August Falling: The Inception
While I was doing the Hachette Manuscript Development Program, then-Hachette publisher Bernadette Foley asked me to think about where my book fit in the market. As research to that question, I asked some of the other participants if they’d read similar books to my own. The wonderful Kim Lock made a number of suggestions, including one popular novel. I bought a swath of books with the intent of seeing how they related to Just Another Week in Suburbia. That was the summer I house-sat my friend’s house to dog-sit their dog, Jet, so I could work on the revision of Just Another Week in Suburbia. While I was off from…
Just Another Week in Suburbia: The Publishing Journey ~ Part 2
Note: None of what follows is intended as a criticism of publishers. These are just my experiences, as well as my views as a result of those experiences. I’ve never wanted to tee off at a publisher or journal because of a rejection – even when rejections were the end of the world for me. I understand and appreciate that’s the business. This is just an account of how things happened and what I felt. I once got a rejection from a major publisher that opened, “Dear Leo”. Leo. The rest of the rejection was form – a generic knockback to which they simply add your name. It’s simple,…