Book Deal

Allow me to toot my own horn and speak of good news. I have a book deal!

Here's the story. For more than a year, I've been working on a YA novel--YA meaning "Young Adult" for those of you not in the know. Which means it's aimed toward teenage readers, though it does have crossover appeal. (You can say that Harry Potter is YA. But my books will have no goblins, wizards, or witches, alas.) I started one novel, showed my agent some chapters, and he didn't like it. Back to the drawing board.

I'd written a short story years ago called "Alone for the Weekend." My agent had sold that story to Delacorte to appear in an anthology they publish called Rush Hour. Soon after that, I met the in-house editor, Jodi, and had a great chat with her. She told me she wanted to see more of my work, and so I asked her if she thought "Alone" could be the first chapter of a novel. She said yes. So I started work on the next few chapters.

George said that after I had three chapters done, then he might go ahead and try to sell it. It's not the usual way things are done, for novels anyway. But since Jodi seemed so keen on my work, he thought we might as well try. So I started work.

It took me about five months to finish the chapters, which is of course ridiculously slow. But I worked on it in stolen moments, weekends mostly. In May, I finally finished, then reworked them here and there, and was finally happy with the result.

I turned them in to George on a Monday. Of course, by Tuesday I was convinced that it was all crap! For days I didn't hear a peep from George. Then I called him on Thursday, just to make sure he got the chapters. He had, of course, and read them and said he loved them. A big relief! He told me we'd chat the next week about what to do next, because he was going to Ireland for a few days. That weekend I went to visit friends in DC in good spirits--my hard work hadn't been a complete waste of time!

When I returned to work on Monday, I had a message from Jodi, asking me to call her. Turns out George had emailed her the chapters on Friday. She read them over the weekend and loved them and told me that she was "going to make an offer." Sweeter words could not have been uttered. I was ecstatic and in mild shock. Of course, George was in Ireland for a few more days.

A day later, George's assistant forwarded Jodi's offer to me, which made me even more excited. Here it was, in writing, with numbers and dollars attached! George finally returned and we made a lunch date to talk about everything. He had me write up a description of the novel and where I thought it was going. But he also floated a new idea--a two-book deal. I was basically like, sure thing, if you can score it! So he had me come up with a description of Book 2, as well. Then he countered the offer and broached the two-book deal.

Jodi found the description of Novel 1 very helpful, but she wasn't sold on Book 2. It was too mature, she said, for a YA reader. But she wasn't opposed to the idea of a two-book deal. So I met with her and had a great chat, even met some of the other editors who'd read my chapters. I had a great feeling after the meeting. And it's so rare to get any kind of praise and validation as a writer. Usually you just toil in solitude, never knowing if what you're working on is good or not, never even knowing if it will ever be published. So, it was nice. This whole experience, so far, has been nice. More than nice.

In the end, George negotiated a great contract for a two-book deal. I have to turn in the first novel--tentatively titled What They Always Tell Us--in January of 2007. Publication will probably be in 2008. As for the second book, I don't know what it will be about, nor do I know when it is due. At this point, I just need to focus on the first one!

So, in many ways it's a dream come true. It's what I've been working toward for years. I thought it would happen sooner, and then I wondered if it would ever happen at all. Now I have a lot of work ahead, but so far the work and the writing have been fun. I love the characters, the story. And having a book deal, I must admit, makes me believe in my writing a bit more--I'm writing with confidence for a change. I'm no Proust or Faulkner, but at least a few people thing I'm worthy of publishing books!