Perchance to Feast will be available within days from me, at belbook1@gmail.com, or from http://www.iuniverse.com/, for $15.95. To learn more about Perchance to Feast, please scroll down to the Nov. 11 and Nov. 18 entries of this blog.
And now--the journey:
August, 2007: Sitting with Writer's Market, Jeff Herman's Guide to Agents, and getting disgusted. So few small publishers accept fiction; so very few agents will even look at fantasy. Those who will, are clearly looking for generic fantasy--witches and dragons, and the sales potential of Harry Potter. Almost no one is looking for anything Kafkaesque, metaphorical, funny, spoofy, quirky or weird. Writing is my retirement project--what I've always wanted to do--FOR FUN. Perchance to Feast, especially, was written to amuse--both myself, and my readers. Why bother with agents and traditional publishers? I started to research supported self publishing, Print on Demand companies. iUniverse was the most responsive, and had features I liked.
9/12--First conversation with Kim, a salesperson at iU. Chose the best package for my needs. Spent two days mulling it over. Anxiety--do I really want to do this? Why not just duplicate some copies and give them to my friends and family? But on the other hand...the book is good. People who have read it like it, and deem it worthy of publication. Why not give it a chance? Bottom line: It's not expensive. I probably waste more money on things I don't need each year. I'm not a gambler at heart, but if not now...
9/14 Called Kim--gave credit card number. Commitment! Should I be committed? What have I done? Welcome letter from the president of iU. A contract. An order confirmation. All done by e-mail. Yipes!
9/17 Received e from Sarah in Submission Assistance with all kinds of requirements for formatting my submission. I thought they did the formatting! It seems that I have to format my submission, with standard size pages and Times New Roman font--they re-format to fit this into a book. Oh. OK. I can do this.
Also a list of things to prepare: my bio, back of book copy, marketing text. Harder than writing the book, especially the author bio. Fantasy is easy. Reality is hard.
Sent an e to Sarah saying I had paid extra to submit my ms. on paper rather than online. Received response. They want an online submission. Oy vey! as my character Sadie would say.
9/20 e to Sarah requesting information re: submission. No response.
9/21. Phone call to Sarah in the morning. Another in the afternoon. Left voicemail messages.
9.22. Sent another e to Sarah.
9/23. And another.
9/24 And another. Sleepless nights. I paid for this service, and can't even manage the first step. How is this going to get done? I think I chose the wrong company. They still don't have my manuscript. I think I'd better cancel fast and find another company.
9/25. Called Kim, my salesperson, to ask for a refund. Received immediate call back from Mary, Sarah's supervisor. Sarah has been AWOL. Huge apologies. Mary walked me through the submission process, and assigned me to Brittany for any further help needed.
9/26. Received e from Brittany. The submission went through. Huge sigh of relief. Excitement. Hey, I'm not such a dummy! This old dog can learn new tricks.
9/27. e informing me I'd been assigned a PSA (Publishing Services Associate) woul would be "one of the 4 or 5 people who may work with you throughout the publishing process." Not as things turned out. The way it worked in reality was that Rachel was the angel who held my hand and got me through the entire process. Thank you Rachel. PSA's should be at the top of iU's list when they advertise.
9/27 e from Rachel. My book has an ISBN. This is getting very real, very scary, and very exciting at the same time.
Another e from Rachel--a time-line of how long each step in the publication process will take. I should have a book by the end of the year. Too late for Christmas, but there's always next year!
Sent Rachel an e explaining specific things I wanted in the formatting process that didn't show on the online form I had to fill out. Received response the next day. OK. I've got someone alive on the other end. Reassuring to know.
10/ 7 I had opted for an editorial evaluation. My friends thought Perchance was good. What if they were wrong? An evaluation would give me an opportunity either to have the book edited professionally, if it needed that, or to fiz whatever problems there were by myself, with input from the nine other members of my writer's Salon. Maybe even abort the process, if they said it was really bad.
And if it was good--as good as everyone seemed to think it was--it would be awarded an "Editor's Choice" decal, and a better location in the iU bookstore.
