.
Okay, back to more publishing terminology that came up on Saturday and may have confused new members, and may confuse non-writers when I blog about it, or authors over on Twitter mention the terms...
The Call: It very literally is a phone call from an agent offering to represent you, or from an editor saying they loved your book and want to offer you a contract for it. Note, you usually don't get a phone call for your subsequent books, only your first. And each publisher handles "the call" differently. Samhain doesn't phone, so I didn't get "The Call" for Private Property, I got "The Email" which I printed off and framed. I did however get "The Call" for Texas Tangle from Carina. Even though I got it back in February, I still have it stored on my list of missed messages. (Because I couldn't answer the phone, damn it! Angela had the temerity to phone when I was in the shower. But I saved it, and every week when the automated system replays it saying it wants to delete it, I get to listen to it again and hit re-save. "The Email" came during a thunderstorm when I had to turn off my computer. So maybe when I'm waiting for a response from an editor, I should stay out of my office?)
The Contract! a multiple page document (as in 10 to 14 pages, YMMV) filled with legalese discussing print rights and film rights and edits and deadlines and royalties and all sorts of other scary/exciting terms. First off, this document can affect the rest of your career. It's like the deed to your house. You need to READ IT CAREFULLY! And understand it. Some parts are negotiable, some are not. This is where an agent comes in really handy because they'll be the one to do the negotiations for you. There are multiple resources available on the web that can explain the various terms in much more depth. Agent Kristin Nelson has blogged extensively about contracts so for a thorough discussion, head on over to her blog and check out her sidebar. Before signing, Do. Your. Homework!
I am not a legal expert, I am merely explaining terms for non-writers to understand when you hear us bemoaning them.
I didn't have an agent for any of my contracts. But that doesn't mean you have to handle the contract on your own. There is another option. And that's by hiring a ....
Literary Attorney: If you don't have an agent who can go through your contract and make sure you're getting the best deal, and not signing away rights you shouldn't sign away, you can hire a literary attorney to look at your contract.They may even have the ability to negotiate with the publisher for you. This is one of the few times that money will flow away from the author instead of toward it. You'll have to pay the literary attorney a retainer (usually equal to whatever it would cost to consult with them for an hour.) Then they'll bill you hourly from there. But an investment of $200-300 (yes, that's all it costs) may end up saving you a lot of money, and headaches, in the long run.
If you don't have an agent I HIGHLY recommend you at least have your first contract checked out so you get the best deal possible, and don't sign rights away that you shouldn't. (Second and subsequent contracts are generally based upon the first one.)
Oh, and a literary attorney specializes in publishing contracts. Do not think that the guy who handled your home purchase or wrote your will can negotiate your publishing contract. They can do more damage to your career because they don't understand how the industry works and what your rights mean. I have heard of authors who have had a publisher withdraw the deal because of a non-literary attorney's interference.
Back to the contract terms: Again, I'm not an expert, I'm simply talking about terms you may hear us bemoaning on our blogs or on Twitter or Facebook. For much better explanations, head over to Kristin's blog or other more knowledgeable resources.
Option Clause: this is also known as the Right of First Refusal clause. Some publishing houses, not all, require that you submit your next manuscript to them before submitting to anywhere else. You may or may not be able to negotiate it out of your contract. Why have an option clause? Well, the publisher has invested in you already with one book, so they want to take advantage of that investment and not see another publisher profit from the buzz they've created. Why's it important for an author to worry about? Well, it takes some of your choice away. Suppose you didn't have a good experience with the publisher and never want to submit to them again. Or you want to submit to another publisher with bigger exposure or better royalty rates. Or start an agent hunt? You can't until this publisher has given you the thumbs down on your manuscript.
In this business, it never hurts to diversify. Remember the saying "Never Put Your Eggs All in One Basket"? Same goes here. If a publisher has financial difficulties down the road, the rights to any books they've published will get held up in court (because despite any wording in a contract, the courts WILL seize your rights as part of the publisher's assets and you'll lose any ability to resell your book elsewhere)
Some authors have no problems signing an option clause, some do. It's a personal choice and one you need to understand BEFORE you sign on any dotted line.
