Hello world!

No, that's not me. I'm older. And wider. And...
Okay, that's not me. We'll leave it at that.

Hello, Wordtryst, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again...

I started this blog, my first venture into social media, back in 2007, one year after I found a literary agent for my first novel and mere months after she sold it to Dorchester Publishing NY (now defunct). Wordtryst has been on hiatus for most of the 9 years that I've been devoted to coordinating and contributing to the Novel Spaces group blog. That second blog is now on hiatus for a year and my thoughts return, as they often have, to Wordtryst.

The 11+ years since I started this blog have been quite a ride. I published just two romance novels under the pen name Liane Spicer. I've published dozens of short stories, novelettes and novellas in several genres under different pen names. That's what I call my commercial work, the work that consistently brings in royalties.

Then there's 'me art' -- the serious stories in which I explore form and language and the ethos of this Caribbean place I call home. A few stories have been published in journals, and one short story landed me on the shortlist for the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize (2014, under my real name Charmaine Rousseau). I have at least a dozen incomplete works -- both commercial and otherwise. I have eight unpublished literary short stories squatting on my drive; I'm working toward an anthology but I'm inconsistent because I don't write those stories until they 'come' to me (unlike the commercial work that I write much more consistently and intentionally).

I've moved twice over this period. My son has grown up from the barefoot surfer boy my old visitors remember -- but that carefree surfer with the passionate love of nature and green spaces is still his core identity. I'm so glad. My son is my soul-brother. We understand each other like no one else, I think. And he's brought angels into my people-averse existence in the form of his offspring and his partner. The memoir about our journey through his childhood is written, has been written for years. It needs a final polish, and a publisher. I hope the world gets to read it some day soon.

Coming back to Wordtryst feels like coming home. Hello, world! I've missed you! And like Cynara's lover in that old poem, I've been faithful to you, Wordtryst, in my fashion. I've blogged elsewhere, but my heart never left you. I've dallied with Facebook, but I hate it more than I love it. And I abhor Twitter, that sometimes-entertaining, sometimes-brilliant, but dreadfully noisy place. I've met some truly lovely people on this quiet blog. Maybe I'll meet a few more, or renew old blog friendships that fell by the wayside. Or maybe it'll be just me, my musings and my photos. A quiet space. A Zen room in this chaotic world.

I'll just close my eyes and rest here for a bit. Mmmmm.

Papyrus, Paper, Pixels...and Life

I had planned to write a sober assessment of the paper versus digital publishing situation, and the ramifications for traditionally published, indie and hybrid authors. I was planning to write about the way Amazon's Kindle Unlimited subscription programme all but killed my indie sales on the Zon since its launch last year. After reading several depressing essays on the issues in sources such as The Economist (The Future of the Book) and Smashwords (2016 Book Publishing Industry Predictions--a must read for anyone in the indie publishing business), I decided to give it a rest.

Since my first novel was published in 2008 there has been nothing but turmoil and upheaval in the industry. I'm tired to the bone of it all. I've come full circle and I'm back to the basics: my love of reading and my love of writing. Reading has been the mainstay of my life, my escape, my therapy, my delight, my muse, my great teacher. And writing? I no longer fuss about what I 'should' be doing. I do what I want, zipping back and forth between genres, between novel and novella and short story, between editing and formatting my own work and doing the same for other writers.

Late last year I discovered the pleasure of writing in a totally new, fun historical niche (new to me as a writer, not a reader) when a short story turned into a novel which I serialized and which now outsells my twenty-something other indie titles. I'm now reading up on the history because I'm about to start another series set in the same period. Plus, I'm back at school and one year into a graduate programme. The taught courses are behind me (or will be when I turn in the last paper on Friday) and then the real work begins for the vivas and thesis that will absorb much of the next two years. I see a lot of juggling in my immediate future: school-related research and writing, fiction writing and publishing, editing jobs.... I've also been invited by one of my lecturers to tutor her UG courses. I have to make time to enjoy my two awesome grandkids...and to do this every now and then:

Me just chillin' on Maracas Beach, Dec. 2015

So, let the publishing battles rage. Let the players--the giants like Amazon and the ocean of tiny authors trying to eke some cash out of making up stuff--duke it out. Let others sweat and swear and worry. Me? I'll be busy doing...other things.

