Selling Your Work
Getting The Call
Friday, November 21st, 2008 | Once It Is Sold, Selling Your Work, The Writing Life | 1 Comment
As a writer who has spent ten years pursuing my art, getting the call from my agent that my book sold was the highlight not only of this year, but of my life to date. It is hard to convey the significance of this. I am still trying to process the experience. Everyone has a dream, whatever that dream might be. My dreams, like those of most people, have shifted somewhat over time. From a fasciantion with acting and theatre, I moved into writing fiction ten years ago. Writing novels is all I have wanted to do for the last ten years. I have written more than one complete novel, and now that I have sold one, I am delirious with joy.
Lunch with an Editor
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 | Selling Your Work, The Writing Life | Comments Off
When my agent called and told me that the editor we were in negotiation with wanted to meet me to talk about the book, my first question was “Really? Why?” I had never heard of such a meeting, and when I asked my other writer and agent friends, they too had never heard of a writer sitting down with an editor who had not yet bought their book. Or even then. Editors are busy. They have multiple projects coming in at once, many of them late. In spite of the Carrie Bradshaw mythos, editors rarely meet with authors they are working with. Email and phone calls are the methods of communication. Two martini lunches are long gone, if they ever existed at all.
Working With an Editor
Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | Selling Your Work, The Writing Life | Comments Off
In my last blog, I mentioned being conflicted about absorbing serious notes on my current novel. Never before was I faced with having to completely reconceive my work, to step back from it and see it as an almost different form. I have done so now, and I am glad I did.
Always before, I had a very vague notion of what an editor does. I have heard them speak at conferences; I have seen countless books dedicated to the editors who worked on them. But as a writer, I have never understood what an editor’s job actually entails. I probably still don’t, at least not completely. But I know more than I did two weeks ago.
Siren Song
Friday, October 3rd, 2008 | Selling Your Work, The Writing Life, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Last week I had the unusual experience of reading the comments an editor made while passing on my novel. The Queen’s Pawn is being looked at by editors in nine houses in New York. Three of these houses have passed so far, which is to be expected. I have been at this awhile, so I am never surprised by rejection. I am, however surprised by compliments.
Last week’s pass was particularly surprising. The editor, a well respected woman at a house I have always hoped to work with, was so pleased with my style that she would read the same novel again with an eye toward buying it, if I were to make major changes.
Fear is My Friend
Saturday, December 15th, 2007 | Selling Your Work, The Writing Life, Uncategorized | No Comments
If anyone has glanced at my blog since February, they might have asked the question: Where did Christy go? The answer: I’ve been writing. The novel I was concerned about in February, the novel whose revision eluded me for months, finally came clear. Princess of France, now renamed Queen’s Pawn, has been revised both to my satisfaction and my agent’s, and is now out among the editors in New York. When will it be bought? Only the gods know. But I thank the Muse who feeds my soul. One way or another, I will get my novels into the wider world.