Moral Rights Clause: Moral Rights doesn't mean what you think. It means the publisher wants the right to bring in another author to edit your work and, depending upon the wording in the contract, publish it under your name. You should have heard the gasps that went up in the room on Saturday when this was mentioned. As Eve Silver pointed out, some publishers translate their books and offer them for sale in different countries. So say they want to release a book in Farsi for distribution in the middle east and need to change the alcohol your characters are drinking to soda so as not to upset the sensibilities of the readers. Unless you speak Farsi, there is no way you are going to be able to edit that edition, are you? Or suppose the author signed the contract and the publisher has put their book on the rotation but the author refuses to edit the book or something happens so they can't. The publisher has already invested money in the process and so they want the right to be able to publish the book they've contracted...but how would you feel as an author? And there are horror stories out there of publishers who have brought in an author to finish another author's book and released it against the original author's wishes. This is a clause that is negotiable with some publishers and non-negotiable with others. Basically you have to know your publisher and trust whether they'll abuse that right or not. Authors have walked away because this clause was non-negotiable.
Morality Clause: This is what you think and it's a very grey area. The publisher may have a clause saying they have the right to withdraw the contract if your moral turpitude comes into question. That's right, they grant themselves the right to publish--or not publish--you based upon your moral character. From what I understand, this clause started appearing after a children's author was charged with possessing child pornography. In this instance, I can understand a publisher's concerns. What parent wants to take their child to a book signing or reading by an author who may be a sexual pervert? But it's a slippery slope. Who is the judge of what's a proper character for an erotica author? Or what about those authors who write both YA (Young Adult) AND erotica but under different names. (Yes, I do know some authors who write both.)
Anyway, I think that's enough about contracts and terminology for today.
Tomorrow will be my guest blogger Kaily Hart's day to shine, and on Thursday, fellow TRW member Juliana Stone will be here talking about her latest release, His Darkest Embrace. So I'll resume this on Friday. That's when I'll be giving you an inside peek to the editing process between an editor and an author.
Since I met quite a few people on the weekend that I confused by using buzzwords, I'm going to continue the theme this week of explaining the terms that a non-author or beginning author may not be familiar with. This is not intended to be a how-to article, merely an introduction to the terms some of my non-writing readers may be seeing on my blog or on other authors' blogs.
Today I'll explain about queries and submissions. (In general terms, this is not a 'how-to' blog, I still consider myself a newbie in this realm and there's a lot better, more comprehensive articles out there that are easy to find.) If you are a newbie author with dreams of publication, the best thing you can do is find yourself a writers' group either in real life, or on-line. Surround yourself with knowledgeable people. In person is better because there's nothing like a face-to-face dialogue, or even just being in a roomful of people who won't bat an eyelid when you say the voices aren't talking. Or won't shut up.
One thing about writers groups though. I consider myself extremely lucky because I'm a member of the Toronto Romance Writers, an extremely supportive and enthusiastic group of ladies. There are groups out there that are not as positive and may sour your dreams, or give you wrong or incomplete information. If you're not comfortable with a group, find another. Same with critique partners...ah, and there's our first term:
Critique Partner (or CP). May also be referred to as a "beta reader*" though some people think they're a different animal altogether. A critique partner is generally another writer who reads your work and offers constructive criticism. It may be that they send you an email with a list of suggestions of how to improve your manuscript, or they may go through your manuscript word-by-word, line-by-line and mark up all your errors. For a new author, this is a scary and sometimes usually disheartening process. Some authors rely upon their critique partners and others don't: Shannon Stacey blogged about why she doesn't use critique partners and why she doesn't critique for others. Me? I love and rely upon my CPs.
Critique partners may also be used to brainstorm future stories, or help you solve problems when you're writing your synopsis or first draft.
I don't use the same people to read my manuscripts each time, mainly because most of them are published authors who are under tight deadlines of their own. And if you read Shannon's post, that's a huge part of getting your work critiqued. Time.
One of the early TRW meetings I attended, Molly O'Keefe talked about CPs and compared the process to dating. Some partnerships work, some don't and you have to know when to stay and when to go.You'll learn which way works for you, usually through trial and error.
*Beta readers are generally non-writers but rabid readers who can tell you what's not working for them storywise--they're not connecting with a character, or they're not buying a certain premise for instance. CPs should look at all that, but they'll also get deeper into things like GMC - Goal, Motivation and Conflict - of your characters but that's a whole 'nother post.
(I'm planning on covering this a bit more in the upcoming "editing" post.)
