Well, And is Never Shaken has been available for one day, and it is already showing up on the little 'Bestsellers' carousel on the left of the Dreamspinner Press website. Obviously 'Bestseller' here just means that it's sold a few copies quite quickly, but it's the first time I've ever seen bestseller linked to any of my work in any way, so I'm happy.
In other news, I'm giving away a few copies of this novella on Reviews by Jessewave. You need to post a romantic playlist in the comment trail to get your name in the hat. There have been some awesome entries, which are likely to swell my musical collection before long. There's only a few hours left in this giveaway, so if you haven't been there yet, please visit.
Finally, thanks to everyone for their votes in the What Should I Write next poll. Again, there are only a few hours left to vote, so if anyone else has an opinion, please let me know!
Showing posts with label And is Never Shaken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label And is Never Shaken. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Sunday, 2 May 2010
And Is Never Shaken Playlist
With And Is Never Shaken coming out from Dreamspinner on Wednesday, I thought I'd post my playlist for it. The novella was heavily influenced by music - I had a dream about being reincarnated, during which I heard the classical piece Gnossienne no. 1. and that was the original inspiration for writing Cassian and Andy's story. Not only that, but music is very important to the characters and in the development of the plot.
This playlist is made up of both the songs I was listening to while writing it and the music that features in the story.
1) Cry by Rihanna
2) My Hands by Leona Lewis
3) Meditation from 'Thais' Performed by Joshua Bell
4) Midnight on the Water Performed by Waterson: Carthy
5) The Lark Ascending by Vaughn Williams
6) Gnossienne No. 1 Performed by Johannes Cernota
7) Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
8) The Heart Asks Pleasure First/The Promise by Michael Nyman
9) Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini Performed by Daniel Petrov and the Russian State Orchestra
10) Awake by Secondhand Serenade
11) This Moment by Melissa Etheridge
12) Run by Snow Patrol
13) Lost by Anouk
I put this list of songs on repeat and shuffle and listened to them constantly, even while out of the house on my iPod. Listening to them might give readers a special insight into the story - or not. I guess it'll depend on how people feel about random mish-mashes of classical, pop, Indie, Motown and R&B!
This playlist is made up of both the songs I was listening to while writing it and the music that features in the story.
1) Cry by Rihanna
2) My Hands by Leona Lewis
3) Meditation from 'Thais' Performed by Joshua Bell
4) Midnight on the Water Performed by Waterson: Carthy
5) The Lark Ascending by Vaughn Williams
6) Gnossienne No. 1 Performed by Johannes Cernota
7) Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
8) The Heart Asks Pleasure First/The Promise by Michael Nyman
9) Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini Performed by Daniel Petrov and the Russian State Orchestra
10) Awake by Secondhand Serenade
11) This Moment by Melissa Etheridge
12) Run by Snow Patrol
13) Lost by Anouk
I put this list of songs on repeat and shuffle and listened to them constantly, even while out of the house on my iPod. Listening to them might give readers a special insight into the story - or not. I guess it'll depend on how people feel about random mish-mashes of classical, pop, Indie, Motown and R&B!
Thursday, 29 April 2010
And is Never Shaken Taster
Hi guys. It looks like the release date for And is Never Shaken is pretty solid, so it will be out next Wednesday from Dreamspinner Press. There's an excerpt on the website, but in celebration I'm going to post a different, work-safe snippet under the cut. Enjoy!
Friday, 23 April 2010
Possible Release Date for And Is Never Shaken
And Is Never Shaken has turned up on the Forthcoming page at Dreamspinner Press with a publication date of the 5th of May. You can see it and even pre-order it here.
I say 'possible date' just because they haven't emailed me to let me know this date yet, and I've noticed that they play about with the Forthcoming page quite a lot. Things jump on and off there all the time. So it might have disappeared by tomorrow, and come back with with a different release date the day after.
I suspect it's just one of the ways that the sneaky folks there at DSP keep us on our toes.
UPDATE: The book is also on Goodreads now, and people have already started adding it to their 'To Be Read' and 'Potential Buy' shelves! Woohoo!
I say 'possible date' just because they haven't emailed me to let me know this date yet, and I've noticed that they play about with the Forthcoming page quite a lot. Things jump on and off there all the time. So it might have disappeared by tomorrow, and come back with with a different release date the day after.
I suspect it's just one of the ways that the sneaky folks there at DSP keep us on our toes.
