Exciting Times

I got a letter from the production team on Wednesday asking me for a few things which go inside the book eg acknowledgements, dedications, blurb and my biog, plus I have to put ideas for the cover on a form, and ideas for marketing posters (already have that one in mind), oh yes, and a couple of photos of myself for the cover. I got my mum to take some of me at home last Sunday and will probably ask her to do so again tomorrow. So I will be working on the paperwork for Rosie on Sunday and typing up more of Allie tomorrow. They also wanted confirmation of author and book name which I phoned up with yesterday because they wanted them immediately. The rest of the things they want within a month but I will get them done as soon as I can because I do like to be professional and efficient with these things and create a good impression to people. I will have to leave revisions of Checkmate for another week until I get the Rosie papers finished and sent, on a CD.

I went to a British SCBWI talk last night and it was quite interesting. The talk was by 2 men who originate from the US and started up a company in 2006 who work as book packagers, consultants and agents. Basically, if I've got it right, you submit your ms to them like you would to a publisher/agent, if they like the writing they will work with you to get it right, then do all the work, with you the author, to get it packaged right, then once the book is complete, they will approach publishers like an agent does. If you're happy to have them as your agents then so be it but they don't mind you looking elsewhere. Also, they might have book ideas themselves and you can send them sample texts of your work and if they have an idea that matches your type of work then they can contact you to work on their concept, splitting royalties. They are very knowledgable about the publishing side of writing as both of them have worked in publishing and selling books over a lot of years. They seem very nice people and I have made a note of their names in case I might like to contact them in the future.