Agent: Did you ever watch the sitcom Frasier? Remember a character named Bebe? (No, not Bebe Neuwirth who played Frasier's ex-wife Lilith) Bebe was Frasier's agent -- she negotiated for him whenever his contract was up. Got him extra concessions as well as more money. An author's agent can do this to. They can get your manuscript in front of editors that an unagented author has little or no access to (some publishing houses only accept agented manuscripts. One reason is they know the manuscript has already been read and vetted and therefore the chaff has already been weeded out for them.) They can bug the editor about getting to your latest submission where a non-agented author may have to wait months. Or even years. Then when a contract is offered they go through it with a fine-toothed comb and argue with the publisher about better royalty percentages or try to get clauses added or struck out. They may even recommend you walk away from the contract because there's some clause that's unacceptable to your career.
Okay, so Frasier's agent is a little over the top (perhaps? I don't have an agent, I have no idea how they operate, LOL.) An agent's job doesn't end when the contract is signed. At the TRW meeting the other day Eve Silver was talking about how her agent will email her editor about getting foil on her name on the cover. (it makes your name sparkly and stand out from the other books on the bookstore shelves.) They can intervene if there's a bad cover, or if the publisher wants a different title submitted. Some agents will also wish to have some editorial input before subbing your manuscript to editors. Some don't. Each agent is different.
As an author, you don't HAVE to have an agent to get published. I don't have one. That's next on my "Career To-Do" list. But it helps. And like all things in life, it pays to research your agent. There are some great ones out there and some not-so-great ones. The one thing to remember in this industry is the money flows TO the author. If an agent wants money up front -- perhaps in the guise of a reading fee, run away! There are all sorts of places you can check on what agents are around -- Writers Market, Querytracker.net ... Do your homework!
To get an agent, you have to write a killer query letter...
Query A query is a single page (newbie authors take note--ONE page, not multiple) introduction of your idea and yourself that is sent to an agent (or editor) to get them interested in you and your manuscript. Some agents (or editors) ask that you submit a query only -- without attaching any of your precious manuscript. You have that single page to capture their attention. So that query letter has to sparkle. An author has about three or four paragraphs to not only talk about their manuscript but to talk about their history too. The first paragraph introduces the premise, telling the agent/editor what genre it is and the wordcount, the second (and sometimes third) paragraph will explain the storyline, and the fourth paragraph will introduce the author and their publishing history. Queries are not easy to write. How can you reduce a manuscript of 100,000 words, one you've worked on possibly for years to a single paragraph and distill all that joy and angst and beauty you've sculpted your words into? Well, the author has to suck it up and find some way to do it.
Here's the starting paragraph of my query letter to Angela for Texas Tangle:
Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an over-drawn bank account and an empty home. When golden-boy Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson ride into her life, both intent on claiming her love, Nikki has to face her past to decide their futures. My contemporary erotic romance Texas Tangle is complete at 64,349* words.
*Yup, the original was only 64K long. The final product is 72K...which gives you an idea of the edits Rhonda and Angela put me through. But that's a story for another day.
Hopefully in that letter, the agent or editor will get a feel for the author's "voice" and be inspired to write back and ask for a partial, or, if you've written a really kick-ass letter, a full. If they find the rest of the story holds their interest and has that special "something" that they fall in love with and they think will sell, then you'll get a call offering representation if they're an agent, or a contract if they're an editor.
Partial: Writer shorthand for the first three chapters or a designated number of pages depending upon the agent/editor -- sometimes 30, sometimes 50. And they do mean the FIRST three chapters, not Chapter Four and Chapter Ten because that's where all the interesting stuff happens in your story. A reader picking up a book in a bookstore is more likely to flip to the first page and read it -- that's where you have to hook the reader, so that's what the Agent is looking at all. THEN if they like the partial, they'll ask you for the FULL.
Full: The entire manuscript. To have an agent or editor request your entire manuscript is huge! HUGE! It means they liked those first three chapters, or your voice, or your premise. Some publishing houses -- Carina Press and Samhain Publishing for instance, ask you to send in the full right at the start. There are several reasons. First, a lot -- and I'm talking a LOT -- of want-to-be authors write three chapters of their story, enter them in contests, take the critiques offered from them, edit them to perfection and submit them as partials. Then the editor gets all excited and wants to see the rest of the novel so they request the full. Except the author has never actually written anything more than those first three chapters. So you've wasted the editor's time and kept her from reading the manuscript of an author who HAS finished his or her book. Asking for a full at the outset weeds out those who have pitched precipitously. The full is also necessary because the editor needs to know that the whole story holds up, that it doesn't fall flat or sag in the middle, that the same level of attention that was paid to the first three chapters is given to the entire manuscript.