UPDATE: The book is also on Goodreads now, and people have already started adding it to their 'To Be Read' and 'Potential Buy' shelves! Woohoo!
Thursday, 8 April 2010
A Blurbing Birthday Continued
Okay, so readers who tuned into this bat-channel yesterday will have been witness to my epic snit-fit over the blurb that the good professionals of DSP came up with for my novella And Is Never Shaken.
Not because the blurb wasn't well-written, correct and factual, but because despite this, it also had many of the problems that readers of Reviews by Jessewave had raved about here. If you'd like to read the blurb, you can go back to yesterday's post here and see for yourself what I mean.
We ended yesterday's thrilling installment with my decision to risk not only my own sanity, but also annoying the people of DSP, by attempting to completely re-write the blurb and asking them to use my version instead.
The first thing I did was to throw out both the short synopsis which I had submitted to DSP originally and the blurb that DSP had sent me. I tend to think that the first mistake most people make when writing blurbs for readers is to confuse what a prospective buyer needs to make their decision, with what an editor needs to make theirs. The editor needs to know the shape of the story and the factual details of how it starts and ends. They need to know you're not going to have aliens appear in chapter two and turn everyone to jelly. Once they're assured of that they open the file and begin to read, which requires a commitment of time, but no money. If they have questions about tone or language, they answer them by reading the story. It's right there.
But your potential buyers are looking at a professional entry on a publisher's website. They know this book has been accepted for publication and edited, so they already know that aliens don't appear and turn everyone to jelly (unless the story actually calls for that). What they want to know is what they can expect to experience as a reader if they invest their hard earned cash in your story. Why buy your story and not the three others that came out from the publisher at the same time, or the twenty others that came out from different publishers that day? They need to know the world they're about to step into if they buy your book.
Bearing all this - and the comments from the erudite readers of Jessewave's blog - in mind, this is my blurb-writing check-list.
1) Characters. This is romance we're writing here - the characters are everything. Introduce both the main characters with a couple of key facts that allow readers to visualize them. I don't mean their appearance, unless the way they look is what defines them in some way (if one of them has a disability, or is astonishingly good-looking for example) . In the case of And Is Never Shaken, both protagonists have jobs that they love and which define them, so those go in the blurb.
2) Relationship. Again, this is romance. The relationship is what we're reading for. We need to know the 'hook' of the relationship - love at first sight, hate at first sight, the odd couple, gay for you, May to December, whatever. My characters have little in common and have a large age gap, yet they keep bumping into each other, and this makes one of them think the other is a stalker. Not a great start for them, but a great 'hook' for the book.
3) What Happens Next? One or two sentences about how their beginning eases into a middle. Do they fight like cats and dogs, get separated but struggle to keep their love alive, find themselves swept away in a fairytale passion? This is the meat of the story. This is where you tell readers if they have humour or angst or outdoor sex or naked swimming in a vat of custard to look forward to.Try to express the tone of the story. It's pointless to write a funny blurb if the story isn't comedic, pointless to write an angsty one if the story is light and sweet. If there are squink factors in the story which you haven't already mentioned, put them here. If you added a threesome to spice things up (I hope you didn't, by the way) you should be hinting at the characters journey of sexual discovery so that it doesn't come as a complete shock to the reader.
4) The Big No-No. Or - what goes wrong. Not too much detail, because that's the point of reading the book, but at the same time don't be coy. Blog readers said they hate, hate, hated it when authors tried to convince them that there would be a sad ending because, let's face it, this is m/m romance and that doesn't happen very often. So unless you actually wrote a down-ending (which was brave of you) it's better to focus on the conflict here. What goes wrong? Put a question in the reader's mind so that they picture the pain or difficulty the characters might face to get their HEA or HFN. However, another huge Red Button was the use of rhetorical questions, so don't try to put a question into the reader's mind by saying 'Will Tim and Fred fight through their parent's expectations to be together?' Because the reader knows the answer must be yes, and this just annoys them and makes them think snarky thoughts.
Putting all this into practise:
(One paragraph) Cassian Ford is a successful writer in his forties, established at the local university (hello, character number one!). Andy Havers is a book restorer in his early twenties who just moved to town (Hello character number two and May to December relationship!) They have nothing in common, and yet somehow everywhere they go they seem to run into each other. Despite a bumpy beginning - an exasperated Cassian accuses Andy of being a stalker - (there's the hook, and a hint of humour) the gap in age and their many other differences, a passionate romance develops between them. But just when Andy is convinced he's found true love (these last two lines are the What Happens Next - they tell us that things are passionate and loving) secrets from Cassian's past erupt into the present (word choice hopefully suggests angst and drama) and Andy realizes it might not be him Cassian wants at all...(Yowch, that sounds kind of painful for Andy, I wonder how he gets over that?)
