Book Deal!!

charmingbillie

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I've been cryptic about this for awhile, but now it's on PM so, yeah, I sold a novel (or three):

Deborah Coates's WIDE OPEN, in which a woman has one week of compassionate leave home on her family's South Dakota ranch to solve her sister's murder -- with only the dubious help of the ghosts she has been able to see ever since her near-death injuries in Afghanistan...in a three-book deal to Tor

WHEE!!
 

charmingbillie

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Thank you, Wayne, Haupe, and Lily!!!

It's like selling it all over again getting to talk about it online :)
 

CheekyWench

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kellion92

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Yay Charmingbillie!!!! Great news.
 

charmingbillie

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THANK YOU, Perks and Cheeky and drgrintalis and smish and Kellion and jscribble!!

Whew! I've been at this writing thing a long time and I'm v. happy about this sale :)
 

Little Red Barn

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Awesome and awesome, BilliE!!!! :hooray::hooray::snoopy:
 

Kitty Pryde

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WOW! That's so cool. Mega congrats! I have a vague recollection of reading your query letter here in SYW I think? Can't wait to read it! :D
 

regdog

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charmingbillie

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THANK YOU, all!!! It's SO much better when there are people to share with :)
 

Phaeal

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Let's hear the whole story! The suspense of the long waits, the ups, the downs. I don't see an agent mentioned. Did you hit through the slush pile?

CGs and three banana cheers, one for each novel!

:banana: :banana: :banana:
 

Adam

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Awesome! Congratulations! :D
 

CheyElizabeth

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Woo hoo that's amazing! Congrats! And your book sounds awesome, I love ghost stories and unsolved murders!
 

charmingbillie

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Thanks again, everyone!!

Phael, except for all the long years before (and by long, I mean LONG, also many many years), it was fairly straightforward. I signed with my agent in January, she started submitting in April and I got the offer in May.

As to the three-book aspect, for anyone who cares about those things (and I do, I always read this kind of stuff, so I hope it's not just babble), I queried WIDE OPEN as a single book. When my agent asked me what other projects I had in mind, I sent her four single-paragraph descriptions of books I'd either been working on or wanted to work on, which included two sequels to WO. Agent submitted WO as a single title. The offering editor asked if I had a series in mind, and my agent sent her my two paragraphs of description. And that's what they bought--one book and two paragraphs.