Slush pile: The unsolicited manuscripts submitted by thousands and thousands of hopeful authors. Agents and editors don't get paid to read the slush pile, that's done on their own time. So it's usually far down on their to-do list. And they are inundated with thousands of submissions, some that fit them, many that don't. Seriously, read their submission policies. Don't send them fiction they only deal with non-fiction. Or poetry if they don't want poets. If they ask for an electronic submission, don't mail them a hard copy through the postal service. Or vice versa.
Pitch: It's just like a salesman's pitch -- often times at conferences you get only 8 to 10 minutes or less, sometimes it may be as short as a ride in an elevator, with an agent or editor. You have only that length of time to explain the concept of your book and get an agent interested in you.
Think about the last book you read. Now tell me about it in 2 minutes. Go!
See? It's not easy. Pitching face-to-face is an artform I tell you. And it can be brilliant. Or it can go very very very wrong. There are lots of other much more experienced and talented people who can teach you about the art of pitching to an agent or editor, but I though you might wonder about the term.
Editor: The person at a publishing house who will read your manuscript and say "I love it!" and immediately phone you to tell you how much she (or he) loves your work and offer you a contract for a million dollars. Yes, that's said with more than a little tongue in my cheek.
But it can happen.
Just not to me. (the million dollar part, I mean)
Yet.
But I can have hope. Right?
The editor has a lot more responsibilities than just reading submissions. They are your connection with the publisher for cover art, and back cover copy and a whole range of other things that go on behind the scenes. (Some of this will be covered in "The Process" post.) They have to be your cheerleader to the acquisitions committee while being your coach, making sure you stay on track with your deadlines because they have bosses to answer to and deadlines of their own. Not to mention they usually have 50 or so other authors to deal with. I'll be covering what s/he does as an editor in a later post.
Synopsis: In genre publishing, you will often be asked to submit asynopsis along with your manuscript. A synopsis is the reader's digest version of your manuscript, your story told in 2 to 10 pages, always told in present tense. This can be used in a variety of ways -- an agent or editor may read it before reading your manuscript to ensure s/he's not wasting time on a story that has no conflict or no workable ending, to get an idea of your voice, to see that there is a happy-ever-after ending (well in romances, not in Nicholas Sparks novels.) They may have to take the synopsis to an acquisitions committee because the committee won't have time to read your entire manuscript, especially if there are ten other manuscripts on the table to be discussed that day. Your synopsis has to be able to sell the story the way the query letter does. It's got to sparkle. (you'll often see authors referring to synopsis over on Twitter as "sucknopsis" because they're freakin' hard to write.)
Here's an example of the first paragraph of Texas Tangle's synopsis:
Nikki Kimball is determined to make it on her own despite her ex-husband leaving her with a battered ego and bruised heart. When her truck dies just miles from home, she’s forced to rely upon the kindness of her next-door neighbor Dillon Barnett, to get her latest rescue horse home. Not only does he drive her home and unload the horse, he stays to help muck out stalls and do the work her deadbeat brother failed to do. Watching Dillon work up a sweat in the barn heats her blood she’s sure it’s about to turn to steam.
Literary authors may not have to include a synopsis because they have no plot. (Only said half tongue-in-cheek.) A few years ago I attended a publishing course at a local university that was taught by a "Fellow" of the university as well as another VERY well known college known for its writing program. The speaker was a former president of one of the major Canadian publishing houses. When she didn't mention synopsis during her lecture, I asked her about them. She looked at me, blankly, and said "why would I ask for a synopsis?" Seriously.
One last term to leave you with today:
Proposal. This is what most authors aspire to be able to submit to their agent or editor. When you get to this stage, you only have to write a synopsis, and possibly one to three chapters of the story. Then the agent will take it to an editor and sell them on the concept. Or the author may be able to submit a proposal direct to their editor the way I can with Carina. The option of submitting by proposal is usually only offered to a) authors who are being offered a multi-book deal -- the publisher has book one but wants to see what'll happen in books 2 and 3, or b) authors who have a track record proving they're able to write a publishable story to completion, one with multi-faceted characters and a full plot line and within a set period of time. And there's the rub. You have to be able to write that story to someone else's deadlines now. Where many authors took multiple years to write their first story, you may only have several months to write the next.
