Good news! Book deals DO happen!

Thanks for the insight all!

I know what you mean, Atlantic. I woke up at 3 am Sunday fully alert, ready to edit. My body tried to tell my brain to chill and go back to sleep, but my brain wasn’t having any of it. So guess you know what I was doing from 3 am until 10 am. My edits are pretty light, but when you change backstory, it has so many ripple effects, doesn’t it? I’m trying to set productivity goals daily, like “today I’m planning climax edits” or “today I’m plotting backstory” or “today I’m digging into chapter 1.” Current phase (today/tomorrow) is doing another pass-through of the climax.

Jeneral, I’ve got a request for author photo/information sheet from my UK editor but not US yet. I’m planning to take a photo in January. Fun... not. I hate getting my photo taken. I think it would be much better to put a photo of my cats out there instead.

And eqb, it WILL be exciting to see those pages!

ShouldBeWriting said:

I hate getting my photo taken. I think it would be much better to put a photo of my cats out there instead.

Click to expand...

Hah! I feel exactly the same way, cats included. I'm still using a photo my spouse took (he's very good with photography). It's fifteen years old, but I will avoid getting a new photo as long as possible.

My husband took my photo that we just sent in. He's a photographer, mostly landscapes but he dabbles in portrait photography. We had fun taking the picture, and it's kind of meaningful that his name will be in the book too as a photo credit! I think the pic turned out pretty good, but now that you mentioned it I maybe should have gone with a cat photo too!

Just to add another set of Really Fun Things--writing the dedication and the acknowledgments. (You generally supply these when you return your revisions to the copyedits.) For me, the acknowledgments are the hardest part. This is when I frantically go over my notes and emails to make sure I haven't forgotten anyone.

My timeline was pretty irregular, but I had no real advance warning on copyedits or page proofs and was asked to look at them in a few days, so be aware that can happen! They were nice when I asked for more time, though.

Ohhhh, those marginal notes. It can be overwhelming, but you’ll make it through, Atlantic!

Glad your edits are going well, Atlantic. As for how I feel about mine, it depends on the day. Yesterday, I felt optimistic, but today, self-doubt is creeping in. Feeling like I’m pulling threads and the whole thing’s about to unravel. Sigh. That must mean I need to take the rest of the night off.

Treehouseman said:

Thanks for the replies folks, I passed my three month anniversary on verbally accepting their offer today but have heard nothing from publisher or agent since then. Perhaps it’s a Big 5 thing ??

Click to expand...

Replying to myself (lol) they've been in touch, but only to ask that I change the title and some comparison title suggestions. No contract or edits yet...

Treehouseman said:

Replying to myself (lol) they've been in touch, but only to ask that I change the title and some comparison title suggestions. No contract or edits yet...

Click to expand...

I think waiting is the hardest part, and there’s so much of it in publishing. When I was waiting for updates, I had to hide my phone to keep from refreshing my email every five minutes. Unfortunately, I always remembered where I hid it.

Atlantic, I meant to post earlier: really looking forward to reading your book, too!

Treehouseman said:

Replying to myself (lol) they've been in touch, but only to ask that I change the title and some comparison title suggestions. No contract or edits yet...

Click to expand...

I was actually wondering how often this happened. The draft of my next MS that I'm getting ready for submission is as yet untitled. I was wondering if, should someone accept, I could just admit surrender and say, "You guys figure it out. If I could have summed this up in less than 10 words, I would'a been a poet, not a novelist."

Congrats and thanks for sharing. I sometimes feel embarrassed about how long i've been working on my novel. Writing, rewriting. I entered it into contests with good results and then moved across the world, took care of my sick mother, new job, in the meantime workshopping the novel. Now starting again. So there is hope! Again, congrats.

Atlantic12 said:

BTW, anyone else get an inclusivity survey from their publisher? I haven't had time to look at it, but thought it interesting considering the discussion in the Circle about this.

Click to expand...

No inclusivity survey here.

Shoeless said:

I was actually wondering how often this happened. The draft of my next MS that I'm getting ready for submission is as yet untitled. I was wondering if, should someone accept, I could just admit surrender and say, "You guys figure it out. If I could have summed this up in less than 10 words, I would'a been a poet, not a novelist."

Click to expand...

It happens a lot, to the point that I just threw a working title on my MS and figured my agent or editor or SOMEONE would make me change it. Annnnd no one ever did, so I guess I did a decent job titling a story for once! Crazy.

Treehouseman said:

Replying to myself (lol) they've been in touch, but only to ask that I change the title and some comparison title suggestions. No contract or edits yet...

Click to expand...

Contract negotiations can take some time, but if you're worried, just email your agent and ask what the status is.

Treehouseman said:

Replying to myself (lol) they've been in touch, but only to ask that I change the title and some comparison title suggestions. No contract or edits yet...

Click to expand...

It happens. I actually received my edits before the final contract. To give you an idea timeline wise, the offer came mid-September and was accepted by October. Contract discussions went back and forth between HC and my agent through December. Edits and final contract hit my inbox in January.

SAME! At this point, after the agony of trying to come up with my first title, any other suggestions are a YES from me. Ha!

CEtchison said:

It happens. I actually received my edits before the final contract. To give you an idea timeline wise, the offer came mid-September and was accepted by October. Contract discussions went back and forth between HC and my agent through December. Edits and final contract hit my inbox in January.

Click to expand...

Cool, cool. Offer and acceptance came in August for me. I've decided not to worry too much about the radio silence apart from the title change, although my sequel writing is on hold as I'm not 100% sure what direction the editor wants to go until I get some edits from her.

I know I'll need to start thinking about writing my SECOND trilogy NOW, if the books will be... if released to schedule... wrapped up by 2022.

A busy day job, four days lost to a nasty virus, and more to the hectic holiday season... and still somehow got edits done. Whew. When I compared the two drafts in Word, there was a lot more red than I thought there would be. I’m allowing myself a day (or two) off, then on to my WIP. Yay!

Congrats on finishing your edits! I'm always amazed at how much red there is ... even in passes where I don't think I'm making too many changes.

I'm finishing up my copyedits. I'm pretty sure they're done, but I'm going to skim through it all once more before I send it back. I had to fight about a couple things, so we'll see how that goes over. But I REALLY need to get back to my WIP. I need to have a first draft done in about 3 months, and I'm the World's Slowest Writer(tm), so that's gonna be a challenge!

Happy New Year everyone!

I thought I had already trademarked world’s slowest writer. I know what you mean. Even taking a month off to do my edits, I’m nervous about the WIP.

What was the copy edit like? Just grammar and spelling and consistency stuff? As a former copy editor for a newspaper, you would think I have a handle on it, but alas I’m anxious. I’m so curious since I tend to use a fair amount of sentence fragments.

The copy edit was mostly conforming to the publisher's style, plus a couple small continuity-type things I needed to fix. It's been really interesting to get to the fine-tune stage of things.