~Liane Spicer

Confessions of a Clueless Author, or how NOT to submit a novel for publication

Oops...

It was 1998 and I had completed my first novel--a contemporary romance--the year before. At the time I had never heard of Publishers Marketplace, Writer's Market, or towering "slush piles" of unsolicited manuscripts destined for rejection. I lived on a rock in the Caribbean. I did not know the name of a single person in the publishing industry.

Then serendipity happened: I read a story in a local newspaper about a new Kensington Publishing imprint called Arabesque that was pioneering multicultural romances. The article gave me a precious scrap of information: the name of the Arabesque editor: Monica Harris. I asked a friend to find the Kensington address online as I had no computer and I shot off a three-page query to Ms. Harris via snail mail--yeah, it's what we did in 1998--and I waited.

A few months later I got a response, not from Monica Harris who had moved to another house by then, but from Karen Thomas, her replacement. Ms. Thomas enclosed submission guidelines and asked for the full manuscript of that first novel. There was one little problem: my novel was 10,000 words short of the word count she requested. So what did I do?

Clueless act #1: I brushed that minor word count detail aside, printed the manuscript, and off went the 10,000-word-too-short novel. (Pro tip: DO NOT DO THAT!)

Clueless act #2: Enclosed in the package was a lovely little bio on decorative stock, mentioning my adorable son, the lush valley where I lived, my precious rose bushes, and so on. (Pro tip: DO NOT DO THAT!)

Clueless act #3: What I did not enclose was a synopsis, although the guidelines specifically asked for one. It was too much of a bother and I was in too much of a hurry. (Pro tip: DO NOT DO THAT!)

Did I ever hear from Ms. Thomas again? Well, uh, no. I proceeded to....

Clueless act #4: Instead of sending the manuscript out to other potential markets, I waited...and waited...and waited for a response from Arabesque. I eventually got despondent and put the whole publishing idea on indefinite hold. (Pro tip: DO NOT DO THAT!)

I know--you can't believe anyone could be that deluded. I can hardly believe it myself but I was, and trust me, I wasn't even the most clueless aspiring author out there. In hindsight, putting down the manuscript and backing away was probably the least clueless thing to do then: I was a danger to myself. I spent the next eight years expanding that first manuscript, getting critical feedback from a first reader, editing the novel to a state of squeaky cleanliness, ignoring it for years at a time when life got "interesting", and learning everything I could about the publishing industry. At the end of 2005 I was ready to enter the publishing fray once again, this time as a serious player.

I was lucky. Within months of my decision, frustrated with the glacial pace of snail mail queries, I discovered a site that listed agents who accepted e-queries. I got four requests for full manuscripts immediately and about two months later, I had a literary agent. She sold the book to an editor who said she loved the story and wanted to acquire it for Dorchester Publishing. That editor? Monica Harris, the former Arabesque editor whose name in a newspaper had sent me gung-ho on the road to publication almost a decade before. I'd gone full circle.

~Liane Spicer

A Good Place

The first few years of being a published writer were a stressful, roller-coaster ride for me. On the upside there was getting my agent (my first fan!), holding that first book in my hands, seeing it in stores, reviews, emails from readers, meeting kind new friends in the writing and blogging community, the euphoria of doing something I was meant to do, a $100 Amazon gift card from another writer who said I had inspired her (I bought turquoise jewelry with it so I'll always remember)... I have a "Happy File" to remind me of those joyous parts when the going gets rough.

Then there were the downsides.
#1 The stress of no longer inhabiting a cave in my head but being "out there"--anathema for an acutely private person like me.
#2 Writing the dreaded second book in fear and trembling, only to see it mired for years in...
#3 The meltdown of my first publishing company amid the hysteria of hundreds of its writers bombarding the public Internet and private loops with "the sky is falling" messages. I could not watch. I could not look away. For two whole years.
#4 The first one-star review, on Goodreads, from a "friend".
#5 Looking on at the publishing industry's painful transformation as all the rules changed and kept changing.
#6 And worst of all: becoming so frozen by it all that I could not write for long stretches.

