Sorry there has been blog silence but there have been great things afoot which I have not been allowed to blog about...
Some of you may have heard the news already but people, I have sold a book! In fact, I have sold three. On the 20th of February I finally got "the call" and am beyond thrilled to announce that I'll be writing as M.J. Scott for Ace/Roc (Penguin USA's SF/F imprint). Ace/Roc publish a very high percentage of my favourite fantasy authors so I'm going to be in some very illustrious company.
Anyway, the actual story....
Those of you who read this blog know that after a year that wasn't really the highpoint in my writing life, I finished a new book and Miriam sent it out on January 21. We had some fairly immediate encouraging feedback that week and then some even more encouraging feedback the following week (at which point my nails started to fear for their lives). I was trying not to get too excited after all, publishing can move very slowly. And it's been a bit under three years since Miriam sent out my first book and the last twelve months or so have really not been the greatest time to try and sell as a debut author (note to aspiring authors out there...try not to have a Global Financial Crisis during your submission process) despite Miriam's untiring championing of me and my work. So I know that it's a long haul business.
However it seems the publishing gods finally decided to let me switch to a faster track because early the following week we got an offer. An offer from a house that has always been on my dream list. So Miriam went to work talking to the other houses who had the book, I stopped sleeping and started avoiding people so I wouldn't have to explain the stupid grin on my face and the waiting began. We got a second offer late on Friday in the US (Saturday morning for me) from another house that was on my dream list so then we knew there would be some sort of auction!! The US then had a long weekend which felt like the longest four days of my life (being ahead of the US here in Oz I knew I wouldn't hear anything until my Wednesday morning) where I had to walk around pinching myself a lot and swinging between happy and very very nervous.
The auction and various agentish things took until late Friday their time again but finally Miriam called me early Saturday morning my time and we talked and then she called the winning editor and then I got the official "call" from Miriam to say it was a done deal. So in the end it took just under a month. Plus the eight odd years of writing and submitting prior. Since then I've been walking around (or maybe floating around) in a bit of a daze, smiling a lot and still not sleeping very much as my brain comes up with a thousand and one questions and a thousand and one things to do, most of which have to wait.
As a piece of trivia - the number one question you get asked when you tell people you've sold a book is "when does it come out". Depending on who you've sold to, you probably won't know this straight away. At the moment I know it will be in the second half of next year but nothing more definite. The number two question is "when are you quitting your day job" (or maybe..does this mean you're resigning if you tell people at your day job). The answer to that one is easier. "Not right now and probably not for a while."
So it seems for the next 18 months or so there will be much learning about being a paid writer, much writing and hopefully much blogging about the process between the call and publication. I'll be posting news about release dates, titles, covers and all that good stuff as it comes to hand here and on my website (just updated...go see).
Until then I'll be working on book two (and book one revisions when they land), snoopy dancing and hopefully returning to a normal sleep pattern!
PS If anyone links to my website, it's now www.mjscott.net rather than .info (though .info will redirect) so please update your links.
PPS As a final comment WOOOHOOOOO!!!
Showing posts with label amazing stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amazing stuff. Show all posts
February 26, 2010
March 08, 2007
What dreams may come
First of all, a big whopping full volume flat out WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO to Keri. Because Tempting Evil, the third Riley Jensen novel has debuted at #14 on the freaking NYT bestseller list (that is the name of the paper, you know, the freaking NYT : ) ).
Now I have a friend who's been on the NYT list TWICE!! Lovely to see lots of readers with such excellent taste.
In other less world beating news, the girls came up with an idea for the wip last weekend. An idea that made me go "eeek, but that's just mean". One that would take my heroine places she doesn't want to go. Which pretty much means I have to do it.
So while I was trying to work out exactly how one would do that, the girls turned contrary. They changed the subject. They demanded Buffy Season 7 and Love Actually and The Constant Gardner and Reign of Fire. They weren't much interested in writing much but they're circling it. Something tells me the girls are going dark.
