Publishing tagged posts

A Leap into the Unknown

October 16, 2014 News, Publishing

A while ago I was chatting with my publisher about the type of children's shows we remembered - Bill and Ben, Bagpuss - and about how sad it was that shows like that weren't being made anymore. I jotted down a short children's story in that vein as a joke.My publisher loved it. So did his child. So, rather baffled, I sat on the idea for a week. Which was when I discovered what pester power meant, and that was just from my publisher. Around the time I finished the fourth, I did start to think I might be onto something here. However my publisher does not handle illustrated books or children's books, and those markets could be quite specialist.It took me a while to make a decision, because after what happened with Fire Season, going away from my nice, safe, micro-press and back into

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Acquisitions & editors – an odd irony

July 21, 2010 Publishing

Getting through the editor isn't the last stage either. Once an editor likes it, they have to put their case to an acquisitions board which includes sales, marketing, distibution etc. The acquisitions board then decide if the book is worth buying. These boards often meet once or twice a month.I am trying hard not to remember that my first book got through all the editorial levels with one publisher but was rejected at acquisitions as they did not think they could market it. If I'd known then what I know now - how rare it is for a first novel to get that far - I'd probably have sent it to more than five agents and one publisher. Instead I trunked it, and wrote the one that's now on submission as "Firestorm".It is rather ironic that my first book failed to get published because of potential

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