So what came next on the chaotic publishing front? Signing that first book with Amazon's Montlake imprint and actually getting the occasional royalty statement. Starting my own micropress (now at 15 titles, 10 of which are mine under various names) and getting small but increasingly regular royalty statements from there too. Going against the advice to stick to one genre and writing whatever I wish. Being published in respected journals and getting shortlisted for a the 2014 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize.

Most important of all, I'm writing most days. I now understand viscerally (I took a while to really get this) that since the only variable I can control is the writing, I should make that my unrelenting focus. I get the occasional editing job, which I also enjoy. And from September, if all goes as planned, I'll be teaching again--part time, of course. Writing must come first, whatever the hell is happening on the publishing front.

After those tumultuous years, I finally feel like I'm in a good place. It's not about money, because that is still quite scarce. It's about doing the work, being thankful for my blessings every day, feeling some measure of control over my life, enjoying the present, and looking to the future with optimism instead of fear. *knocks on wood* Now if only I could get this exercise thing on track...

What has your writing journey been like? Do you feel that you're in a good place now?

What have you done for your writing lately?

As a writer you're never done learning. This can be daunting, especially when you stumble across a book that blows you away—like The Portrait of Dorian Gray did to me two years ago—and you realize that even given multiple lifetimes you might never attain anything close to the genius of an Oscar Wilde.

But few of us have such lofty aspirations anyway. We just want to write what we enjoy in such a way that readers enjoy it as well. Many readers, preferably. We gain pleasure from the realization that each book we write is better, craft-wise, than the one that went before. And the way we ensure that we get better at what we do is to hone our skills. How do we achieve this?

• Reading widely should not even be on this list because it's a given: writers of fiction are--or should be--great consumers of fiction. The former state grows out of the latter. I have met too many aspiring writers who say they don't have time to read, or only read the Bible, or only read sci-fi, or romance, or some other narrow slice of the wealth out there. To paraphrase Stephen King: anyone who doesn't have the time to read has neither the time nor the tools to write.

• Fall in love with words, if you aren't already. I know people, including some editors, who are miffed when they stumble across unfamiliar words in a manuscript. I happen to love authors who challenge my vocabulary and teach me exciting new words. I'm not referring to to those, particularly in the literary arena, whose paragraphs are minefields strewn with obstacles to clarity, or the ones who engage in thesaurus overkill. Expand your vocabulary and use your new tools to telling effect. 

• Challenge yourself by taking writing courses. I did a fiction writing course last year, and followed up this year with a poetry writing course. I can tell you, that poetry class was a challenge! The class days were the highlight of my week; it was fulfilling to spend three hours reading, critiquing, discussing, learning, and just being in the creative zone with like-minded people. As a consequence, I wrote more, and I wrote better. 

• Befriend writers on social networks. Most of my online contacts are writers. I have learned much from them about the business of publishing, about writing craft via their favorite books on the subject, about their workspaces, their problems and their solutions to writing and publishing issues. I've learned where to go for cover art and marketing advice. These writers are my lifeline. 

• Attend writing retreats, residential workshops, conventions. I haven't been to any of those, but from all accounts, the laser focus of a writing retreat and the energy and excitement of conventions are invigorating. In addition to learning new skills, atendees often end up making new friends for life and discovering valuable industry contacts. 

These are just a few ways in which I boost (or plan to boost) my writing. What have you done for your creativity lately?

—Liane Spicer

The Big Bump

The Great Flatlining Phenomenon

In March 2012 I plunged—well, more like tiptoed warily—into the world of indie publishing after vacillating for a year or two. I started with short stories and a novella that I published on the Kindle for a friend, an erotica short on behalf of another friend, and a couple literary-type short stories of my own, written under a pen name. I did not have great expectations, and these were fulfilled with single-digit sales every month for the next six months or so. In September 2012 I added a few more short stories and novellas in different genres, generating sales that approached double digits over the next two months. In November a new release started selling right out of the gate, racking up 16 sales in one day and zooming up the rankings.

I became an addict of the KDP report, watching in wonder as the figures crept up, sometimes in multiples, every couple of hours. The lead title was selling 44-54 copies per week up to the middle December, with the overall trend showing an increase every week. I was hoping for bigger and better things over the holidays as experienced indie authors could not stop talking about Christmas 2011 when they had seen unprecedented sales. We were all waiting for The Big Bump.