They also let the other wips start talking again. Not quite shouting in my head five at a time like they were last year but chatting away quietly. To the point where a single gesture in a dream last night woke me up with a whole scene in one of them playing in my head. Something sad to go with the general queens of pain thing they seem to have going on. Luckily it was still there this morning and I got down a thousand words or so. Wrong wip but sometimes you've just got to go with it. And now that it's out and I've hunted through iTunes for some more music for that book to keep them happy, maybe they'll let me get on with Wolf 2. Into the deep dark woods. Let's hope they don't mind me carting a torch along something solid like Mulder and Sculler used to carry. I think I'll need it. It's a four day weekend here. Let's see what happens.
PS Keri rocks to the rockingest!!! Go buy her book.
Now I have a friend who's been on the NYT list TWICE!! Lovely to see lots of readers with such excellent taste.
In other less world beating news, the girls came up with an idea for the wip last weekend. An idea that made me go "eeek, but that's just mean". One that would take my heroine places she doesn't want to go. Which pretty much means I have to do it.
So while I was trying to work out exactly how one would do that, the girls turned contrary. They changed the subject. They demanded Buffy Season 7 and Love Actually and The Constant Gardner and Reign of Fire. They weren't much interested in writing much but they're circling it. Something tells me the girls are going dark.
They also let the other wips start talking again. Not quite shouting in my head five at a time like they were last year but chatting away quietly. To the point where a single gesture in a dream last night woke me up with a whole scene in one of them playing in my head. Something sad to go with the general queens of pain thing they seem to have going on. Luckily it was still there this morning and I got down a thousand words or so. Wrong wip but sometimes you've just got to go with it. And now that it's out and I've hunted through iTunes for some more music for that book to keep them happy, maybe they'll let me get on with Wolf 2. Into the deep dark woods. Let's hope they don't mind me carting a torch along something solid like Mulder and Sculler used to carry. I think I'll need it. It's a four day weekend here. Let's see what happens.
PS Keri rocks to the rockingest!!! Go buy her book.
February 12, 2007
The postman cometh
Well, as my mailman finally brought me a lovely envelope containing my agency agreement today, I guess it is all real, I can stop having paranoid visions of my mail ending up in Timbuktu, and this is not a dream : )
I'm very thrilled to announce that Agent X has a name and it's Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. Miriam is a fabulous agent (as Keri will attest), with a great track record for debut authors and the agency is a fabulous agency so I'm completely over the moon.
Here's Miriam's bio from the agency website:
Miriam Kriss joined the Irene Goodman Literary Agency just as she was finishing her master’s degree in Fine Arts at New York University, and quickly became one of the hottest young agents in town. Going from Michelangelo to Nora Roberts was not as great a leap as it might seem, as Miriam had been obsessively reading commercial fiction since she found a copy of Judith McNaught’s classic Whitney, My Love in a rented lakeside cabin when she was thirteen. A few pages in, not only were some gaps in her Catholic school education filled, but she was hooked. She reads fast: one hundred pages an hour, a novel a day, and well, that adds up to a lot of books a year. She is thrilled to be working with Irene Goodman, to whom she refers as “legendary”, and while Irene knows the market because she’s been doing this for twenty-five years and is savvy as all get out, Miriam knows the market because she is the market. Sales to major publishers include a recent mid-six-figure deal for a first-time author, and her client list continues to grow. Her first solo sale, also from a first-time author, hit several bestseller lists in its first week out. What’s more, now that reading is legitimately “work”, she devours two or three novels and manuscripts a day.
I met Miriam at the Romance Writers of Australia conference last year. Through several late night wine and chocolate fuelled chats with her and Keri, I found out she's one of the few people I've met who reads faster (and more) than me (a stellar quality in an agent), she loves her job (another stellar quality in an agent), she really knows her stuff when it comes to fantasy, publishing and the whole ball of wax and she geeks out over a lot of the same stuff as me (a general stellar personal quality ; ) ). And as an added bonus she likes my writing!