Oh, while I'm talking about time, I've often been asked "so when's the next book coming out?" Here's another element to the publishing industry. When you submit a query, it may be weeks, months or even years before that agent or editor you submitted your query too actually gets the time to read it. Then it takes time for them to take it to an acquisitions committee and get their approval.. So it can be a very long time before you know if you've sold your manuscript.
Or it may be a matter of hours. I have heard of authors who submit a query and get a response (yay or nay) from an agent or editor the same day. At least, that's what I've heard. ;)
Yesterday I attended the Toronto Romance Writers' monthly meeting. I love the members of the TRW -- everyone is so enthusiastic and supportive. They're friendly and they made me feel comfortable, and welcome, from the first moment I walked in the door. That first meeting convinced me I had to come back. Yesterday was no different.
If you are ever in the Toronto area, you are welcome to attend your first meeting for free, to check us out. Yesterday we had a good half-dozen or more guests. And I was thrilled to see almost all of them stand up and ask questions instead of hiding in a corner. Good for them! You don't learn if you don't ask questions. And good for the TRW that we made them feel comfortable to ask their questions. As someone said, there's no such thing as a stupid question.
Every year the board invites their published members to participate in a question and answer session with their non-pubbed authors. This year they'd set up two panels of authors, one of e-pubbed authors and one of print pubbed authors. It was a huge thrill to be able to sit on the epubbed panel instead of being in the audience this year.
We each talked about our experiences, how we'd gotten where we had and answered lots of questions, then ended it with a piece of advice. Experienced authors, both print and epubbed, all agreed that you needed to put your butt in the chair and write your next book. And that having a backlist was important.
Unfortunately it wasn't until the meeting had ended that one guest came up and asked me what we meant by a backlist. I really wish she'd asked right at the start, I know how frustrating it can be for me to have a term bandied about like everyone knows what it means. Sorry, ladies (and the gentleman who attended too), sometimes when you're in a business, you forget that not everyone knows terms that you think are obvious.
So for those of you not in the biz, here are the explanation of some of the terms that you may have heard yesterday. (or on this blog, or other authors' blogs.) It's turned into a much longer post than I prefer (I know you do have other things to do today after all) so I'm going to post more terms over the next couple of days. If there are any terms you've read that you'd like to ask about, just leave a note in the comments and I'll try to address it in the future posts.
Backlist: the list of books the author has already published. I have three books in my backlist, one of yesterday's panel members (and this week's guest blogger--who got no comments on her guest post I'm sorry to say!!!!), Christine d'Abo has twelve!.
The importance of a backlist, especially for an author whose books are released as ebooks, becomes apparent when a new book is released. Often times a new reader will discover your book and if they like you they'll visit your website to find out what else you've written. Then they go and buy some (or all) of those books. For an author, it's sort of like free advertising for a book you've written last year, or five years ago. To use myself as an example, when Texas Tangle was released and the buzz started building, I gained a lot of new readers. As a result, I saw a surge in my sales of Private Property, and then more recently of Personal Protection.Those books were written back in 2008. My work was finished on them when they were edited and released in 2009. So when I see my royalty cheques go up because my older book sales are spiking, it's like Christmas!
Advance: A lot of people outside the industry think of this as a "signing bonus" like athletes get for signing with a new team. It's not. An advance is literally an advance of an agreed amount of money that will be advanced (read deducted) from your future royalties, which are a percentage of the sales of your book. Get that? It's like your boss at your day job giving you a thousand dollar advance in your pay. He WILL deduct it from your next paycheque, it's not a Christmas bonus. Say in making the contract offer, the publisher offers the author a $5,000 advance. The author does not get that money as soon as they sign the contract. Usually it is divided into two or three payments. The first part may be upon signing the contract. (Then there is usually a long period of time between when the editor sends the note to the accounting office to say "hey, cut her a cheque for a third of that $5K we agreed to pay her" and you actually receiving your payment of $1,666.) The second installment may be paid when the author turns in her final edits (which may be anywhere up to a year after the contract was signed.) Again there's another wait before you actually receive the cheque. And the final payment is usually made upon the book's release. Which may be 18 months or more from the time the offer was made by the editor.
Then the publisher gathers all the data from the sales of the books--usually twice a year and they may not report this half-year until the end of the next half year. In other words, say their year runs May 1st to October 31st, and November 1st to April 30th. If your book released June 2010, you may not see a royalty report until the April 30th 2011 report comes out.