The optimist in me rubbed its hands in anticipation of the seemingly inevitable windfall. Hadn't I—well, my press—not sold close to 300 stories in 6 weeks? Having gone from single to double and then triple digit sales, wasn't it reasonable to expect that four-digit sales were in the cards?

The other part of me, the part that knew from bitter experience that expecting the worst is a good way to stay sane in the publishing industry, raised an eyebrow and expected nothing. For that part of me, every sale was (and still is) a miracle, and there was no guarantee there would ever be another. I'm glad this part of me held the other at bay, jeered at it as it made grandiose plans to finally quit my part time job and be, yanno, a full time writer/publisher.

On or around December 18, sales fell to a couple a day, and between the day before Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, nothing sold. Not one copy. Of anything. In any genre.

The battle-weary, scarred and stoic part of me got on with life. There was a novella waiting to be completed, another to be edited for an author with the press, cover images to be found and covers to be mocked up and sent off to the artist.

The excitable, optimistic part of me tore its hair out and banged its head against the keyboard as the fallout from The Great Flatlining Sales Phenomenon of December 2012 made its way across the interwebs, consuming discussion boards, industry blogs, comment threads and private e-mails. Theories were rife: Amazon had changed its infamous algorithm once again! The US economy was to blame! The KDP Select program with its immense wasteland of free e-books had destroyed the industry! The Great Cull of indie books had begun!

Three days after Christmas, sales began to trickle in again. 2 on the 27th. 3 on the 28th. 4 on the 29th. My stoic half is back at work writing, editing, designing covers, researching, and, for the very first time, compiling exceedingly modest royalty statements for the authors who threw in their lot with me and my micropress.

It's business as usual around Lianeland. The optimistic part of me is still sulking, but coming around. It's sitting there in front of the laptop with the stoic half, putting behind it the excitement of The Big Bump That Wasn't—and not a moment too soon. We have work to do.

Happy New Year!

—Liane Spicer

At last, some good news...

It's official!!! As of today I have a new publisher, Montlake Romance/Amazon Publishing, which has acquired over 1000 active titles of the now defunct Dorchester Publishing, my former house. 

I do love happy endings... :') Onward to new beginnings!

Amazon Publishing acquires 1,000 publication contracts from Dorchester Publishing

—Liane Spicer 
(I'm moving to a new Facebook page. All 'likes' appreciated!)

Amazon to buy Dorchester's backlist

Amazon.com, in its quest to cement its position as a major publisher, has started buying the backlists of troubled companies. It recently acquired Avalon Books, and next in line is Dorchester Publishing whose author list includes Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, Connie Mason, Nalini Singh—and several current and former members of the author blog Novel Spaces including Jewel Amethyst, Farrah Rochon, Phyllis Bourne and yours truly, Liane Spicer. 

There’s an old Chinese curse that goes ‘May you live in interesting times’. I’m not sure whether I’ve been blessed or cursed to have entered the mainstream publishing arena at a time when things got ‘interesting’. The influence of the Internet and social media, the advent of e-books and digital readers, free reading apps for devices, independent publishing opportunities with Amazon and Barnes and Noble—all of these began to snowball around the time my agent sold my first novel. The industry has been in turmoil since, with Dorchester becoming one of the early casualties.

Dorch has been embattled for years, selling the backlist of its historically top-selling authors to Avon Publications (now an imprint of Harper Collins) about two years ago in an attempt to become financially viable. It also discontinued production of mass market paperbacks and moved to digital and trade size, then to digital only. None of these manoeuvres saved the company, however. Debts to warehouses, distributors and authors went unpaid: it is estimated that the company owes several million dollars in back royalties alone.

The authors gritted their teeth and prepared for drawn-out bankruptcy proceedings that would tie up their rights for years and pay them pennies on the dollar, or nothing at all.

In a move that left the industry slack-jawed, Dorchester’s owner foreclosed on the company earlier this year to recover a 3.4 million dollar loan. In March, the Dorchester Media magazine division was sold, with the expectation that the book publishing division would be next. The publisher’s representatives began dropping hints that a deal with a ‘major publisher’ was in the works. Three weeks ago the speculation ended. The ‘major publisher’ was Amazon Publishing—just as industry insiders had suspected.