Without the commentary:
Cassian Ford is a successful writer in his forties, established at the local university. Andy Havers is a book restorer in his early twenties who just moved to town. They have nothing in common, and yet somehow everywhere they go they seem to run into each other. Despite a bumpy beginning - an exasperated Cassian accuses Andy of being a stalker - the gap in age and their many other differences, a passionate romance develops between them. But just when Andy is convinced he's found true love, secrets from Cassian's past erupt into the present and Andy realizes it might not be him Cassian wants at all...
Mission accomplished. Now I had to submit this to DSP and hope they liked it.
Now, let's get something straight here before we go any further: I'm a seasoned publishing professional. I've been dealing with editors, marketing directors and Big Cheeses (otherwise known as Commissioning Editors) for...Jeez, seven years now. But no matter how many times you've had playful banter with an editor, no matter how confident you are as a professional, no matter how sure you are that you're right, EVERYTIME that you have to disagree with an editor, you will be reduced to quivering jelly. What if they get really upset and don't want to work with you anymore?
Luckily, despite that big build-up, DSP did like my version of the blurb, and said they'll use it. And they didn't even cuss me out for being an awkward b*tch either. (Sigh of contentment).
Not because the blurb wasn't well-written, correct and factual, but because despite this, it also had many of the problems that readers of Reviews by Jessewave had raved about here. If you'd like to read the blurb, you can go back to yesterday's post here and see for yourself what I mean.
We ended yesterday's thrilling installment with my decision to risk not only my own sanity, but also annoying the people of DSP, by attempting to completely re-write the blurb and asking them to use my version instead.
The first thing I did was to throw out both the short synopsis which I had submitted to DSP originally and the blurb that DSP had sent me. I tend to think that the first mistake most people make when writing blurbs for readers is to confuse what a prospective buyer needs to make their decision, with what an editor needs to make theirs. The editor needs to know the shape of the story and the factual details of how it starts and ends. They need to know you're not going to have aliens appear in chapter two and turn everyone to jelly. Once they're assured of that they open the file and begin to read, which requires a commitment of time, but no money. If they have questions about tone or language, they answer them by reading the story. It's right there.
But your potential buyers are looking at a professional entry on a publisher's website. They know this book has been accepted for publication and edited, so they already know that aliens don't appear and turn everyone to jelly (unless the story actually calls for that). What they want to know is what they can expect to experience as a reader if they invest their hard earned cash in your story. Why buy your story and not the three others that came out from the publisher at the same time, or the twenty others that came out from different publishers that day? They need to know the world they're about to step into if they buy your book.
Bearing all this - and the comments from the erudite readers of Jessewave's blog - in mind, this is my blurb-writing check-list.
1) Characters. This is romance we're writing here - the characters are everything. Introduce both the main characters with a couple of key facts that allow readers to visualize them. I don't mean their appearance, unless the way they look is what defines them in some way (if one of them has a disability, or is astonishingly good-looking for example) . In the case of And Is Never Shaken, both protagonists have jobs that they love and which define them, so those go in the blurb.
2) Relationship. Again, this is romance. The relationship is what we're reading for. We need to know the 'hook' of the relationship - love at first sight, hate at first sight, the odd couple, gay for you, May to December, whatever. My characters have little in common and have a large age gap, yet they keep bumping into each other, and this makes one of them think the other is a stalker. Not a great start for them, but a great 'hook' for the book.
3) What Happens Next? One or two sentences about how their beginning eases into a middle. Do they fight like cats and dogs, get separated but struggle to keep their love alive, find themselves swept away in a fairytale passion? This is the meat of the story. This is where you tell readers if they have humour or angst or outdoor sex or naked swimming in a vat of custard to look forward to.Try to express the tone of the story. It's pointless to write a funny blurb if the story isn't comedic, pointless to write an angsty one if the story is light and sweet. If there are squink factors in the story which you haven't already mentioned, put them here. If you added a threesome to spice things up (I hope you didn't, by the way) you should be hinting at the characters journey of sexual discovery so that it doesn't come as a complete shock to the reader.
