Wizards of the Coast / Mirrorstone / Discoveries

The contract was...interesting. I ended up with something acceptable but it took several rounds.

Without getting hair-splitting specific, can you give some examples of the more interesting points?

LittleGinaT said:

Without getting hair-splitting specific, can you give some examples of the more interesting points?

Click to expand...

The most interesting point was that the first version looked more like a novel contract than a contract for a short story in an anthology. That was important when it came to the sections dealing with rights.

It took some time, but they did try to address all my concerns, and we ended up with something I could sign. (I also had my agent check things over for me.)

I heard they're looking for adult stand alones now.

Where did you hear that? Wizards has another label for adult fantasy. You might be thinking about that.

I heard it from my local SCBWI. Here's what I got:

Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, a brand new imprint debuting in
January 2008, is looking for well-written speculative fiction. We
will open for submissions September 1 and close for submissions
January 15. Further guidelines can be found at
http://www.wotcdiscoveries.com.

Agented submissions are welcome year round.

In January 2008, Discoveries will launch this exciting new imprint
with Firefly Rain, a southern gothic ghost story by Richard Dansky.
Further launch titles include Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott and
Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers, both first-time novelists who were
selected from previous open calls.

That is not Mirrorstone. That is WotC's other label.

Two things to remember about Wizards of the Coast's imprints:

#1 Distributed by Random House. Available for sale anywhere in the universe anyone speaks English. I literally walked into a small store of odds and ends in Wiesbaden, Germany near the Lutheran Marketplace Cathedral where the only English books were from Wizards of the Coast's imprints, and most of the German books were translations of Wizards of the Coast books. My book's currently up for pre-order in places I've only dreamed of going. Like Japan.

#2 Very open to new authors. Authors like me!

If that is not a recipe for wicked awesome, I don't know what is.

My experience has been quite good to date, and has been only with the Discoveries imprint. (I don't know Mirrorstone.)

Feel free to PM me questions, but I cannot guarantee an answer. Whenever my editor sends me an e-mail, there's this confidentiality thing on the bottom, and I take that kind of stuff as seriously as I would an author's pseudonym or desire for anonymity.