Category: Publishing Journeys

Welcome to the Cindy Lee Cup Finals, everyone! I’m Dawn Cherie, your hostess.

Today, we have some very exciting news to announce. Cindy’s alter ego, known on Muse Interrupted as “Penny,” has sold her first erotic romance single title, A LITTLE WILD, to Samhain Publishing! Cindy and Penny are both excited and happy and proud. Cindy more than Penny, even though it’s technically Penny’s sale. However, Penny has sold everything she’s written. Cindy, in a word, hasn’t. So, Cindy, alas, is well-versed is coming in second. Let’s see how she’s faring, shall we?

Dawn Cherie: Cindy, it’s nice to see your bright, smiling face. How do you stay so upbeat when Penny just sold her first single title whereas yours is gathering cyber-dust on your hard drive?

Cindy: Um, thank you, Dawn. I think. First, I am totally thrilled for Penny. She wrote her single title before I wrote mine, that is if you’re referring to the romantic comedy/mystery I’m currently marketing. She submitted it before I began marketing mine. So it makes sense that Penny’s book would SELL first, don’t you think?

Dawn Cherie: Semantics, Cindy! Tell us how you really feel.

Cindy: I know deep inside my heart that I play a part in Penny’s success. So, honestly, I am thrilled for her. However, if you want to get picky (or nosey), technically, my first single title is releasing in December of this year, from Five Star/Cengage/Gale. My 2007 Golden Heart finalist manuscript, WHERE SHE BELONGS. It’s on the shorter side for a single title—65,000 words. However, it still qualifies.

Dawn Cherie: How long is Penny’s A LITTLE WILD?

Cindy: Why don’t you ask her?

Dawn Cherie: :::shaking head::: I tried, but she’s not taking interviews at the moment. I fear her success might have bloated her ego.

Cindy: Makes sense. Okay, I happen to know that Penny’s erotic romance, A LITTLE WILD, is 85,000 words.

Dawn Cherie: So, technically, TWENTY THOUSAND words longer than yours!

Cindy: Technically. However, the single title I’m currently marketing is more like 95,000 words.

Dawn Cherie: Ten thousand words longer than Penny’s! Except…(consulting notes)…Oh, ahem, it says here that YOUR single title, which you are currently, um, “marketing,” is actually only 94,000 words. Cindy, I caught you in a fib!

Cindy: I was approximating! Look, Dawn, if you want to get crabby about it, let’s add ’em up. I have published and/or sold two short romantic comedies and a long contemporary romance. Together, they add up to 165,000 words. Penny has sold three erotic romance novellas and now a single title. Together, they add up to 160,000 words. So, you see, I’ve sold 5000 more words than Penny has. So there!

Dawn Cherie: Wow, Cindy, you really dug through your files and added up the words of all your sold works? (You didn’t slip in the unsold works, did you?)

Cindy: Yes, I really added them up. (And, no, I didn’t count the unsold works. That would be too scary). You’re the one trying to make this into a competition! Making me all…all Capricorny!

Dawn Cherie: You need to take a chill pill.

Cindy: I do!! Dawn, I must be off.

Dawn Cherie: I believe you are already (off her rocker, that is!)

Cindy: That’s it! Dawn, you’re taking the Cindy Lee Cup Finals far too seriously. I have writing to do.

Dawn Cherie: But, but—you haven’t provided a blurb of Penny’s A LITTLE WILD yet.

Cindy: NEXT TIME!!!

Cindy stomps off.

Dawn leaves in a snit, adjusting her starchy blouse collar.

Cindy peeks back in and whispers, “Congratulations, Penny.”

Penny creeps out of the cobwebbed corner of Cindy’s brain. “Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Cindy bows (humble, as always).

I had another post planned for this week, but researching agents and problems with my shoulder have waylaid me. The “Internets” says I might have shoulder bursitis, brought on by all that damn outside painting I did this summer and fall. However, I can’t get in to see my doctor until next week, so for now I’m postponing more massage therapy and have stopped one of the exercises the chiropractor gave me. It just makes the pain worse. The Internets says not to do anything to make the pain worse, but not to sit like a lump, either. So I am curtailing a lot of computer time and doing basic stretching exercises several times a day. Plus, I succumbed to taking an anti-inflammatory yesterday and might again today.

That doesn’t sound like Subsidiary Rights Fun, does it? Well, this will.

I’m in the midst of proofing the audiobook files for HEAD OVER HEELS, which will releaese from Audiolark…I’m not quite sure yet. I’m having a blast proofing the files, but, wow, it takes a lot longer to proof while listening to your book than to proof reading your book. Each chapter takes at least half an hour to listen to. I’m down to the last three chapters and will have the files back to my publisher by Monday.

At first, it was really strange to hear my book being read into my headphones. The narrator has a very pleasant voice and she does an excellent job of relaying different character voices while not coming off sounding like a cartoon movie. The voices are just different enough to clarify. Some of you who have read HEAD OVER HEELS will remember that the story features two English secondary characters, Kate and Nate Willoughby. I laughed out loud when I heard the narrator’s rendition of their voices. She was spot on! I didn’t know when I submitted the pronunciation guide if she would make their voices sound English or just let the narration relate that they have English accents. So to hear these two voices especially tickled me pink. I’m hoping that the fact that my own audiobook is giving me many fits of the giggles means that the humor will come through in the “hearing” for readers other than myself. I’m very excited to have this opportunity.

Oh, and guess what? The narrator for HEAD OVER HEELS, I have been told also narrated Sue Monk Kidd’s THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. That’s kind of cool.

I also heard from the agent in Japan who handled the Japanese Manga rights sale of HEAD OVER HEELS to Ohzora. The Japanese translation is now complete and the publisher is in the process of assigning an illustrator. Very exciting! I’ll probably next hear from the agent in Japan when the Manga version has a release date, and you can be sure I’ll mention it here. I can’t wait to see the illustrations in anime. What fun!