The Next Circle of Hell, Vol. 2
- Thread starter Calla Lily
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Seen it? I think I own it! (I used to have a thing for Ralph Fiennes, with or without the accent.) That’s depressing about the Filipino girl, though, and depressing that I never even noticed.
Putputt, my hat is off to your fortitude/perseverance. Just reading that made me break out in a cold sweat.
OH. MY...GOD. In another life you are going to own, like, a solar system of gold and puppies.
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I think Putputt wins this round of Perseverance Poker. If I ever see her sitting at the table, I'm just gonna' whistle "The Gambler," fold, and wish everyone a good night.
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LOLOL I am sorry, I didn't mean to freak you guys out. It has been an insanely long journey. I feel largely okay sharing how ugly it was because of the upcoming *~news!~* lol, but yus, for the longest time, it was just depressing as hell. Editor #4 was actually the first time I'd ever come so close, and it was on my first MS, so I was ever so naive and hopeful. When acquisitions shot her down, I was just FLOORED. I'd really bought into the whole "It just takes one yes!!" mantra...which is complete BS, btw, because it does NOT only take one yes...it takes one yes, and then a team of yeses, and then another goddamn team of yeses.
Hmm, this is probably not helping with the whole "not freaking people out" thing, huh.
Sorry. On the bright side, I got to meet other writers who are the best people around, many of whom are my best friends now, so the journey's really not all bad.
Hmm, this is probably not helping with the whole "not freaking people out" thing, huh.
Sorry. On the bright side, I got to meet other writers who are the best people around, many of whom are my best friends now, so the journey's really not all bad.
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I guess it's probably more accurate to say that "It can sometimes take just one yes," since some Circle people HAVE gone places after the initial "yes" of getting an agent, while others have gotten that agent "yes," and then found out that there's still editor "yes" and "acquisitions team" yes, and in some cases, even "Editor In Chief/Head Of Imprint" "yes" before the deal finally comes through.
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Yuuussss. This, exactly. At the bare minimum, it takes four yeses in sequence. 1: Agent, 2: Editor, 3: Second reads, 4: Acquisitions. At any stage, if any of these four entities says no, none of the other yeses matter. Wheeeee, publishing!
And yet, none of those yesses are in our power, so don't worry about it! (Ha-ha-ha, I know, telling authors not to worry is...ha-ha-ha).
I wanted to stop by and pass around some glitter for people still waiting, and congratulatory glitter for everyone who has had good news lately. I've been on this subforum for about a year now, and it has been a fantastic place for support and information. I've been a bit scarce lately because it's so so busy, many exciting things happening in the background (my cover is coming, yippeeee!!!!), but I am lurking and reading and so happy to hear the news. I'm wondering if a new crop of September submissions will come up again. I'll be here to fire them on as much as I can.
I wanted to stop by and pass around some glitter for people still waiting, and congratulatory glitter for everyone who has had good news lately. I've been on this subforum for about a year now, and it has been a fantastic place for support and information. I've been a bit scarce lately because it's so so busy, many exciting things happening in the background (my cover is coming, yippeeee!!!!), but I am lurking and reading and so happy to hear the news. I'm wondering if a new crop of September submissions will come up again. I'll be here to fire them on as much as I can.
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Ooh, I got something for this too! I got the first rough concept sketches with the caveat that any of this could change and they might go with something totally different. I still flipped out anyway because the roughs had my book's characters in them, so it was like the first fan art I've ever gotten in my life. I could tell whoever did the roughs had either gotten a brief from the editor, or actually read the book, because they got all the details right, from the hair on the hacker character to how huge the cyborg is.
That is so so exciting, Shoeless. Seeing a visual is just...so visceral, I think. Like it's coming to life, and all of it is real. I've dreamed of seeing the cover to my book for years, and it is coming soon! It apparently has a woman/my protag on the front, and we'll see which version of her the publishers chose to portray, since she's very changeable.
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Yay, Shoeless! That’s such an amazing moment. My Book 1 has had three covers (hardcover, paperback, foreign), and seeing each one was huuuge for me. I’m a visual person, so it meant so much to see the book’s spirit captured in images. I loved them all; maybe I’m easy, but I can certainly imagine cover interpretations I wouldn’t have liked. I never saw anything but the almost-finished designs, though.
I usually design my own book cover in my head, so I’m curious to know how close they’ll come to that or if they’ll think of something cooler than I could, like they did last time. (They highlighted a shovel on both covers, made it a kind of synecdoche for murder, which never occurred to me.) Do you folks do the head design, too?
I usually design my own book cover in my head, so I’m curious to know how close they’ll come to that or if they’ll think of something cooler than I could, like they did last time. (They highlighted a shovel on both covers, made it a kind of synecdoche for murder, which never occurred to me.) Do you folks do the head design, too?
I haven't really designed a cover in my head. I know what the publishers are leaning toward because they sent me comparable covers they're using as inspiration. I'm going to let myself be surprised!