Anyway, back to that advance money. Let's say the book sells for $5 and the author is entitled to 5% of that as part of their royalties (the actual %s vary, but I'm using that amount as it's easier to calculate--math is NOT my forte.) That means the author gets only 25 cents per book per sale. That means 20,000 copies of that book have to be sold before the author sees another cent. But, what happens if the booksellers sales reports come back and the book sold only 10,000 copies? Well, the publisher's out of pocket and the author never sees any more money. (And possibly doesn't see another contract.)
There's a lot more to it of course, including a clause in your contract if you're signing a multi-book deal where you may not see another cent on your subsequent books until you've earned out the advance money. But that's probably already got your head spinning for now. And agents like Kristin Nelson have explained it so much better than I ever could. Especially since most epubbed authors never receive an advance.
Print Run: Given the above, I wasn't surprised that people were obsessed about numbers. A question I heard several times yesterday, and heard at conferences as well was "What's your print run?" Very simply, the print run is the number of books your publisher prints. It is important to the publisher because they need to make back their advance (see above). But and here's the big point: the author has no control over the print run. It's determined by how many orders the publisher's received from the booksellers such as Barnes and Noble, Borders, or Chapters. You don't want to print 10,000 copies of a book if there are only orders for 1,000 books. That means they're going to have to pay the printer for the ink and paper of 9,000 books that are going to sit on the shelves in a warehouse (which they also have to pay for) gathering dust. Those sales numbers are also used to determine if they want to contract another book by that author. (Which is why it's SO important you BUY the book, not pirate it! If you pirate it, the publisher isn't making any money with that series. If they're not making money, it's not worth it to them to buy the next in the series. And the readers who love the series end up losing out.) Anyway, a lot of new authors are obsessed about how big their print run will be. But they need to understand that while it is important to an author's career, I repeat, the author has absolutely no control over the size of the print run. That is completely out of their hands. That doesn't stop the author from bugging their editor or scouring their royalties to try to determine what their print run is, of course.
Another variation of this question yesterday was "What are the numbers your publisher expects?" Even for us e-pubbed authors. I was asked by several people what my publisher expected from my books in sales. Well, every author (and every publisher) hopes they'll hit a home run and sell thousands and thousands of books. Why write otherwise? But is there a magic number? For my publisher yes, there would have to be. After all, they have to recoup the amount of money they've invested in my book by paying, the editor who read it as a submission and subsequently did developmental edits, and the grammar nazi copy editor who went through it with a fine toothed comb and killed all those extra commas and em-dashes I'm addicted to as they whipped my manuscript into its best possible shape. They also have to pay the cover artist who has to interpret the form I filled out spouting all sorts of nonsense and imagine something that will tell the reader who picks it up what the book is about without using a single word. The publisher also has to pay the person who formats the manuscript into the proper formats for printing and/or download, as well as the website manager who put the book up on their site. Let's not forget they have to pay the IT folks who keep their website running, and the folks in accounting who cut my royalty cheques. How much is that? I haven't a clue. Do I want to know? Probably not. I obsess about enough stuff already, worrying about this type of thing would drive me crazy.
Does my publisher look at that magic number when I sent in the third book in the Hauberk series? Possibly. Probably. Is there anything in my contract or have I ever heard anything from my publisher that they expect me to sell X number of books? Nope. BUT I also remind myself that publishing is a business and that after paying all those people in the paragraph above, the publisher still needs make a profit to stay in business to print my next book. So if my editor has to choose between three submissions that she loves for the one slot available to her in a particular month, does she look at those numbers and perhaps go with the author who is likely to bring the company the most money? Possibly. Or perhaps editors develop special spidey senses that say a manuscript by a previously unpubbed author might sell better than the next book in a series by one of her regular authors. I don't know. Again, I don't know if I want to even think about that end of it. I like living in my fantasy world.
Anyway, you can drive yourself nuts worrying about numbers. What you have to do write the best damned book you can, polish it, make it shine before you submit it. Because really? After that it's out of your hands.
As I said above, this turned into a much longer post than I expected, so I'm going to break it up into other posts. I'm planning to write a post about the submission process, what happens once you get "the call" (the contract and its clauses), the subsequent editing process....anything else you'd like explained?