On 10/7, I received an e from The Editorial Board telling me how best to use my evaluation, preparing me for dealing with negative criticism without reaching for a rope.
10/15. Big sign, large print, black box around it: "Congratulations..." along with the evaluation itself. I read it. My head swelled. They liked everything. I'd print the accolades here, but for a note at the bottom informing me that this was copywrited material, and that I did not have permission to duplicate it, so you'll have to take my word. The review was everything any writer could hope for. Of course, there were some things they didn't love--like that: the -- that sometimes comes out as two short dashes, and sometimes as one long one. They all should be long--which I knew, but didn't know how to fix. And the way my character Sadie talked to her friend Lillian. It should be softer, kinder. I discussed this with my Salon, and they agreed--to change the way Sadie speaks to Lillian would mean I'd have to completely change her character. She's tart-mouthed, and meant to be, and anyone reading the whole book and not just selected paragraphs would get this. Kind hearted, ascerbic speaking Sadie.
Did I mention what it said after the congratulations part of the editor's choice notification? "You have been tentatively accepted into the Editor's Choice program contingent upon the satisfactory completion of the editorial services recommended in the Editorial RX Referral in your evaluation form." OK, something to consider then. As long as they didn't change Sadie.
10/16. Phone call from Elizabeth in the editorial department. It seems that the lowest level of editing, what was recommended for me, would cost $1400, almost twice as much as the entire publishing process. I don't think so.
10/ 25 I decided to allow them to do a cover polish, for $149. After all, this is what will get people to open the book in the first place. Chalk it up to advertising.
11/21 Days of checking my e-mail. Anxiety. What will the cover look like?
11/25. Cover polish arrives. No front cover. No graphic. Just suggestions for changing the marketing copy on the back. A few sentences altered. I accepted their suggestions. After all, I'd paid for them, right? Wrong. Reading the revised copy now, and my original copy, I like my original better. Their revisions sucked the spirit out of copy that was from a character's point of view.
11/29 I received the formatted book. I had two weeks to comb through it with a magnifying glass to make any final edits. I put my life on hold, and re-read the ms. aloud, to catch any possible glitch.
I opened the cover, ready to scream with joy. No joy. Utter dismay. The cover wasn't fun, funky contemporary fantasy, it was futuristic, scary, coldly clinical, humorless...NO!
12/18 I sent a list of changes I wanted made, but saw no real hope of salvaging the cover they provided. After conferring with my Salon, I requested a cover consisting of the title, subtitle, and my name in a funky font, in blue, with a neon green background. I sent a sample of what I wanted. Exactly.
12/19 e from Rachel. The change would be made.
12/ 21. e from Rachel. Trouble finding the green I wanted. I could find it at a graphics store and tell them how to mix it. Me? I didn't even know where to start to look.
e to Rachel--change to a yellow background. How hard can it be to find yellow. I was getting disgusted, discouraged--thinking of doing any marketing beginning with the warning: Don't judge a book by its cover.
e from Rachel--that will cost $99.
e to Rachel--forget it. I reminded her that I have another book in the wings (OK, so I'm only on the second draft, but...) I appealed to her to advocate for me
as I was only requesting the click of a mouse. No way was I paying $99 for that!
waiting time--Xmas/New Year's vacation. I stopped caring about the cover. Whatever will be...
1/8 A yellow cover! Not my first choice, but not "don't judge a book..." either. It will do.
e to Rachel: "It's a go."
1/9 from Rachel: "I will move your book to final production" along with marketing information and information about ordering copies.
1/15. e--"Your book has finished the final production process..."
Now my contracted for ten copies are somewhere between Nebraska, where iU is located, and New York, where I am. They should arrive sometime this week. I've already downloaded the marketing materials iU sent. It's exciting, and scary. Now I have to get out there and sell, which isn't my thing at all. But hey, this was never done to become rich or famous. It was done for fun. The thought puts everything in perspective.
I hope you'll decide to try Perchance to Feast, and find it fun.
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