Category: Publishing Journeys

Memories of Kate

I had a post already published this morning, but just deleted it after hearing the very sad news that Kensington editor Kate Duffy has passed away. Kate played a major role in my first sale to Red Sage as Penny, because I’d initially targeted my first Secrets novella to her. As can so often happen in publishing, my manuscript went awry, shall we say. It had been over a year and I had not heard on the status. I was at an RWA conference—I can’t remember which one anymore—and just happened to mention my missing manuscript to another writer who knew what Kate looked like (I didn’t). Turned out Kate was walking our way!

The writer pretty much sidelined Kate, introduced us, and I asked about my manuscript. Kate replied quite frankly that if I hadn’t heard by now then the manuscript had likely been rejected. Later, she told me that the look on my face made her feel so guilty (this from the woman many considered intimidating). Because I asked, “But wouldn’t I have received a rejection letter?”

“Tell you what,” she said. (And, yes, I’m paraphrasing, I didn’t tape record our conversation). “I have somewhere to go after conference, but give me about three weeks and then contact me. I’ll let you know what I find out about your manuscript.”

Three weeks later, I was at home wondering when would be a good time to phone or email her when she phoned me. She couldn’t find the manu anywhere, it must have gotten lost, and could I email her another copy? I did, and she read and rejected it within 24 hours. By another phone call. But she didn’t just reject it, she told me why she was rejecting it. And she asked to see more ideas. In fact, she asked me to write up three ideas for her, and she’d choose which she wanted me to develop into a novella for submission to Brava. I did that. Meanwhile, I took her comments on the rejected novella, revised it, and sold it to Red Sage Secrets. Without Kate’s comments during that phone call, would I have sold that novella? I’ll never know.

Back to the three ideas. Kate called me back another month later saying she loved two of the three ideas, and she wanted me to write the full novella of one and then begin the second while she was considering the first. I wrote the full novella and submitted it. Time went by. A lot of time went by. A lot and a lot and a lot of time went by. 🙂

Eventually, we reconnected, but she rejected the full novella. Again, full of remorse about doing so. Very apologetic (I’d never experienced an editor apologizing to me for a rejection, and phoning me to make that rejection). So much time had passed, as can happen in publishing, between her approving the idea and looking at the full, that the idea no longer excited her enough to make a sale. But she asked to see another novella, a partial this time.

I did write that third partial novella for Kate. Time went by. A lot of time went by. A lot and a lot and a lot and a lot of time went by. Eventually, we reconnected, and she still loved the idea but wanted me to turn facets of the story upside down. So I did. Resubmitted. Time went by. A lot of time went by. Then I learned that she was ill, and I decided not to bug her.

Meanwhile, I revised the second full novella to suit Secrets, submitted it and sold it. It’s releasing in Secrets Volume 28 this December.

Kate made me laugh. She was very self-deprecating, and she had a dry wit that I identify with. That she took the time to phone me when she could have just sent me form snail-mail rejections said a lot about her character. And still does.

Goodbye, Kate. I’ll miss you. Even though I didn’t get a chance to truly work with you, I appreciate all the help you gave me. Now and always.

Of Note

I’m feeling tons better, and life is slowly getting back under control. So, ta-da, one blog post before the weekend. Watch, now no one will comment because I said I wouldn’t be here again until next week.

Not getting any writing done, but on Monday I had a 90-minute long Skype brainstorming session with a former critique partner, and now I have a ton of excellent revision notes for SEX, PIs & PACKING TAPE. Really looking forward to solidifying my approach to the revisions and digging into that book again. Will pass the notes by a writing friend who critiqued the full first, though. I have another manuscript I can work on in the meantime.

Guess what? I’ve already received, signed and mailed back the hard copy of the contract for the HEAD OVER HEELS manga rights. When I approved the contract via email (last week) and my contact in the Tuttle-Mori contracts department said I would receive the hard copy contract soon, she wasn’t fooling. I don’t think I’ve ever received a contract that quickly.

Also, I find it interesting that this contract was the easiest to understand and read of any I’ve ever purused for either myself or Penny. In other words, the easiest to read and understand contract from any North American publisher with whom I’ve dealt. The legalities are all in place, but not in a “foreign language,” to speak. They’re written in plain English. What a switch! 