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Wow, Atlantic, Shoeless, and Fuchsia!! That is so exciting! Sounds like we'll soon have a spate of cover reveals here. How mind-blowing.
Shoeless, that is SO COOL about the character design. Your description makes me think of Overwatch. I can't wait to see what it looks like!
Fuchsia, newp, I won't even know where to begin with designing a book cover, even if it's just imaginary. I like to browse Amazon just to look at the covers, and then I'm like, "Yeaaa they're all better than any cover I cld come up with."
For those of you whose titles were changed, when in the process did you and/or the editor come up with a new title?
Shoeless, that is SO COOL about the character design. Your description makes me think of Overwatch. I can't wait to see what it looks like!
Fuchsia, newp, I won't even know where to begin with designing a book cover, even if it's just imaginary.
I like to browse Amazon just to look at the covers, and then I'm like, "Yeaaa they're all better than any cover I cld come up with." For those of you whose titles were changed, when in the process did you and/or the editor come up with a new title?
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My title got changed. Originally the novel was just called Chimera, but I got into discussions with my editor back in January about changes to it. In my case, I'm painfully aware I suck at titles, so I was totally okay with letting them come up with something more deep n' profound, or just more markety/exciting. They went into deliberations over it, and there was a lot of back and forth where they kept me in the loop about which titles had made their final round of voting, and then when they finally settled on a title, it was... The Chimera Code. So actually not a massive change from what I'd originally thrown on there just to have some kind of file name in my folder for novels. So once they discussed a change of the title, it was a little over a month later that they settled on a new one.
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Oo. Thanks for sharing! I'm so crap at titles. I'm really eager for mine to be changed, so this is good to know!
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Mine got changed at the agent level before it went on submission to publisher. Looking back, A Gift For Trouble is not as intriguing a title as The Traitor God, nor does it scream FANTASY, and the editor liked that title so it was a good call.
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LOLOL I am sorry, I didn't mean to freak you guys out. It has been an insanely long journey. I feel largely okay sharing how ugly it was because of the upcoming *~news!~* lol, but yus, for the longest time, it was just depressing as hell. Editor #4 was actually the first time I'd ever come so close, and it was on my first MS, so I was ever so naive and hopeful. When acquisitions shot her down, I was just FLOORED. I'd really bought into the whole "It just takes one yes!!" mantra...which is complete BS, btw, because it does NOT only take one yes...it takes one yes, and then a team of yeses, and then another goddamn team of yeses.
Hmm, this is probably not helping with the whole "not freaking people out" thing, huh.
I had a similar experience with an MS that came close at multiple imprints (can't even remember how many). It's the one that sold at the end of last year so yes, the process can be frickin' soul destroying, but there's always hope!
All through the process???
For real, nobody could agree on what to call the book. This is largely a Sales decision, not just the editors. Every suggestion the editors made had to be passed through Sales, and if they shot it down, back to the drawing board. I'm in a nice position where the UK and US publishers are both working very closely with me and each other, so all three of us plus my agent went back and forth on titles for months and months. About a month ago, they decided the US will have one title -- one I suggested -- and the UK will use a different one much closer to what my agent suggested. Last week, I just found out the UK is slightly changing the title again because it'll look better on the cover the way the art is going. That's a consideration too sometimes!
I'm terrible at titles and as long as it's nothing embarrassing, I'm pretty open about them. I like both the titles used. It was annoying that the process took so long, and that I couldn't tell people what the book was called when they asked. And now it's slightly annoying I have to specify UK or US market. On my website, it'll look a bit like I have 2 books out instead of one!
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The publisher sent through a proposed cover this morning and I loveeeeee it! I'm so happy. It's really bright and modern and there are no shirtless men, thank Cthulhu. That was my biggest fear.
I am expecting a title change, if ms2 ever sells.
Anchor (To Your Other Self) is very wordy, kind of confusing, and a reference to an anime that isnt remotely related. My guess is it will just be Anchor, plain and simple. But agent pitched it with the full title, so...
Anchor (To Your Other Self) is very wordy, kind of confusing, and a reference to an anime that isnt remotely related. My guess is it will just be Anchor, plain and simple. But agent pitched it with the full title, so...
But this is why we're all here, because it sucks being in the echo chamber of "YAY once you have an agent, you're set!" that people who love us but don't get the publishing industry. I love this group. Even with new project and new agent, I still don't feel hopeful? Like, I love my book but I can't actually imagine getting the phone call that says, "We Sold!!" which maybe is a good thing.
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YAY exciting!
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I actually had only one thing about my cover that I was firm about, and the publishers, even though they didn't have to, have similar enough tastes that they agreed with me, and told me they would honor my request; no "Katana Buttshot."
By that, I meant, I didn't want a certain kind of urban fantasy cover that showed of its strong female character by having her stand, back to camera, to show off her butt, while at the same time holding a samurai sword to indicate how powerful she was.
I look forward to all of these cover reveals. Do me a favour you guys, and post links in thread? I follow so many people on Twitter that I'm boudn to miss stuff on there