LauraJUnderwood
Silly Author Person
For the last year, a publisher has been sitting on Dragon's Tongue and Wandering Lark. I have waited and waited and waited for an answer, sent queries, crossed fingers, groaned in frustration when answers were not forthcoming...
And finally got an answer last Friday.
It was their opinion that with computers being available to tell them sales numbers that the numbers of my novel were not sufficient to warrent them risking publishing the second book in a series started by another publisher--especially a publisher that had failed miserably and been forced to close its doors...
I had a "moment" as it were. In the first place, I was offering a package of both books. Secondly, my publisher's failure is NOT a reflection on my books success. In fact, the reasons for my publisher's failure--which I have more knowledge of now, but decline for professional reasons not to go into in public at this time--had Nothing to do with the sales numbers of my book. For a small press, it did remarkably well and I was actually owed money because I had more than earned out my advance.
As I said, I had a "moment" wherein I was left depressed and feeling like a "bridesmaid" who is too short to catch the bouquet and about all she can hope for is to get smacked in the face by a stray blossom when someone taller manages to reach over her head and grab the bouquet.
And in my moment, I went shopping and ordered an item (which I have just learned is scheduled for delivery this Wednesday), and that made me feel a little better...
I had just finished, fortunately, doing editorial rewrites of my forthcoming fantasy novel Angels of Mercy. Which is a good thing because sometimes these moments can cause me to want to give up.
Except that giving up is never an options. That little creative piece of my soul is not willing to say, "Okay, that is it, I am finished!!!"
That and knowing I have other committments.
There are still other books and stories to write. And I have other publishers to try on "The Demon-Bound."
I think what galls me is that you wait, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait...and all the while, you wonder why they are doing nothing... You wonder if stuff got lost. So you email and ask, and get told, "Oh, it arrived," and nothing more... And then you wait some more, and after a long time, you think maybe you have waited too long, so you write and you write, and you get ignored... And FINALLY, when you take a more direct approach (I sent another query to another editor in the same house, including a copy of the first editor's letters just so they would know and get up to speed on things), you get rejected and your publisher--whom you still consider a friend, even though you have sworn you would never trust them in a business transaction as long as you live--is insulted.
And in come ways, you feel like the rejection and the insult of your publisher's lack of business savvy is being aimed at you. That it is implied that If You Had Been A Better Author, Maybe Your Publisher Would Still Be Publishing Your Second Book...
*sigh*
Yeah, it gets annoying. But I get over it, because being a pro means taking those lumps, kneading them out or grinding them down and using them to fertilize something for the future.
I have a writer friend who swears the world never gives them anything but crap.
I have said that perhaps they should compost it and grow something else.
So now that I am over my "moment" I am attempting to grow something else.
And find another press that is less likely to be so callous as to imply that I caused my publisher to be a business failure.
Laura J. Underwood
And finally got an answer last Friday.
It was their opinion that with computers being available to tell them sales numbers that the numbers of my novel were not sufficient to warrent them risking publishing the second book in a series started by another publisher--especially a publisher that had failed miserably and been forced to close its doors...
I had a "moment" as it were. In the first place, I was offering a package of both books. Secondly, my publisher's failure is NOT a reflection on my books success. In fact, the reasons for my publisher's failure--which I have more knowledge of now, but decline for professional reasons not to go into in public at this time--had Nothing to do with the sales numbers of my book. For a small press, it did remarkably well and I was actually owed money because I had more than earned out my advance.
As I said, I had a "moment" wherein I was left depressed and feeling like a "bridesmaid" who is too short to catch the bouquet and about all she can hope for is to get smacked in the face by a stray blossom when someone taller manages to reach over her head and grab the bouquet.
And in my moment, I went shopping and ordered an item (which I have just learned is scheduled for delivery this Wednesday), and that made me feel a little better...
I had just finished, fortunately, doing editorial rewrites of my forthcoming fantasy novel Angels of Mercy. Which is a good thing because sometimes these moments can cause me to want to give up.
Except that giving up is never an options. That little creative piece of my soul is not willing to say, "Okay, that is it, I am finished!!!"
That and knowing I have other committments.
There are still other books and stories to write. And I have other publishers to try on "The Demon-Bound."
I think what galls me is that you wait, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait...and all the while, you wonder why they are doing nothing... You wonder if stuff got lost. So you email and ask, and get told, "Oh, it arrived," and nothing more... And then you wait some more, and after a long time, you think maybe you have waited too long, so you write and you write, and you get ignored... And FINALLY, when you take a more direct approach (I sent another query to another editor in the same house, including a copy of the first editor's letters just so they would know and get up to speed on things), you get rejected and your publisher--whom you still consider a friend, even though you have sworn you would never trust them in a business transaction as long as you live--is insulted.
And in come ways, you feel like the rejection and the insult of your publisher's lack of business savvy is being aimed at you. That it is implied that If You Had Been A Better Author, Maybe Your Publisher Would Still Be Publishing Your Second Book...
*sigh*
Yeah, it gets annoying. But I get over it, because being a pro means taking those lumps, kneading them out or grinding them down and using them to fertilize something for the future.
I have a writer friend who swears the world never gives them anything but crap.
I have said that perhaps they should compost it and grow something else.
So now that I am over my "moment" I am attempting to grow something else.
And find another press that is less likely to be so callous as to imply that I caused my publisher to be a business failure.
Laura J. Underwood