4) The Big No-No. Or - what goes wrong. Not too much detail, because that's the point of reading the book, but at the same time don't be coy. Blog readers said they hate, hate, hated it when authors tried to convince them that there would be a sad ending because, let's face it, this is m/m romance and that doesn't happen very often. So unless you actually wrote a down-ending (which was brave of you) it's better to focus on the conflict here. What goes wrong? Put a question in the reader's mind so that they picture the pain or difficulty the characters might face to get their HEA or HFN. However, another huge Red Button was the use of rhetorical questions, so don't try to put a question into the reader's mind by saying 'Will Tim and Fred fight through their parent's expectations to be together?' Because the reader knows the answer must be yes, and this just annoys them and makes them think snarky thoughts.
Putting all this into practise:
(One paragraph) Cassian Ford is a successful writer in his forties, established at the local university (hello, character number one!). Andy Havers is a book restorer in his early twenties who just moved to town (Hello character number two and May to December relationship!) They have nothing in common, and yet somehow everywhere they go they seem to run into each other. Despite a bumpy beginning - an exasperated Cassian accuses Andy of being a stalker - (there's the hook, and a hint of humour) the gap in age and their many other differences, a passionate romance develops between them. But just when Andy is convinced he's found true love (these last two lines are the What Happens Next - they tell us that things are passionate and loving) secrets from Cassian's past erupt into the present (word choice hopefully suggests angst and drama) and Andy realizes it might not be him Cassian wants at all...(Yowch, that sounds kind of painful for Andy, I wonder how he gets over that?)
Without the commentary:
Cassian Ford is a successful writer in his forties, established at the local university. Andy Havers is a book restorer in his early twenties who just moved to town. They have nothing in common, and yet somehow everywhere they go they seem to run into each other. Despite a bumpy beginning - an exasperated Cassian accuses Andy of being a stalker - the gap in age and their many other differences, a passionate romance develops between them. But just when Andy is convinced he's found true love, secrets from Cassian's past erupt into the present and Andy realizes it might not be him Cassian wants at all...
Mission accomplished. Now I had to submit this to DSP and hope they liked it.
Now, let's get something straight here before we go any further: I'm a seasoned publishing professional. I've been dealing with editors, marketing directors and Big Cheeses (otherwise known as Commissioning Editors) for...Jeez, seven years now. But no matter how many times you've had playful banter with an editor, no matter how confident you are as a professional, no matter how sure you are that you're right, EVERYTIME that you have to disagree with an editor, you will be reduced to quivering jelly. What if they get really upset and don't want to work with you anymore?
Luckily, despite that big build-up, DSP did like my version of the blurb, and said they'll use it. And they didn't even cuss me out for being an awkward b*tch either. (Sigh of contentment).
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
A Blurbing Birthday
The fateful day has dawned, and I am a year older and definitely wiser. My first birthday present? A blurb from DSP for my novella And Is Never Shaken.
Very recently there was a blog post about blurbs on Reviews by Jessewave. You can find this revealing article (and what's even more revealing, the comment trail following it) here.
What this made clear to me is that for a lot of people the blurb is all they read - it makes the decision on whether they buy or not. People ignore covers because often they're terrible or cliched; even if they're pretty they usually say very little about the story itself. And it seems most people don't have time to read the excepts either - there are just too many books to get through, and they don't think the excerpt really tells them much.
The blurb is the number one selling tool that an author can have, other than a well-respected name.
Unfortunately, a lot of readers feel that the blurbs they're offered are letting them down. And readers place the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the author. Yes, they acknowledge that editors and other publishing professionals are partly responsible for this too, but most readers seemed to feel that since the author is the one who knows the story inside out they should be the one who makes sure the blurb reflects what their work is really about.
All of which resulted in this reaction when I saw the blurb which DSP had written for And Is Never Shaken: AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, it's safe to say that I was a tad upset. The blurb I read - though technically correct and not terrible in any way - held basically ALL the elements that the readers of the Jessewave blog had isolated as problems for them. Let me illustrate:
The first time Andreas Havers meets Cassian Ford, Cassian stops him in the street and then walks away. The second time is when Andy signs up for a creative writing course—a course Cassian is teaching. The third time, they bump into each other in the hallway of Andy’s new apartment building and realize they’re neighbors. After being accused of being a stalker, Andy finally loses his temper and tells Cassian where to get off.
Strangely, instead of letting the acquaintance die there, Cassian pursues Andy and apologizes. Explaining away his odd behavior, Cassian asks Andy out on a date, a date that will turn into a passionate affair threatened by secrets from the past.