I’m Going Manga!

Last week I hinted that I would have some good news to share soon. And here it is!

I am very happy to announce that I’ve sold the Japanese translation rights to my Amber Quill Press romantic comedy, HEAD OVER HEELS, to Ohzora Publishing in Japan. Ohzora has published a lot of Harlequin novels as manga (Japanese comic) paperbacks, and that’s what they’ll be doing with my book. I also sold the serialization rights and ebook rights. HEAD OVER HEELS will publish in Japanese manga over cell phones as well as in traditional ebook manga format.

Now here’s the interesting part. I didn’t go looking for this opportunity, it came to me. Somehow, Ohzora became interested in my book. I still have no clue how or why. I’ve been dealing with a literary agent in Japan, and I asked her to ask them, but then she went on holidays, so for now I still don’t know. I was going on my merry way enjoying the summer and working on various manuscripts when I received an email forwarded from an Amber Quill staff member—from the scouting division of an NYC literary agency. I’d never heard of the NYC scouting people, nor the Japanese literary agency they were working with, nor had I heard of Ohzora. At first I thought, this can’t be legit. But I did some major networking, including contacting a couple of State-side agents I’ve submitted to in the past. I learned that all parties involved were indeed legit.

What makes the whole thing sweeter is that while Amber Quill operates on a royalty-only model, Ohzora offers advances as well as royalties. So I’m finally getting an advance for HEAD OVER HEELS—years after its initial publication in English. That makes me giggle. It’s a decent advance, too, one that would more than satisfy RWA-PAN if they counted foreign translation advances (I have no clue if they do, and it doesn’t matter, because I’m already a member of PAN thanks to the novellas I’ve published under my pen name). So, while some members of the romance writing community aren’t quite ready to accept ebooks or accept publishing with a royalty-only house like Amber Quill, in this case it’s worked out wonderfully. I have a book I love on the cyber-shelves, and now I’ve sold the Japanese translation rights. I have a wide grin on my face that’s not likely to disappear soon.

More good news! I just learned that HEAD OVER HEELS is now available in Kindle format. Yippee!

Opportunity Rocks!

I had a fantastic opportunity drop out of the sky several days ago. However, I knew zippo about the parties in question, so had to go into hibernation while I did my due diligence. I am now very excited to announce that I’m very close to revealing an exciting announcement! How exciting! But I ain’t announcing anything today. The opportunity is still too new, I’m still getting used to it, and let’s just say I don’t want to jinx anything by revealing the details into the Blogosphere too early.

Here are some hints. It involves one of my Amber Quill books. It involves a publishing entity somewhere in the known universe. And the opportunity came to me, I didn’t go looking for it. I would have gone looking if I’d known how or where to look. But I didn’t. A Boy Scout might have known.

I have a, um, “contact,” shall we say, who is helping me navigate these foreign waters. However, the contact is now on holiday, so details might not be forthcoming for another week or so.

Rest assured, I will yell my news from the rooftops (or at least my blog) soon enough. For now, I’m looking forward to climbing off the ceiling. I’m dizzy!

Post-Conference Yawning

How is it that I didn’t attend conference and yet I feel as exhausted as if I had? I realized this while trying to catch the RITA announcements via Twitter Saturday evening. Despite that I didn’t travel to the other side of the continent, despite that I didn’t spend my days tromping from workshop to workshop, from appointment to appointment, from party to party, by Saturday night I was toast.

It’s been a busy week.

On Monday I discovered the fate of my 2007 Golden Heart finalist manuscript. As I’d feared, following the departure of the requesting editor, the manu went…somewhere. My thanks to the assistant editor who looked into the lost manuscript for me and gave me the opportunity to resubmit via email. I spent Monday re-editing the manuscript, trimming/tightening by  another 850 words, then emailed it off on Tuesday.

Tuesday to Thursday, I continued writing and revising Penny’s new short. It’s done! Still needs some editing, which I will accomplish this week. I have two sequels planned, so I need to write teensy blurbs for those, then brainstorm a series title. I hope to send off the whole package in a couple of weeks. As usual, I want to let the short story sit before I look at it again.

