Road to Publication: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

I’m very excited to announce that I've signed a contract with Astraea Press for publication of my young adult historical novel Yakimali’s Gift.

Reminder: Never Give Up!

As some of you might remember, I had a contract for Yakimali’s Gift with another publisher, and my book was slated for release in December 2013. Then, months before that, the publisher went out of business. As you can imagine, I was devastated. It took a lot of determination to not give up and to start over with my submissions. But I did. And now here I am with another contract! I could have easily thrown in the towel, but you see what can happen when you Never Give Up!

Two Offers

When I received an offer from one publisher, I was thrilled, to say the least. Then, a few days later, another offer came in, something I never imagined happening. When I floated back down from my ecstatic ride on cloud nine, I looked over each publisher’s website, and then emailed them questions. I was interested in whether they worked with a distributor, how many books they planned on publishing in the coming months and years, and what type of marketing (if any) they did for their authors.

I also checked out their covers, the professionalism of their websites, and how many books they had published. And since both were small presses, how long they’d been in business.

Negotiation

The next step was to negotiate the contracts. I pulled out my trusty book, Negotiating a Book Contract by Mark L. Levine, which I’d purchased for my previous contract. I also used that contract as a guide. Both publishers were willing to make most of the changes I requested, making my decision that much more difficult.

I had a good rapport with both the editors I was communicating with; each publisher had pluses the other one didn’t. So it came down to weighing those pluses, which ones were most important to me, that helped me make my final choice.

In the end, I’m very happy with my decision, and look forward to working with Stephanie Taylor and her team at Astraea Press!

Signed, Sealed and Delivered

I have my “new author package” (doesn’t that sound cool!) and the next step will be editing. I get to have input on the cover, and they’ve asked for other information to help them set up a marketing and promotion plan for me.

I have a lot of work ahead of me, including adding my own marketing efforts. But it’s work that I’m so excited about doing. I’m so ready for this!

Remember…if you have a dream, a dream you’re trying hard to achieve—whether it’s publication or something else—never ever give up. Never Give Up.