First of all, this is two paragraphs long. Now, I personally have no problem with two paragraph blurbs. In fact, I like a lot of details. But the vast majority of e-book buyers do not appear to agree with me. They want one paragraph only - they were very emphatic about this.
They also felt that many blurbs missed out pertinent details of the story which might either make them want to buy it, or warn them to steer clear. In this case, the romance is a May to December relationship, with eighteen years between the protagonists. This is a selling point for me (which is why I wrote the story) and might be for a lot of others too, but for those who are squinked out by May to December, there's no warning here.
Finally, they felt that blurbs didn't give them any idea of the tone of the story, and in some cases that blurbs were actively misleading. Well, this blurb has no tone, really. It's just business-like and straightforward, which would be fine if the novella were business-like and straightforward. But it isn't. And Is Never Shaken has a lot of poetic language and also some humour. I don't think there's any way that anyone could label this blurb misleading, but it doesn't give much of a flavour of the story either.
So, after much gnashing of teeth, stressing and hair-pulling, I decided to completely re-write this blurb and ask my DSP editor to consider a new version.
Since this post is getting rather long, tune in tomorrow to see how I incorporated the blog reader's comments into a new version of the blurb, and hear about DSP's reaction to an uppity author re-writing their blurbs wholesale.
Very recently there was a blog post about blurbs on Reviews by Jessewave. You can find this revealing article (and what's even more revealing, the comment trail following it) here.
What this made clear to me is that for a lot of people the blurb is all they read - it makes the decision on whether they buy or not. People ignore covers because often they're terrible or cliched; even if they're pretty they usually say very little about the story itself. And it seems most people don't have time to read the excepts either - there are just too many books to get through, and they don't think the excerpt really tells them much.
The blurb is the number one selling tool that an author can have, other than a well-respected name.
Unfortunately, a lot of readers feel that the blurbs they're offered are letting them down. And readers place the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the author. Yes, they acknowledge that editors and other publishing professionals are partly responsible for this too, but most readers seemed to feel that since the author is the one who knows the story inside out they should be the one who makes sure the blurb reflects what their work is really about.
All of which resulted in this reaction when I saw the blurb which DSP had written for And Is Never Shaken: AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, it's safe to say that I was a tad upset. The blurb I read - though technically correct and not terrible in any way - held basically ALL the elements that the readers of the Jessewave blog had isolated as problems for them. Let me illustrate:
The first time Andreas Havers meets Cassian Ford, Cassian stops him in the street and then walks away. The second time is when Andy signs up for a creative writing course—a course Cassian is teaching. The third time, they bump into each other in the hallway of Andy’s new apartment building and realize they’re neighbors. After being accused of being a stalker, Andy finally loses his temper and tells Cassian where to get off.
Strangely, instead of letting the acquaintance die there, Cassian pursues Andy and apologizes. Explaining away his odd behavior, Cassian asks Andy out on a date, a date that will turn into a passionate affair threatened by secrets from the past.
First of all, this is two paragraphs long. Now, I personally have no problem with two paragraph blurbs. In fact, I like a lot of details. But the vast majority of e-book buyers do not appear to agree with me. They want one paragraph only - they were very emphatic about this.
They also felt that many blurbs missed out pertinent details of the story which might either make them want to buy it, or warn them to steer clear. In this case, the romance is a May to December relationship, with eighteen years between the protagonists. This is a selling point for me (which is why I wrote the story) and might be for a lot of others too, but for those who are squinked out by May to December, there's no warning here.
Finally, they felt that blurbs didn't give them any idea of the tone of the story, and in some cases that blurbs were actively misleading. Well, this blurb has no tone, really. It's just business-like and straightforward, which would be fine if the novella were business-like and straightforward. But it isn't. And Is Never Shaken has a lot of poetic language and also some humour. I don't think there's any way that anyone could label this blurb misleading, but it doesn't give much of a flavour of the story either.
So, after much gnashing of teeth, stressing and hair-pulling, I decided to completely re-write this blurb and ask my DSP editor to consider a new version.
Since this post is getting rather long, tune in tomorrow to see how I incorporated the blog reader's comments into a new version of the blurb, and hear about DSP's reaction to an uppity author re-writing their blurbs wholesale.
Sunday, 4 April 2010
The Pressure is On
All right. I did my meeting with the Folks in London (my publishers for my work under my different name) and they're really keen to get a new book out the year after the book that I've just finished. That's because there's been sort of a long gap between the one I just finished (not published yet) and the one they published before that.