Congratulations, Anitra. You won a print copy of Cassie Ryan's Seducing the Succubus. Send an email to leah DOT braemel @gmail DOT com with your snail mail address and I'll arrange for your copy to be shipped from bookdepository.com. Congratulations and thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment on Cassie's post.
There were 6 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
...but I can't tell you why yet. Again! Just know that I'm choked up and crying and laughing hysterically all at the same time. Last year was so tough but this year? OMG this year is turning out better beyond my expectations.
Oh, okay, so I've only been gone a day. Just over 24 hours. Gizmo Guy had a special something or other he had to do in another town over night so it would have been dangerous for him to try to drive home overnight. So he booked a hotel room and invited me to come stay in the room while he worked. It was a lovely room in a converted warehouse in the downtown of Peterborough. It had 12 or 15 foot high ceilings, lots of space, a jet tub, and since it was on the ground floor a private patio. It even had a very romantic fireplace.
It would have been a very romantic night. Except Gizmo Guy wasn't there. That does tend to put a crimp in a romance. (Yes, I can hear you joking about how it is possible for one person to...yeah, we'll leave it unsaid, shall we?)
It might also have been better if the bed hadn't sort of sloped to one side so I always felt like I was rolling to the far edge. Or if the mattress hadn't been as hard as a rock. Or if the fireplace was the method of heating the room so in the mdidle of the night you'd wake when the the fire clicked on and lit up the whole room.
But being away, having no worries about having to clean up or feeding the boys and doing the inevitable dishes afterward set up an quiet yearning in me. To go somewhere where I could sit on a patio with my laptop while warm breezes wafted over me, perhaps an ocean lapped just beyond. With maid service. And all the Daiquiris I can drink. Maybe somewhere like the Virgin Islands.
Or maybe I could stay in a castle in a room with a four poster bed, and a window that looks over fields of sheep beyond.
Dani and Sue, two of my critique partners overlooking Dallas
Unfortunately, it'll probably be next summer before I can travel. I'm planning on visiting New York in June for the Romance Writers' annual conference. And I'm looking around to see what other conferences I can/should go to as well.
One of my critique partners has suggested I go back to Texas, which I am seriously considering. Another suggested the Emerald City Writers conference out in Seattle, and yet another person suggested the conference in New Jersey. But for now I'll just have to imagine myself somewhere else.
If you had unlimited funds and could go anywhere just to kick back and relax, where would you go?
Thanks to Leah for letting me come play on her blog today.
The past few months have been very exciting for me. With a release every month for the next three months, I’ve had to try and juggle edits and real life while continuing to work on my new book. Novellas, novels and series ideas have been colliding in my poor brain until I don’t know which way is up.
What’s a writer to do??
Well, first off...I go away. LOL!
I’ve been fortunate to have made it to this year’s Romanticon, the second annual conference hosted by Ellora’s Cave. This, along with my monthly RWA meetings give me an amazing boost to keep myself going. Pressure and long hours behind a keyboard can give even the best writer a serious case of the doubt bunnies. Forming bonds with other writers, taking the time to go to a conference where other people understand your excitement at finally working out a plot point, can be a huge boost.
The second thing I’ve done was force myself to focus. Anyone who has met me in person knows I have a tendency (SQUIRREL!) to bounce around with my attention span (POINT!). I’m the same with my stories. When I am able to immerse myself in a plot, I find myself better able to push through any potential problems that may arise.
This is how I wrote all three of the stories I have coming out this fall. No Remedy (now available from Ellora’s Cave) was a labour of love for me. It follows from No Quarter, and I wanted to make sure that I wrapped up the story of Faolan and Gar by showing what comes next. Plus, I was in love with Mace (Gar’s sister) and wanted to make sure she had her spot light.
No sooner had I typed The End, that I got hit hard with a plot for a novella that will be appearing in a new series from EC. Commanding Acquisitions will be out on November 10th and is the second book in the 1-800-DOM-help series. This story was a gift from someone. It came to me complete in one day. I think I wrote the whole thing in a week. To date, this is one of my favourite stories.
To balance things out, I next wrote Firm Touch. This will be a part of EC’s Merry Kinkmas line...and was the hardest twenty pages I’ve ever written. As a result, I’m very proud of how this turned out. I hope you’ll all get a chance to check it out on December 6th.
Each of these stories is very different. Each pushed me in a different way as a writer, forcing me to move outside my comfort zone into new areas. With luck, you’ll all enjoy them as much as I do.
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