What does this mean for the Dorchester authors who will have the option to sign on with Amazon if all goes as planned?

My take is that it means different things for authors at different stages of their careers. One author who has been a bestseller for many years now publishes her backlist herself and makes royalties of 65 to 80 percent on those indie titles. She plans to turn down Amazon’s offer. Others with sizeable backlists whose rights were reverted before the meltdown have done likewise and are making more money now than they ever did with Dorchester. The rest of us are neither in the position of the NYT bestsellers nor the ones with a pile of reverted titles: we don’t have sizeable backlists; we have not been in the business for decades; we do not have a readership built up over many years. Amazon is offering us a viable option to build our audience with the backing of a major publisher. Many of us did not get that chance because Dorchester sank before our careers got going.

My first novel, Café au Lait, garnered stellar reviews. The second, Café Noir, was optioned to Dorchester but they never even got a chance to look at it before they tanked. Phyllis's Operation Prince Charming was released the same month the publisher virtually went out of business, and even the great reviews could not save it. A number of authors waited in vain for their debut titles to hit the shelves. The last couple of years have been disastrous for all of us with titles tied to Dorchester; many authors have been battling the company to recover royalties and to have the rights to titles reverted, and the Amazon buyout could mark the end of a gruelling road. According to Publisher’s Weekly:

Moving forward, Dorchester authors will, Amazon said, be offered the choice about how they want their titles published. An Amazon spokesperson explained: “We want all authors to be happy being a part of the Amazon Publishing family going forward and we have structured our bid so that we will only take on authors who want to join us. As part of this philosophy, if we win the bid, Dorchester has committed to revert all titles that are not assigned to us.

So, would I take up the option to become a part of the Amazon Publishing family? Very likely. Amazon Publishing is in a growth phase, unlike the decline being experienced by the other players in the industry. It has the immense clout of Amazon’s marketing machinery behind it. It appears to be the future of publishing (at least in the short term) with its emphasis on innovation, and on giving customers what they want in terms of both product and service. It offers competitive royalty rates and does not try to hold on to authors’ rights for five to ten years as was the norm.

None of the authors I know who have already signed on with Amazon are complaining. I don't expect to either.

—Liane Spicer

Indie publishing: The New Author - Doing It All

It used to be so simple. Excruciating, depressing, and usually doomed to failure - but simple.

The writer wrote a book then tried to find a literary agent to sell it. IF s/he found one and IF the book sold to a traditional publisher, all was well; being published brought its own trials, but s/he had crossed over onto hallowed 'published' ground. For the ones who did not succeed in selling to a traditional publisher, there were options: stop writing, write on in the hope that one day a publisher would be interested in something, or go the self-publishing route, often referred to as vanity publishing.

Publishing oneself, just a few years ago, was the mark of 'failed writer'. Reviewers wouldn't touch the books. Bookstores wouldn't buy them. Few readers knew they existed and many regarded them as poorly written, unedited 'slush pile' rejects. These blighted books piled up in boxes in authors' garages and slowly mouldered along with the dreams of their creators while the owners of vanity presses laughed all the way to the bank.

Much has changed in the space of a few years, fuelled by digital technology, the print-on-demand model, Amazon, e-readers, Smashwords, tablets, smart phones, social media - revolutionizing the way books are marketed and read. Bestselling, traditionally published authors are 'going indie', the new label that attempts to circumvent the pejorative connotations of the term 'self-publishing'. Indie authors are appearing on bestseller lists, even brand new indie authors.

When my agent sold my first book in 2007 I believed I'd follow the same pattern for every book I ever wrote: submit to agent, who would submit to publishers, who would take control of the works from there on out. I never thought I'd publish a book myself; that meant 'failed author', remember? I never thought I'd become a New Author.