This was actually the publisher's fault, and they've acknowledged it, but it doesn't change the fact that it damages my career - and the publisher's prospects of selling lots of books - to have such a long gap. Readers forget quickly. Which means when I come back on the scene I need to make a really strong impression. Two books in two years does that. Therefore, I need to get to work on the new novel and I need to make it good.
What does any of this have to do with Alexi Silversmith, newbie writer of m/m fiction? Well, it means that m/m writing is going to have to go on the back burner. For a while. I don't know how long. Basically when I start any new project it takes me a while to really firmly get a grasp on it and I need to spend that time completely absorbed in the new characters, world etc. I can't do that if I'm working on something utterly different at the same time. Once I've embedded my brain in this new novel, I might be able to look at m/m stuff again as a hobby and do it for fun, but not until I'm totally confident in the other story.
So, right now...feeling a little depressed. Excited about my new novel, fired up, committed....but still, a part of me is depressed about Captain Space Bunny and all the other m/m characters teaming in my head.
But there's always the hope that the release of the m/m stories I've written will be staggered in such a way that my potential m/m readers won't even notice this hiatus. I don't have a pub date for And Is Never Shaken yet, and I haven't even started the editing process on the stories that were sold to Torquere Press. Which means that by the time the last of them comes out, I might have started work as Alexi Silversmith again. That's a comforting thought.
This was actually the publisher's fault, and they've acknowledged it, but it doesn't change the fact that it damages my career - and the publisher's prospects of selling lots of books - to have such a long gap. Readers forget quickly. Which means when I come back on the scene I need to make a really strong impression. Two books in two years does that. Therefore, I need to get to work on the new novel and I need to make it good.
What does any of this have to do with Alexi Silversmith, newbie writer of m/m fiction? Well, it means that m/m writing is going to have to go on the back burner. For a while. I don't know how long. Basically when I start any new project it takes me a while to really firmly get a grasp on it and I need to spend that time completely absorbed in the new characters, world etc. I can't do that if I'm working on something utterly different at the same time. Once I've embedded my brain in this new novel, I might be able to look at m/m stuff again as a hobby and do it for fun, but not until I'm totally confident in the other story.
So, right now...feeling a little depressed. Excited about my new novel, fired up, committed....but still, a part of me is depressed about Captain Space Bunny and all the other m/m characters teaming in my head.
But there's always the hope that the release of the m/m stories I've written will be staggered in such a way that my potential m/m readers won't even notice this hiatus. I don't have a pub date for And Is Never Shaken yet, and I haven't even started the editing process on the stories that were sold to Torquere Press. Which means that by the time the last of them comes out, I might have started work as Alexi Silversmith again. That's a comforting thought.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Editing...Fun?
Well, my nerve-wracking wait has come to an end. I received the edited file for my novella And Is Never Shaken from DSP, all marked up and ready for me to revise.
I had been biting my nails about this for a while because I've never worked with an editor before who I haven't met face to face, and I've never worked with an American editor without their comments being filtered though a British one (and British editors like to make their authors quiver with tales of how incredibly harsh American editors are). I was also a little nervous because this is my first m/m story, and what if the editor, being very experienced at working in m/m, finds loads of amateur mistakes? What if they want more sex scenes? What if they want to change loads of things and I don't agree? Argh!
I actually really enjoy revising - and yes, I know this makes me an unnatural freak, shunned by other writers. But I do. There are times when I've been in tears because an editor completely misunderstood a character or kept asking for explanations of stuff I thought was perfectly self-explanatory, but usually once I calm down the value of the comments sinks in and then it's all fun. I'm effectively trying to beat myself at my own game, and I do love a challenge like that.
But it's also exhausting, because once I start revising that's all I want to do. Eat? Nah. Sleep? No way. Talk to other human beings? Not a chance. I go into Revision Mode and it's like Terminator Mode only more terrifying. My last book was 120,000 words long. By the time finished everyone I knew thought I'd died and been eaten by Alsatians.
Bearing this in mind, it seems silly that I was so stressed out by the idea of working on a fairly short story, especially since m/m writing is supposed to be a lovely hobby. But I'm a naturally pessimistic and anal retentive type. I always expect the worst.