Friday was town errands, a doctor appointment, then visiting Sandorf Verster in the sun. A great time (the visit, that is). All weekend (and I do mean all) I took pictures for a major website update (not one of my sites, but another one I designed and maintain). Plus, I worked on scheduling and piccies for my group blog.

Oh, Eldest Son discovered Friday that he didn’t get into residence for this fall. He’s like #400 on the waiting list. So I’ve been scouring off-campus listings, and he’s done likewise with Craigslist. Cross your fingers—we might have found him a place. Just waiting for an email from the landlord before we send off the deposit.

I’d intended to start revisions on my cindypk ST this week. Not sure yet if I’ll meet that goal. It might be more realistic to say I’ll start by Wednesday. I need to catch up on my didn’t-attend-conference sleep. And there’s that website update calling my name…

Oh, cripes, how did I forget? Saturday morning, Youngest Son and I washed the house. The vinyl siding. No wonder I’m exhausted!

The Day After

Wow, what a rush yesterday, watching all those announcements come in. If you haven’t had a gander at the listing of RITA and Golden Heart finalists for 2009 yet, please see yesterday’s post. I linked to as many websites as I could find. Some of these authors have fantastic sites. Check ’em out!

The official list of RITA and Golden Heart finalists is now up at the RWA website.

If you’re a Golden Heart finalist and haven’t yet heard that double finalist Elizabeth Bemis has started up a Yahoo group that you definitely want to join, here’s the info:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/2009-GH-Finalists/

Do join the loop! It’s not only great to celebrate with your fellow finalists, but the groups are great for discussing promotion, how to do your picture for the ceremony, what you’re wearing, who you’re getting an appointment with at National now that you have a fantastic reason to attend—all that good stuff.  

Now, for those of you who didn’t final…take heart! I’m especially talking about the Golden Heart contest. This was the second year I entered the RITA as Penny. I didn’t final, and so I can tell you from my own experience that not finaling in the RITA doesn’t feel anywhere near as earth-shattering as not finaling in the Golden Heart. Of course, when you enter the RITA, you’re already published. The RITA is icing on the cake, can be a great carrot to dangle to editors and agents (sometimes your own editor and even your current publishing house, let’s say, if you’re not getting the, um, attention there that you deserve). And, let’s face it, finaling is a heckuva lot of fun. However, when you enter the Golden Heart, often you can feel like it’s THE way to get published. If you don’t final, you’ve lost your chance.

I’m here to tell you that you haven’t lost your chance. Far from it. While many Golden Heart finalists go on to sell either their GH manuscript or another manuscript, I’m pretty sure just as many don’t. Okay, I don’t have stats, but several finalists final for several years before they sell. Finaling isn’t a sure-thing ticket to a contract. That said, it’s a heckuva lot of fun, too. I do believe it does open doors in query letters to editors and agents. It might not get your book sold, but it might get it a closer look, or even a request that otherwise might not come your way.

If you didn’t final this year, keep working on your writing and enter again next year! Believe in yourself and don’t give up. I entered the Golden Heart for several years before finaling. In fact, I finaled the last year I was eligible to enter (oddly, due to an unforeseen series of circumstances, I’m still waiting to hear if that manuscript sells—two years later). Two years before I finaled, I wrote an article for the Q&A page of my website called Why Keep Entering the Golden Heart. Wanna check it out? Here’s the handy link.

Oh, before I forget, someone asked me in private email why there are 8 or 9 finalists in some categories and only 3 in others. Don’t quote me, I don’t have the official word, but, as far as I know, the way it works is that each category needs a minimum of 25 entries to go ahead. If the category receives less than 25 entries, it’s cancelled for that year. So, if you see only 3 finalists in a category, that means the category had over 25 entries, but fewer than 40. The finalists are supposed to represent, I do believe, the top 10% of entrants in each category. If a category winds up with 9 finalists, guess what? That’s the most competitive category of either RITA or Golden Heart, because 9 finalists means 90 or more writers entered that category alone! Phew!

Again, congratulations to all the finalists. If I’ve screwed up the 10% thingie (and you know for sure that I have; you’re not just saying it to make me look bad, LOL), please let me know. And, if anyone has other questions about the contests, if I feel I can answer them, I will surely attempt to do so.