What is a New Author? He or she:

• Has been traditionally published at some point, or
• Has never been traditionally published, or
• Is both traditionally and indie published, or
• Is an established writer who indie publishes only his or her backlist.
• Makes all crucial decisions regarding his or her books, from cover designs to release dates, pricing to promotion.
• Is often a writer, publisher, cover designer, editor and publicist, among other  things.
• Is savvy enough to hire experts to do the jobs he or she can't do effectively such as cover design and formatting for various digital platforms.
• Knows the value of professional editing and never puts a self-edited, sub-standard book peppered with errors on the market.
• Earns royalties of 35-85 percent of sales compared to the 2-15 percent that obtained previously.

Are you a New Author? Are you doing it all? How is this working for you? Please share your stories with us.


—Liane Spicer is the author of two contemporary romance novels, Café au Lait (Dorchester 2008) and Give Me the Night (2014). She also writes mainstream, literary and speculative fiction under a variety of pen names. Find her on Facebook and Twitter (@Wordtryst Press).

Indie publishing follow up: Coming up for air

In Taking the Plunge in December 2011 on Novel Spaces, I discussed my decision to start a micropress to publish some of my own fiction as well as the work of a few other authors. The initial plan was to launch in December 2011, but since I had a file full of books about the process to read, covers to design and execute, formatting to learn and intricacies of Smashwords/Kindle etc. to explore, I figured a more reasonable time frame would be January.

Stuff kept happening, though, and I pushed my self-imposed deadline further and further away. I vacillated with decisions: publish through Smashwords or go straight to Kindle and take advantage of the KDP Select programme? Do the formatting and covers myself or shell out some cash for these services? Most unexpected of all was my own resistance to taking this big step. I am grateful to Vaughn T. Stanford, author of the first three stories in my lineup, for his patience as I responded to his many enquiries as to when the venture would get off the ground with just one word: "Soon."

Vaughn had planned to make February 19 a double celebration: my birthday and the launch of the press. As we sat in a restaurant on the water enjoying my birthday lunch and discussing the project, I offered up another "Soon". His response was, "Are you afraid?" I could not even summon indignation that he should ask me, the great adventurer (snigger), about... fear. At that moment I resolved to have the first book live on Kindle in time for his birthday, March 6. I was inundated with other work but I spent most of the evening and night of March 6 formatting, writing descriptions, tags and the lot, and at 2AM I finally put the book to bed. I watched the status go from 'In review' to 'Publishing' and finally to 'Live'. Two to Tangle had been born, with The Letter and Desire following hot on its heels. Wordtryst Press was (finally) up and running.

I cannot begin to describe the euphoria that hit me once I completed that first crucial step. Next in line are my second romance novel Café Noir, and a variety of short stories (literary, erotic and speculative) from the a handful of writers who have signed up with the press. Once those covers are ready I'll click that 'publish' button - and then the journey will really begin.

Coming soon: Official launch of Wordtryst Press. Stay tuned!

Novel Spaces: Authors, clean up your act.

I've got a bit of news for authors of all stripes: 'Indie' publishing is not a free pass.

The new technologies make it possible for writers to bypass the gate-keeping functions of literary agents, acquiring editors, copy/line editors and proofreaders. Writers/authors can now offer their products directly to the customer in digital form. Say what you will about the traditional publishing model, the fact is there was some measure of quality control. The absence of these standards in the new model is proving disastrous to, if not the viability, then the integrity of self-published or "indie" e-books.

According to Rich Adin in The Digital Reader:

"I have to admit that part of the problem is the poor quality of so many ebook offerings ... of every 10 ebooks I acquire, I am certain that 8 or 9 will be trashcanned within the first 30 pages of reading."

Continue: Novel Spaces: Authors, clean up your act.

Novel Spaces: More Darned Publishing Myths

Novel Spaces: More Darned Publishing Myths:
One month ago I wrote about Those Darned Publishing Myths. Today we'll examine four more of the publishing version of midwives' tales that can mislead writers in their quest for publishing success. You're welcome to join me there!

Novel Spaces: Those darned publishing myths

Novel Spaces: Those darned publishing myths: "We've all read them, and we start out with loads of misconceptions on account of them. How do we separate the industry wisdom from the urban..."

You've invited to join me on Novel Spaces today as we go about shooting down those urban myths of publishing!

Those numbers again

Okay, I can see where this obsession can get really boring for everyone but the author involved, so I promise to stop posting search results after today. I'll even attempt to not check in with Amazon on a daily basis, but don't know if I have the required self-control. Consider that a work in progress. So here goes...