What a pleasant surprise then, to find that instead of wanting to rip the novella apart and rewrite it with dinosaurs fighting vampires, my Dreamspinner Press editor basically just wanted to fix all my stupid English Grammar mistakes (I thought I'd done quite well with my American Grammar, but...well, that was a beautiful dream), point out a couple of typos and spelling errors, tell me that I'd got a fact about Andrea Botcelli incorrect, and clarify whose hand was sliding up whose arm and whose leg went where.
There was no misinterpreting of the characters, wild requests for changes in the plot, mocking laughter or nit-picking. Frankly, if my print editor did this kind of job, I'd marry her. I managed to turn the ms around in about an hour, and it was pure pleasure. Phew.
I can only hope and pray that revising my other m/m stories will go as smoothly. Even though I actually got my first m/m contract with Torquere (for novelette Love Bites) a week before And Is Never Shaken was accepted by DSP, I haven't heard anything from TQ about editing yet. I assume this is because TQ puts out two or three times as many titles as DSP, so their queue is longer. Patience, Alexi, patience...
I had been biting my nails about this for a while because I've never worked with an editor before who I haven't met face to face, and I've never worked with an American editor without their comments being filtered though a British one (and British editors like to make their authors quiver with tales of how incredibly harsh American editors are). I was also a little nervous because this is my first m/m story, and what if the editor, being very experienced at working in m/m, finds loads of amateur mistakes? What if they want more sex scenes? What if they want to change loads of things and I don't agree? Argh!
I actually really enjoy revising - and yes, I know this makes me an unnatural freak, shunned by other writers. But I do. There are times when I've been in tears because an editor completely misunderstood a character or kept asking for explanations of stuff I thought was perfectly self-explanatory, but usually once I calm down the value of the comments sinks in and then it's all fun. I'm effectively trying to beat myself at my own game, and I do love a challenge like that.
But it's also exhausting, because once I start revising that's all I want to do. Eat? Nah. Sleep? No way. Talk to other human beings? Not a chance. I go into Revision Mode and it's like Terminator Mode only more terrifying. My last book was 120,000 words long. By the time finished everyone I knew thought I'd died and been eaten by Alsatians.
Bearing this in mind, it seems silly that I was so stressed out by the idea of working on a fairly short story, especially since m/m writing is supposed to be a lovely hobby. But I'm a naturally pessimistic and anal retentive type. I always expect the worst.
What a pleasant surprise then, to find that instead of wanting to rip the novella apart and rewrite it with dinosaurs fighting vampires, my Dreamspinner Press editor basically just wanted to fix all my stupid English Grammar mistakes (I thought I'd done quite well with my American Grammar, but...well, that was a beautiful dream), point out a couple of typos and spelling errors, tell me that I'd got a fact about Andrea Botcelli incorrect, and clarify whose hand was sliding up whose arm and whose leg went where.
There was no misinterpreting of the characters, wild requests for changes in the plot, mocking laughter or nit-picking. Frankly, if my print editor did this kind of job, I'd marry her. I managed to turn the ms around in about an hour, and it was pure pleasure. Phew.
I can only hope and pray that revising my other m/m stories will go as smoothly. Even though I actually got my first m/m contract with Torquere (for novelette Love Bites) a week before And Is Never Shaken was accepted by DSP, I haven't heard anything from TQ about editing yet. I assume this is because TQ puts out two or three times as many titles as DSP, so their queue is longer. Patience, Alexi, patience...
Friday, 26 March 2010
And Is Never Shaken Cover!
(Yes, I know I'm too old for OMG, but sometimes you just gotta).
Props to the geniuses of the Dreamspinner Press art department, for coming up with something that made me squee like a Twihard meeting a Robert Pattinson lookalike in the local grocery store. I really love this; it captures the mood of the story and characters perfectly. I've had a half dozen print covers designed for my work now, but not one of them felt *right* like this one does. They even put the coffee cups on there!
Made my day. Made my weekend.
I'm still waiting to get to the top of the editing pile at DSP, and begin work on revisions of this story. I'm a tiny bit nervous because I don't know how 'hard' the editing will be. I've worked with American editors before, but usually in collaboration with my British one - and British editors tend to make jokes about how harsh American editors are, and how American authors quiver in fear of them.
But at the same time I'm really psyched about getting this story out there, and can't wait to begin. Fingers crossed it'll be soon, before the anxiety gets to me and I start chewing my own hair or barking like a dog.
Monday, 22 February 2010
Status Check
Okay. I'm a newbie m/m author - so new that I'd never tried to write an m/m story (not even slash fic) until January this year. So it's nearly the end of February now and I'm just going to do a little status check
M/m novelette Love Bites (about a man who has long suppressed his bisexuality and what happens when he 'comes out' to his best friend) was completed and submitted to Torquere Press 26/1/2010.
