This week is always a big week in the romance writing world because the RITA and Golden Heart finalists are announced. The RITA and Golden Heart awards are run by the Romance Writers of America and are essentially the Oscars for published and unpublished romance writers respectively.
So big congrats to all the finalists...especially the Aussies (yes, slight bias) Kelly Hunter, Bronwyn Parry and Elizabeth Rolls for the RITAs and Robyn Enlund (extra woot for my crit buddy), Kylie Griffin, Vanessa Barneveld and Gabrielle Luthy for the Golden Heart.
Enjoy the ride everyone.
Being a finalist in the Golden Heart is pretty exciting stuff. It's a big credential for your writing when querying agents and editors and winners and finalists have a good history of selling. What's interesting though is that, anecdotally (not sure if anyone has ever actually done stats) is that winners and finalists also have a history of quitting writing after the Golden Heart.
So here's the thing....don't give up. There's sixty odd finalists each year in (currently) ten categories each year. I was a finalist in 2007 and we probably had the same sorts of numbers...maybe a few more. Now, most years, a couple of you will sell the GH book or another book before results come out, at least one winner will sell the book at conference or very close to and there will be other sales throughout the year. I'd like nothing better than for everyone to sell their GH book (and snag themselves a fab agent as well) and have it be the kickstart to a glorious career. But most likely, that won't happen. Not everyone will sell their GH book this year, or maybe at all. Not everyone will pick up an agent out of it. And I think that for those who give up at this point, the fact that they don't sell or don't get the agent somehow equals "this is never going to work for me if I can't sell a book that finalled in/won the freaking Golden Heart".
In fact, finalling or winning means the opposite. It means you are a good writer. It means you have what it takes. But you might still have to grit your teeth and keep writing and keep walking the bumpy road of publishing a bit longer before you get that perfect combination of agent, book, editor and market that equals a sale. I sold this year...not quite three years after I got the finalist call (and I was a double finalist, though granted, I switched focus and have only really pursued one of the categories I finalled in since). It wasn't my GH book that sold, it was a few more books down the path. I would still love to find my GH book a home one day because I do love it but to date, it hasn't sold.
Of the gals in my GH year, there's been a steady stream of sales, some of Golden Heart manuscripts, some of other books. Some of other books then Golden Heart manuscripts but not everyone has sold yet. But I know they will if they just keep going. Because GH finalists have what it takes. How do I know? Well, of the 2007 gals, there are five RITA nominations this year. Not too shabby for a bunch of gals who were all unpublished three years ago.
So good luck to everyone, I hope you all sell fast. Enjoy the fun of being a finalist but keep writing and don't give up!
March 28, 2010
March 21, 2010
After the call
So I thought I'd keep a record of when various things happen between getting the call and my first book actually hitting the shelves. With the caveat that every publisher is slightly different, so this is how it works with my editor (Jessica Wade), my agent (Miriam Kriss) and Ace/Roc (I'll just call them Ace for now until I know which arm I'll be in). Also, I'm in Australia, so I'm 15-17 hours ahead of New York depending on the time of year. So I'll give the dates that things happened for me but don't get confused if some of them are Saturday morning because that's Friday afternoon NY time.
For my actual "call" story go here. The actual call for me was Saturday February 20th after which there was a weekend of much celebrating and smiling and telling my news to lots of people and pinching myself to believe it was real.
23 February 2010 - My agent asked me if I had dates in mind to hand in book 2 and 3. At this point I had about 100 pages written of book 2. I will admit I wasn't expecting to be asked, I thought the publisher would probably "suggest" dates. It wasn't an easy thing to figure out without knowing what the revisions on Book 1 were going to be like. (At this point I found out the revision letter date was probably going to be around 1 April). So I consulted published friends and pondered and eventually came up with some dates. Given this is my first go around, I gave myself a fair bit of wriggle room, figuring that I'd never written a book while dealing with revisions and line edits and copy edits and all that other stuff. I also asked my agent to check if Ace were fine with M.J. Scott as my pseudonym.