When I looked at the search rankings this morning Café Au Lait showed up as:

#1 of 1,659 in African-American romance
#1 of 201 in Caribbean romance
#9 of 1,676 in African American romance (no hyphen)
#29 of 32,003 in contemporary romance

This must surely signify something! Not sure what, though. Probably some anomaly in the Amazon algorithm.

Those numbers

I think all authors must be obsessed with numbers: sales rank, print runs, royalty percentages, etc. etc. etc. Then there are search rank numbers. I don't know what, if anything, these esoteric indices reveal about sales, but...

On current (as in today's) Amazon searches (search rank, not sales rank) CAFÉ AU LAIT comes up as:

#1 (out of 757) - African-American romance novels
#2 (out of 1,657) - African-American romance
#2 (out of 201) - Caribbean romance
#11 (out of 1,673) - African American romance (without the hyphen)
#32 (out of 31,963) - contemporary romance

This can't be bad. If you know otherwise, do NOT burst my bubble!

Determinedly cheerful

Everywhere I turn people are writing about how glad they are to see the back of 2008, despite the fact that the predictions of doom and gloom for 2009 show no signs of abating. The outlook for publishing seems particularly grim: the industry has been ailing for years, according to the gurus, and last year ended with falling sales, employee layoffs, cutbacks, threats to further reduce author advances or get rid of them altogether... But despite the clouds roiling on the publishing horizon, I'm determined to be optimistic. Hell, my angst cannot possibly affect the big outcomes, so why not eschew it and be done?

2008 was a good year for me. My first novel was published; I got paid for my writing for the first time; I completed a second novel; went back to working a day job; made new friends. My family is well. I am well. There have been setbacks and disappointments along with the good stuff, but I survived. And the older I get, the more I value the simple fact of survival.

I'm looking forward to 2009. There's more than enough to worry about in almost every sphere of life so, being contrary by nature, I plan to focus on the positives that I have some control over: the fellowship of friends and fellow writers, writing and promoting, sending novel #2 out into the world to fend for itself, reading a few good books, maybe even some great ones. Call me Pollyanna if you like; I don't mind. And, in the very likely event that my resolve wears thin at some point, I've secreted a lovely bottle of asti away in my room. Armed and ready, I am. Cheers!

Reason to smile

Two or three weeks ago the production supervisor at Dorchester asked me for author info for my profile. It's three AM now but I'm up and feeling self-satisfied because I just placed my very first Amazon order (Chumplet, The Space Between is in there - finally!). Came to the e-mail to check for the order confirmation and found another Google Alert. (Thank you, Google!)

My author info, the same stuff that's going on the inside back cover of the novel, is now up on the Dorchester Publishing website. It's about time, yanno. I've been checking there off and on for months and wondering just when it would appear.

Yeah. I'm smiling.

Check

My agent sent me an e-mail yesterday with one word in the subject line: Check. Seems my very first check (cheque) is finally ready, and I should receive it in a week or so since it has to wend its way from Manhattan, New York to MyTown, Trinidad.

It's a tiny check. The advance is so small that after the agent deducts her commission and a few hundred for expenses there won't be much left.

But!

In terms of significance, this cheque is a heavyweight. It's my first for fiction, and it marks the transition from 'aspiring' to 'author' for me. I'm gettin' paid, people! Seeing my novel on Amazon was a high, but seeing the cheque will make it... real.

Why is it a reality check? Because of its size, for one thing. The stats indicate that only tiny percentage of fiction writers can live off their work; they all have supportive spouses and/or other jobs that pay the bills. We all hope to beat the stats but the industry wisdom is that you shouldn't give up the day job until you've got a backlist of four or five royalty-earning novels under your belt.

The check underscores another reality: the snail's pace at which things happen in publishing. Take my timeline, for instance.

• September '05: Snail-mailed a handful of queries to agents. Agonizing wait while SASEs trickled back to me over the next four months.
  