M/m novella And is Never Shaken (concerning immortal love, classical music and reincarnation) was completed and submitted to Dreamspinner Press 08/02/2010.
Love Bites was accepted by Torquere Press as a Single Shot on 15/02/2010. Contact now signed.
And is Never Shaken was accepted by Dreamspinner Press 19/02/2010. Contract now signed.
So far, so good.
Stuff I'm waiting to hear about:
M/m novella Ruby Slippers (featuring Ethan and Jamie from Love Bites as secondary characters and telling the story of a police officer and a drag queen) completed and submitted to Dreamspinner Press 21/02/2010.
Stuff I haven't submitted yet:
Short m/m story Precious Possession (about a relationship that goes wrong and how some ghostly intervention saves it) which I intend to send for Dreamspinner's 'A Midsummer Night's Nightmare' anthology, but haven't yet because I don't want to flood them.
Stuff I'm still working on:
Another m/m story (which may turn out to be a novelette, but feels more like a novella) called Red Sky at Night which is actually set in the UK (my first!) and concerns...I dunno, maybe ghosts or something, possibly fate. Lots of sea imagery. Not sure yet.
Huh. Looking pretty good there. Slightly concerned that I need to perhaps look at other publishers through, or else Torquere and Dreamspinner are going to be getting sick of me, at the rate I'm putting stuff out. I'll make a decision on that when I finish Red Sky.
M/m novelette Love Bites (about a man who has long suppressed his bisexuality and what happens when he 'comes out' to his best friend) was completed and submitted to Torquere Press 26/1/2010.
M/m novella And is Never Shaken (concerning immortal love, classical music and reincarnation) was completed and submitted to Dreamspinner Press 08/02/2010.
Love Bites was accepted by Torquere Press as a Single Shot on 15/02/2010. Contact now signed.
And is Never Shaken was accepted by Dreamspinner Press 19/02/2010. Contract now signed.
So far, so good.
Stuff I'm waiting to hear about:
M/m novella Ruby Slippers (featuring Ethan and Jamie from Love Bites as secondary characters and telling the story of a police officer and a drag queen) completed and submitted to Dreamspinner Press 21/02/2010.
Stuff I haven't submitted yet:
Short m/m story Precious Possession (about a relationship that goes wrong and how some ghostly intervention saves it) which I intend to send for Dreamspinner's 'A Midsummer Night's Nightmare' anthology, but haven't yet because I don't want to flood them.
Stuff I'm still working on:
Another m/m story (which may turn out to be a novelette, but feels more like a novella) called Red Sky at Night which is actually set in the UK (my first!) and concerns...I dunno, maybe ghosts or something, possibly fate. Lots of sea imagery. Not sure yet.
Huh. Looking pretty good there. Slightly concerned that I need to perhaps look at other publishers through, or else Torquere and Dreamspinner are going to be getting sick of me, at the rate I'm putting stuff out. I'll make a decision on that when I finish Red Sky.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
And is Never Shaken...
Well, I got up this morning to find an email from Dreamspinner Press with a contract attached to it! These e-publishers really do work incredibly fast. So this means that my second m/m story, And is Never Shaken, now has a publisher too. Exciting!
Here's my own little synopsis of the story, which is novella length (22,000 words) although of course that might go up or down if we do any editorial work.
I need to print the contract, sign it and get it back to them, which is where living in a different country is kind of annoying, but hopefully airmail will get it there fairly quickly.
Now I just need to finish my third m/m story and decide who to submit it to...
Here's my own little synopsis of the story, which is novella length (22,000 words) although of course that might go up or down if we do any editorial work.
And is Never Shaken is the story of Cassian Ford, a successful writer and English Professor in his forties, who lost the boy he believed to be the love of his life as a teenager. When he sees that boy - apparently reborn - walking past him one day on the street, he attempts to pursue him.
But Andy, the twenty-two year old man in question, doesn't believe in reincarnation. He feels a deep connection to Cassian, but he wants to be loved for himself, not resemblance to a dead man, and Cassian has to prove that it's Andy he really wants before they can have a hope of a relationship.
I need to print the contract, sign it and get it back to them, which is where living in a different country is kind of annoying, but hopefully airmail will get it there fairly quickly.
Now I just need to finish my third m/m story and decide who to submit it to...
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