26 February 2010 - Miriam confirmed M.J. Scott was okay with Ace and that she'd passed my details onto Jessica, so that I should hear from her soon (I will note that I had spoken to Jessica during the acquisition process). At this point I blogged the news, though I'd already told people on various loops and on Twitter). I also updated my website.
27 February 2010 - Got an email from Jessica to say hello etc. I replied and we organised a time to speak in person.
5 March 2010 - Spoke to Jessica (hopefully more coherently than during the acquisition process lol). She confirmed I could expect my revision notes around 1 April and went over what would happen throughout the process. We spoke about the title and biz stuff like international taxes (not an issue if you're in the US) and general answering of my newbie questions. We also spoke a little bit about covers and I got her okay to put a pre-official blurb blurb up on the website.
23 April 2010 - Miriam receives my contract.
29 April 2010 - I receive my revision letter.
30 April 2010 - I think a lot about the revisions and how I might address the points and send some ideas off to Jessica. (Luckily this was one of my no day job days!)
1 May 2010 - Jessica and I talk about the revisions and my ideas on how to proceed with them and come to some conclusions and then I start getting stuck in.
9 June 2010 - Started talking some more about the cover and found out my publication date is June 2011! Exciting!
22 July 2010 - Got my contract via email, asked my agent a couple of questions and ran around Melbourne finding a printer who'd print it for me on US Legal paper (which is a very odd size to we Aussies!)
23 July 2010 - Contract signed and mailed back to Penguin.
27 September 2010 - Miriam got the signed contracts back (and btw, finally got paid after um, three years and nine months of working for me)!
4 October 2010 - I got my copy of the signed contract from Miriam.
17 October 2010 - Handed in book 2
6 November 2010 - Another round of revisions of Shadow Kin.
11 November 2010 - Found out my publication date had been moved to September 2011
10 December 2010 - Got the first look at the cover copy and discussed with Jessica
17 December 2010 - Handed in my second lot of revisions for Shadow Kin
22 January 2011 - Another look at the cover copy with more discussions
8 February 2011 - Got my first look at my very first cover (yippeeee) though not allowed to share it at this point
And that's what's happened so far...I'll keep updating this post as stuff happens!
For my actual "call" story go here. The actual call for me was Saturday February 20th after which there was a weekend of much celebrating and smiling and telling my news to lots of people and pinching myself to believe it was real.
23 February 2010 - My agent asked me if I had dates in mind to hand in book 2 and 3. At this point I had about 100 pages written of book 2. I will admit I wasn't expecting to be asked, I thought the publisher would probably "suggest" dates. It wasn't an easy thing to figure out without knowing what the revisions on Book 1 were going to be like. (At this point I found out the revision letter date was probably going to be around 1 April). So I consulted published friends and pondered and eventually came up with some dates. Given this is my first go around, I gave myself a fair bit of wriggle room, figuring that I'd never written a book while dealing with revisions and line edits and copy edits and all that other stuff. I also asked my agent to check if Ace were fine with M.J. Scott as my pseudonym.
26 February 2010 - Miriam confirmed M.J. Scott was okay with Ace and that she'd passed my details onto Jessica, so that I should hear from her soon (I will note that I had spoken to Jessica during the acquisition process). At this point I blogged the news, though I'd already told people on various loops and on Twitter). I also updated my website.
27 February 2010 - Got an email from Jessica to say hello etc. I replied and we organised a time to speak in person.
5 March 2010 - Spoke to Jessica (hopefully more coherently than during the acquisition process lol). She confirmed I could expect my revision notes around 1 April and went over what would happen throughout the process. We spoke about the title and biz stuff like international taxes (not an issue if you're in the US) and general answering of my newbie questions. We also spoke a little bit about covers and I got her okay to put a pre-official blurb blurb up on the website.
23 April 2010 - Miriam receives my contract.
29 April 2010 - I receive my revision letter.
30 April 2010 - I think a lot about the revisions and how I might address the points and send some ideas off to Jessica. (Luckily this was one of my no day job days!)
1 May 2010 - Jessica and I talk about the revisions and my ideas on how to proceed with them and come to some conclusions and then I start getting stuck in.