• January '06: Discovered AgentQuery.com. Sent out a bunch of e-queries to agents. Got several requests for partials and one for a full.
• March '06: Agent with the full called to offer representation.
• April '06: Signed with agent.
• April '07: Got 'the call' from agent; novel sold.
• October '07: Got draft of contract.
• November '07: Editor called; ready to discuss changes.
  
• February '08: Received signature copies of contract.
• May '08: Advance check mailed to agent (days after I e-mailed publisher and asked 'What's goin' on with da check, people?
• June '08: Agent e-mails that check is ready.
• September '08: Proposed release date of novel.
• September '09: First royalty statement due. (A blogging buddy of mine received her first royalty check recently - for the staggering sum of 9 dollars!)
  

Friend E. confided in me that he was thinking of writing his memoirs and making some quick money. Ha. I handed him a check. A reality check.

Galleys & genre-juggling

I sort of imagined that I'd have very little to do when the galley for Café au Lait arrived. Ha. There's a reason that manuscripts make so many passes before so many eyes, I'm finding. I found a glaring error on the very first page. No, it wasn't one of mine that I'd overlooked (please!) but one that was created because of changes and additions and deletions made after I'd passed the manuscript along. I made special mention of this correction in the cover letter to the production supervisor. Can't have an error on the first page, people! That would put me off a book instantly!

There were other errors of this type here and there. You know what happens when you modify a sentence: you have to re-read the whole sentence to make sure the whole thing hangs together, as well as keep an eye out for inconsistencies further along that result from these changes. Then there were the usual nuts-and-bolts corrections: typos, punctuation, capitalization and such. I was told that while I was reading, the novel had also been passed to a professional proofreader - so here's hoping that between us we've caught everything.

On another note, a Google Alert informed me that Café is on a chick lit list of releases. I did a double take, then remembered that Kevin had remarked on first seeing the cover that he would have guessed 'chick lit' rather than 'romance'. I decided to do some research and discovered that the genres do overlap, seemingly. Here's the Wiki def:

Chick lit" is a term used to denote genre fiction written for and marketed to young women, especially single, working women in their twenties and thirties... Chick lit features hip, stylish female protagonists, usually in their twenties and thirties, in urban settings (usually London or Manhattan), and follows their love lives and struggles for professional success (often in the publishing, advertising, public relations or fashion industry). The books usually feature an airy, irreverent tone and frank sexual themes.

And from Electronic Book Review:

"Chick-Lit is hip, stylish, confident, and sharp - it's also honest and very brave. It battles and conquers the term Chick; it explores, explains, sometimes gives in to and sometimes blows away the notion of a chicklet, trapped by birth to imprint its parents; it is sexual and sensual in dear or savage or shocking ways. And it proves itself structurally, lyrically, and formally as lit-erature."

The latter article also explores the 'postfeminist' label sometimes applied to chick lit. And there was more. If my heroine had been older, the book might picked up the 'hen lit' label. If she'd been a mother, 'mom lit'. Younger, and the 'teen lit' label might have been applied. And so on, and on...

It's all about marketing, I guess. So, do I have strong feelings about the book being thus labeled? Nah. Call it what you like, I say. I've done my part; now it's their turn. With the galley out of the way, all my focus is on the next one.

Amazon and galleys

Last night I Googled my novel and discovered that it's now up on Amazon.com. I suppose that by the time I've gone through the publishing process several times (I'm an optimist) I won't even be bothered to Google new releases, and I won't feel that spurt of excitement when I first spy the titles online in stores. Since this is my maiden voyage, you'll forgive my enthusing over every little thing, right? So I'm moving on to the other big first that has me grinning like an idiot right now...

Galleys! They arrived today, and when the courier guy put the box into my hands I almost dropped it. Heavy stuff, these galleys, I thought. When I opened the package I understood. In addition to the printed pages I discovered about 150 book covers. Huh? I'm assuming that these are for use in my own promotional forays - but I've e-mailed the production supervisor and asked, just to be sure.

I glanced at the last pages and found that my sexy closing scene has been knifed. What's left is... well, not much of it is left. And my scintillating final sentence? Gone. Vanished. Poof. **sob... wailllll!!!!!!!!** Who knows what other surgery has been performed in the innards of the book? Now I have to brace myself and repeat 100 times: The editor knows best. The editor is always right. The editor knows best. The edit...