Those of you who are my Facebook friends will already know
this, but last week I had some bad news and some good news.
The bad news was that after a lot of work and three rounds
of revisions, I got the final verdict from Mills and Boon on The Welsh King’s
Spy—in the end although they liked my voice and thought I had potential, the
story wasn’t quite what they were looking for. The really bad news was that I’d just put on
mascara and my first lesson was due to start in ten minutes when I read the
email, so instead of crying and sulking, which always makes me feel better, I
had to smile and explain circular geometry. I wouldn’t recommend that as a
remedy for dashed hopes—I think my poor student is now terminally confused.
The good news was that the editor went on to say that
although TWKS wasn’t right, she’d like to continue working with me on my next
story. I’m really excited about that because she wouldn’t go to all that work
and trouble unless she thought my voice was a good fit for Harlequin
Historical. So now (after being wiped out for a few days by a cold caught from
my maths student) I’m working on some characters and plots for a few scenarios
set in the Twelfth Century. Hopefully I can come up with something that shows
promise. Wish me luck!
Without knowing the circumstances, I would be more angry than sad. They had you do three re-writes without a contract? I finished a bio of an American author's Civil War career for an academic publisher and they and their peer committee also put me through the wringer, but at least it was under contract and hopefully made the book better (but I'm not entirely sure about that). In any case, maybe you should shop the new & improved MS to a few dozen other publishers before giving up on it.
ReplyDeleteI don't look at it that way. When I submitted it the first time it wasn't right for M&B but showed promise. Most publishers would have rejected it, probably with no feedback, and that would have been that. However, M&B are very good at nurturing new authors; the editor I've been working with has given me detailed feedback with no guarantee that she'll get any return for her work and has said she'd like to continue working with me. If I paid a ms appraisal service it would cost me hundreds of pounds for the level of feedback she's giving me for free.
DeleteI have submitted TWKS to other publishers. However it might be too much of a category romance to work as a standalone title with another line. I'll just have to wait and see...