All that remains now is for me to keep writing while she gets on with the business of finding Wolf a home. Which could take anywhere from weeks to months or longer so I'm trying not to think about it. Let's see how well that works!
I'm very thrilled to announce that Agent X has a name and it's Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. Miriam is a fabulous agent (as Keri will attest), with a great track record for debut authors and the agency is a fabulous agency so I'm completely over the moon.
Here's Miriam's bio from the agency website:
Miriam Kriss joined the Irene Goodman Literary Agency just as she was finishing her master’s degree in Fine Arts at New York University, and quickly became one of the hottest young agents in town. Going from Michelangelo to Nora Roberts was not as great a leap as it might seem, as Miriam had been obsessively reading commercial fiction since she found a copy of Judith McNaught’s classic Whitney, My Love in a rented lakeside cabin when she was thirteen. A few pages in, not only were some gaps in her Catholic school education filled, but she was hooked. She reads fast: one hundred pages an hour, a novel a day, and well, that adds up to a lot of books a year. She is thrilled to be working with Irene Goodman, to whom she refers as “legendary”, and while Irene knows the market because she’s been doing this for twenty-five years and is savvy as all get out, Miriam knows the market because she is the market. Sales to major publishers include a recent mid-six-figure deal for a first-time author, and her client list continues to grow. Her first solo sale, also from a first-time author, hit several bestseller lists in its first week out. What’s more, now that reading is legitimately “work”, she devours two or three novels and manuscripts a day.
I met Miriam at the Romance Writers of Australia conference last year. Through several late night wine and chocolate fuelled chats with her and Keri, I found out she's one of the few people I've met who reads faster (and more) than me (a stellar quality in an agent), she loves her job (another stellar quality in an agent), she really knows her stuff when it comes to fantasy, publishing and the whole ball of wax and she geeks out over a lot of the same stuff as me (a general stellar personal quality ; ) ). And as an added bonus she likes my writing!
All that remains now is for me to keep writing while she gets on with the business of finding Wolf a home. Which could take anywhere from weeks to months or longer so I'm trying not to think about it. Let's see how well that works!
February 09, 2007
In other news
That Keri, she is rocking hard again! Check her out!
I dub her writing goddess.
Ms Keri, hope you're rewarding yourself with something good. And chocolate and bubbles, natch.
PS he he he, my friend is on the NYT list
I dub her writing goddess.
Ms Keri, hope you're rewarding yourself with something good. And chocolate and bubbles, natch.
PS he he he, my friend is on the NYT list
December 18, 2006
The wrap up
In the end there was:
1 Lulu meeting complete with vampire ants
80% of Christmas presents obtained
0 Robbie concerts
and 1 brand spanking new baby boy at 7.35 pm yesterday.....welcome to the world little Sterling - your Mum is one tough cookie that's all I have to say. If I ever do that, I'm taking the drugs lol.
In the meantime, the orange cat spent his weekend approximately like this.
1 Lulu meeting complete with vampire ants
80% of Christmas presents obtained
0 Robbie concerts
and 1 brand spanking new baby boy at 7.35 pm yesterday.....welcome to the world little Sterling - your Mum is one tough cookie that's all I have to say. If I ever do that, I'm taking the drugs lol.
In the meantime, the orange cat spent his weekend approximately like this.
September 30, 2006
Done
Holy crap, I finished. A month ahead of my schedule.
374 pages. 94k. That's a LOT! : )))
Excuse me, I have snoopy dancing, shopping and possibly some drinking to do.
This is the time when writing is NOT hard!! It's just great.
374 pages. 94k. That's a LOT! : )))
Excuse me, I have snoopy dancing, shopping and possibly some drinking to do.
This is the time when writing is NOT hard!! It's just great.
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