9 June 2010 - Started talking some more about the cover and found out my publication date is June 2011! Exciting!
22 July 2010 - Got my contract via email, asked my agent a couple of questions and ran around Melbourne finding a printer who'd print it for me on US Legal paper (which is a very odd size to we Aussies!)
23 July 2010 - Contract signed and mailed back to Penguin.
27 September 2010 - Miriam got the signed contracts back (and btw, finally got paid after um, three years and nine months of working for me)!
4 October 2010 - I got my copy of the signed contract from Miriam.
17 October 2010 - Handed in book 2
6 November 2010 - Another round of revisions of Shadow Kin.
11 November 2010 - Found out my publication date had been moved to September 2011
10 December 2010 - Got the first look at the cover copy and discussed with Jessica
17 December 2010 - Handed in my second lot of revisions for Shadow Kin
22 January 2011 - Another look at the cover copy with more discussions
8 February 2011 - Got my first look at my very first cover (yippeeee) though not allowed to share it at this point
And that's what's happened so far...I'll keep updating this post as stuff happens!
Still marooned
Still without home adsl. Apparently it's meant to be fixed tomorrow. At this point I'm sceptical but fingers crossed. On Thursday I got sick of trying to keep up with everything online via the iPhone (not to mention was getting concerned about my data allowance for the month) so I decided to go buy a prepaid mobile wireless internet modem. Have to say, so far it works pretty well. Pity that we get so severely ripped off for mobile data in this country. But it will come in handy for travels within Australia in the future plus I guess is tax deductible, so not a complete loss.
In other news I have given myself a week to ponder my plot and the best the girls can come up with is "it's mostly right but we don't know much more than that" so I'm going to just keep writing while I'm waiting for my revision letter (eeek!) and see what happens. (The joys of pantsing!) In the meantime the muse has wanted to watch Gossip Girl and Bones and read J.D. Robb. No idea what that combination is likely to produce in the brain but should be interesting.
Yesterday was the first ballet of the year - The Silver Rose - which was interesting but not the world's best music I have to admit. The costumes were gorgeous (all art nouveau inspired) and the dancing was fab but the music was just a bit meh which spoils some of the drama. And it's a very "operatic" (as Terry Pratchett would say) plot. Given it's inspired by Der Rosenkavalier this makes sense but the plot doesn't, really. Never big on the "man dresses as woman and another man falls for him instantly" plot. Still, well worth a look if you're ballet inclined and in Australia.
In other news I have given myself a week to ponder my plot and the best the girls can come up with is "it's mostly right but we don't know much more than that" so I'm going to just keep writing while I'm waiting for my revision letter (eeek!) and see what happens. (The joys of pantsing!) In the meantime the muse has wanted to watch Gossip Girl and Bones and read J.D. Robb. No idea what that combination is likely to produce in the brain but should be interesting.
Yesterday was the first ballet of the year - The Silver Rose - which was interesting but not the world's best music I have to admit. The costumes were gorgeous (all art nouveau inspired) and the dancing was fab but the music was just a bit meh which spoils some of the drama. And it's a very "operatic" (as Terry Pratchett would say) plot. Given it's inspired by Der Rosenkavalier this makes sense but the plot doesn't, really. Never big on the "man dresses as woman and another man falls for him instantly" plot. Still, well worth a look if you're ballet inclined and in Australia.
March 13, 2010
Marooned
Thanks to the gods of communications who decreed that fixing my landline = breaking my adsl I am without Internet at home and can only get online via the iPhone (have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone?)
So I'll be tweeting a bit and checking emails but otherwise scarce as things like blogging are tricky on teeny screen. Plus I can't update my template on the phone so here's the latest wordcount....45k!!! Yay that is hopefully over half way of first draft page count! Aiming to get to 50k by tomorrow night which should be doable given have less ways to procrastinate with no Internet on the computer!
More when I'm back in the land of the wired.
So I'll be tweeting a bit and checking emails but otherwise scarce as things like blogging are tricky on teeny screen. Plus I can't update my template on the phone so here's the latest wordcount....45k!!! Yay that is hopefully over half way of first draft page count! Aiming to get to 50k by tomorrow night which should be doable given have less ways to procrastinate with no Internet on the computer!
More when I'm back in the land of the wired.
March 10, 2010
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