Wow! This All Takes A Long Time Part III

So... my last timeline brought us up to November 25th, so of course now I need to back up a step and include something I left out:

November 17th, 2007 - I found out that Erica Feldon was the publicist for STAKED. (She's absolutely great, BTW... and if you notice that I keep saying that about everyone, it's because I've been very fortunate!)

November 19th, 2007 - Author Questionnaire (See previous timeline)

Novmber 25, 2007 - Sent back filled out Author Questionnaire.

November 27th, 2007 - Got permission to post the cover art for STAKED to my blog and my website.

November 28th, 2007 - Got feedback from Jennifer assuring me that yes, I did give them the info that they were looking for when I filled out the Author Questionnaire.

December... I don't have any specific manuscript type details listed for December. I was working, though. I made a list of three hundred bookstores that I could get to with moderate ease so that I could contact them for possible signings in 2008. I also sent off some Christmas gifts, fought with my laptop, and took on the job of Pressbook editor for the SFWA.

January 5, 2008 - STAKED got its first review, a favorable one from Don D'ammassa about which I, my friends, my family, my agent, my editor, and my publicist were all suitable thrilled.

January 22, 2008 - I found out that the print run for STAKED was 15,000 copies, which is about three thousand copies more than I had theorized and "a respectable trade paperback genre number."

January 31, 2008 - Some slight weirdness happened with my Amazon.com listing. The description of the book was added, but it was followed by the bulk of the text from the first chapter. (As an asided, the great folks over a Pocket are working on getting it fixed. There's nothing hideously wrong, it just makes it take a really long time to scroll all the way down past the description.)

Somewhere in there, I also found out that my in-laws were going to throw me an Author Debut party on the day my book comes out.

A little after that, some of the bookmarks we'd ordered came in along with my new business cards and some fridge magnets. :)

February 12, 2008 - A day thaat shall live in infamy. Four copies of the final product were waiting for me on the front porch.

And that pretty much brings us up to date.

Best,

J

IT'S A BOOK!!!

In a very Pavlovian type reaction, I am now conditioned to get very excited when I see tan/orange DHL envelopes sitting on my porch. So far, they have brought me: copyedited manuscipts for my perusal, ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), cover flats, and on February 12th, 2008, they brought me my novel. Four copies of the final product.

If you're not a writer, I'm not sure that I can fully explain what it feels like to hold your novel for the first time. I'm embarassed to say that it was only a half step removed from the way it felt to hold my boys when they were born. The experience was just that visceral, that primal. All along the way, I plagued myself with little doubts and fears: Sure, Jeremy, you have an agent, but she'll come to her senses and get rid of you anytime now... Okay, so an editor wants to buy the novel, but she'll never get the purchase approved... Alright, it's was approved but they'll never accept the final version...

Perhaps every writer does not feel those same inner doubts, but I did and I do, and I lack the words to explain what it feels like each and every time those doubts get smashed aside and proven wrong. Holding the finished version made me want to unleash a very Dead Poet Society-esque "Viking Yawp." I didn't, because my flu-stricken wife and youngest son were both napping, but it echoed on the inside for a few days, even though it never came out.

You want to know something though... when I sent out the proposed sequel to my agent, the same doubts I had on the first one reappeared. Here's hoping that they, too, are banished with decisiveness.

Best,

J

STAKED Sequels

So… Let’s recap. My book comes out soon (March 11th). I’ve got an author debut party coming up on the release date, OmegaCon the weekend after the release, and then the beginning of book signings. I even have cool new business cards.

I’ve been going through the "final" draft of the proposed sequel one last time before sending it to my agent. I’m also prewriting on a third Eric book a bit while mostly concentrating on two other urban fantasy novels that are also set in Void City, but with different characters. One of them involves a member of the Mage Guild and the other… well, let’s just say that it involves Lucifer, Satan, and Beelzebub. Boy is that misleading. ;)

The Epic Fantasy Project is on hold for the time being. I’m still working on it, but I want to finish all three books of the trilogy before I lock myself in on a final version of the map. I’m also thinking that it needs a stronger opening and less exposition. At least a few of the “holy crap” moments that make it really different need to come out earlier in the first book. Also, I understand that the epic fantasy market is on the decline.

Still… onward!

STAKED will be here soon and before the release date… AUTHOR COPIES!!!

J

Fantasy Project: ENGAGE!

And... the manuscript is in the mail! My first epic fantasy novel has finally been sent off to my agent. Hopefully when I hear back from her (roughly four to six weeks) she’ll like it and have just the perfect editor/editors in mind. In the meantime, I’m working on a few short stories and a non-vampire urban fantasy novel (or two). I've also been going back over the completed sequel to STAKED (just to make sure that everything is consistent with all of our revisions) and making notes on the next two Epic Fantasy novels so that when someone buys the first one, I can provide more of a package than just the first book. (And, of course, I still have my day job...)

The Great Name Blog

The title of my novel has changed multiple times. As a reminder, the initial title was WELCOME TO THE VOID. This was unacceptable to some of the marketing folks, probably because it doesn’t exactly scream "Vampires!" The second title, BITE ME, was also changed, for reasons possibly having to do with it being a little too in your face or too close to Christopher Moore’s YOU SUCK. I am quite pleased with the new title, STAKED, and can only hope that I won’t have to come up with any more options.

In the process of title selection, my friends, family, writers' group and I made a long list of possibilities. To say the least, some of the titles were less than stellar. Having said that, here is a list of some of the worst/most amusing/most utterly unusable title ideas we came up with (in no particular order):

Bite the hand
Bite Back
Blue Collar Fang
Warning: This Book May Bite You
A Different Type of Anger
Vampires do it at Room Temperature
Anything that moves
Six Ways From Sunday
Straight From The Vein
Always Bite Strangers
Gentlemen Prefer O Negative
Eric: The Life and Times of an Undead Bastard
Undead and Unrepentant
Vampires Never Say Sorry
Voided
Welcome to the Nightmare
Cold Blooded
Enter the Void
Even Vampires Get the Blues
Deadly Dancing
Fangs for the Memories
I Love the Night Life
This Never Happened to Dracula
Idle Fangs
The @$$hole’s Guide to Being A Vampire
More Trouble Dead
101 Reasons Not to Make Your Girlfriend Immortal
Rip Me A New One
F*cking Vampires
Dead Men Tell No Tales and Dead Women Won’t Stop Talking
Death Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry
F is for Vampire
Even Vampires Hate Mondays
Immoral Beloved
Dead men Don’t Dodge Bullets
When You Die, It Gets Worse
Dead Men Don’t Do Dishes
Suck It
When the Night Gets Old
Vampires Suck
Too Much At Stake
Thicker Than Water
The Dark Fangtastic
Fangtasia
Fangtom of the Pollux
Swallow
Ouch! (with sequels: It Still Hurts and See How You Like It)

Feel free to comment and contribute your own terrible titles.

More later!

Jeremy