When searching for a publisher, many authors target who they want, but settle for who will publish them. Right? This week, I found myself in the thrilling and cushy position of having a choice after being offered multiple contracts for Paper Wishes.
What’s Paper Wishes? Ha! I’m glad you asked! Paper Wishes is the re-envisioning of Jack and Jill Volume One.
As most of you know, Still Moments Publishing was purchased by another publishing house on March 15, and Jack and Jill was not one of the titles automatically shifted under their fold.
This was not a huge surprise to me, as Jack and Jill was not traditional Romance. The book really was a better fit for Christian Romance, so the minute I got my rights back, I began querying Christian Publishers.
Now – should this happen to anyone else, be prepared because the greater percentage of publishers out there (at least in Christian) DO NOT WANT previously published work. This surprised me at first. I had the nicest discussion with a really big house that liked my work, but had to decline because it had been published too recently.
But they were really a long shot anyway… and not so much on my radar. I was mainly focused in on one publisher that I contacted the day Still Moments made the announcement. I spoke with this publisher, explained my predicament, and we chatted about the publishing business in general for a while before I had even sent them my work. We were very much on the same page, so I bit my nails as I sent them my submission, and to a few other houses as well.
Less than a week later, I had two contract offers, and a third arrived last night. I have the luxury of matching up what each publisher has to offer, and also weighing the changes each publisher wants. (Yes, there will be changes)
Requested Changes:
1. Two of them want the cursing removed – and for anyone who has read my work, I really don’t curse. But what I WILL have to remove is dernit, darn, gosh, Hell, heck … anything even remotely looking like an explicative.
2. I will need to tone down the make-out scene to bring it more within the boundaries of Christian novels.
3. One of the publishers wants me to change it from First Person to Third Person.
So I am weighing the required changes alongside royalties, distribution, foreign rights, cover design, print rights and overall package offered.
It’s wonderful place to be, and I hope to be making an announcement shortly.
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- Don’t rock the boat, baby. (hopeofglory.typepad.com)
My opinion? I want to be Jocelyn Adams when I grow up. Well, not completely, but I would love to have the “flow” that her writing style has. She is really “readable”.
About a year ago, I reviewed a book called The P.U.R.E by Claire Gillian. I raved about the “voice” in the novel. I liked it so much that it inspired my to use first person in my current baby “Fire in the Woods.”
First of all, Congrats to last week’s winner:
Yee Haw! I had fun last week.
Great. 
Oh, ah, good. 
Well, if the title is torn, how will anyone know what it’s called?
After Agent Shane Baxter’s last mission failed both professionally and personally, he fled the States and changed his name. When Dixie Peterson re-enters his life, he has a second chance to make things right. Dixie is determined to find out the truth about Shane’s departure from her life two years ago, but someone else from her past is seeking revenge. Shane and Dixie are forced to confront the past, while their future is still unclear.
That doesn’t sound like anything explodes. Hey, is this a squishy Romance novel?
Sniff.
No no no! Not this time. You don’t have a book to give away.
So, who are you and what do you want?
Like Jennifer said, my name is Deborah M. Piccurelli and I am an author who writes about controversial issues. My goal is to help stop heinous acts performed by evil people. I plan to give a portion of the proceeds from every book published from here on out, to a charity that works against them. It is one way for me to contribute to Kingdom work.
Investigative journalist, Amber Blake, is a little person bent on payback for the death of her average-sized twin sister. Enlisted by her former partner and estranged husband, Evan, she poses as a counselor in an abortion clinic to expose the doctor responsible for fetal harvesting. As a Christian, she struggles with concealing her beliefs to maintain her cover, while the doctor’s romantic overtures tumble her stomach. Amber agrees to date him for the sake of the story . . . but nothing prepares her for what’s behind a mysterious door in his office.
So this is the deal. I picked up Crux for two reasons. #1: Awesome cover. Totally love it and I’ve made a note to find out who the cover artist is, ‘cause it stopped me dead in my tracks several times. Brilliant cover in my opinion.
One can write many, many, many first books. First of a series. First of a trilogy. First of a set of books in some set of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. These are still all ‘firsts’, no matter how many you’ve written.
