Blood pressure crash

[jhetley]

Well, just got an email from the Nice Agent Lady to the effect that Ace has declined to purchase GHOST POINT. I'm a great writer and other nice pat-him-on-the-head things, but the sales are slipping a bit from book to book and they don't think this latest manuscript is the way to turn the trend around. Now, since I only have two books out there actually selling, that implies WINTER OAK has been declared a dud. And further implies that working on PENDRAGON AUTUMN is a waste of time.

Oh, hell.

And it's all YOUR fault. You didn't buy enough books.

Nice Agent Lady thinks she may be able to sell GHOST POINT elsewhere.

I think I'll send out for a fifth of rum.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Well heck.

I was pushing your name this past weekend. With luck that will produce a few sales, but of course not in time to prevent this.

[ccfinlay.livejournal.com]

Fuckall.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Bah! They should have waited until after tomorrow night, when I buy a book or two (and harrass them for whatever they don't have in stock!)

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

Argh! Are you sure, though, that this implies what you say it does about Pendragon Autumn? The second book of a series very often doesn't sell as many as the first, but then the third one bounces back.

NAL's thought that she may have another market for Ghost Point is encouraging -- she could have said, after all, "in view of Ace's reaction, I am dropping you like the proverbial hot potato..."

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm sure about PENDRAGON AUTUMN. In the ensuing flurry of emails, NAL pitched that to the folks at Ace and while they would like to work with me on another book, they want Something Completely Different to turn the sales trend around. Maybe I'll cook up a Monty Python routine.

Question for the math folks of the universe -- how can you plot a trend from two points?

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

Question for the math folks of the universe -- how can you plot a trend from two points?

Answer: (1) [if you are a mathematician]. Very cautiously...
(2) [if you are a publisher]. "When in doubt, throw it out..."

[wolfette]

I bought, I promoted, I talked you up to the nice Ace lady (but she's not in charge of buying your books) at Worldcon.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Aw, fuck.

*buys the first round*

[quietspaces.livejournal.com]

I am extremely disappointed. I love your stories and am looking forward to being able to read lots more of them. In particular, I was anticipating PENDRAGON AUTUMN, but DRAGON'S EYE is on my "buy" list for November.

Listen to the Nice Agent Lady.

[pjthompson]

I'm so sorry to hear this!

Everyone I've recommended Summer Country and Winter Oak to have loved them. I was anticipating Pendragon Autumn with much...anticipation.

I'll go out and buy more books.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Well, bah.

I got my local library to buy more copies and have promoted you to everyone around here who reads fantasy/Sci Fi. Not too many do however. I'm sort of disappointed. It's a tech company. More of them should read it!

[estrelladesax.livejournal.com]

Hmph. Point them my way, and I'll set them straight.

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

well, phooey.

Two points don't make a trend.

Bad ACE person. No cookie.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Not bad ACE person -- bad market and bad multinational conglomerate. She's got a job to do and tight requirements. Books don't sell like hotcakes, author out. They want the next Robert Jordan or Steve King, not another midlist writer to add to their cast of thousands.

[perfectpages.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I have read all of your books except for your most recent one (poor college student) but it's on my Christmas list. I'll have to re-reccomend you to all of my fantasy-reading friends (all... two of them).

Good luck with everything!

[nathelmi.livejournal.com]

If you need a drinking buddy, the wilds of Acadia have made me bitter and borderline alcoholic.

I'd be delighted to go over the edge and into the bliss of bender-ville if you want company.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

How is Acadia more wild than the rest of the wilds of Nova Scotia? Driving from Yarmouth to Halifax, the place looked much of a muchness....

And you'll remember my comments to the SF class -- "Don't give up your day job."

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

i have the first two and dragon's eye is on my list when i go to the bookstore (i haven't been yet this week). *sigh*

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I'm extremely disappointed with your publisher. I suppose they can have sales figures from bookshops; but the general public has barely had the chance to walk into stores and pick the damn thing up, so how can you have a bad sales record?

And my reading would be slightly different from yours. The thing I pick up (in my safe, full-of-hope agent-seeking armchair), regardless of the idiocy of losing faith because the second book doesn't take off with the same fervor as the first had (Katrina/Rita/Wilma, anyone? People wanting to maybe read the first one in paperback before splashing out on the second volume in hardback?) is that in their opinion, Ghost Point is fine, *but not strong enough.*

Find out why and make it stronger.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

The sense I get by way of the agent is that they want a different _kind_ of book to follow DRAGON'S TEETH. Not a revision or major rewrite of GHOST POINT. My agent presented it as a marketing decision, pretty much, which is why she wants to send the GHOST POINT manuscript around to other publishers.

To recount some history you may recall from RECOG, I wrote SUMMER COUNTRY as a stand-alone book, no thought of a series. ("What part of -END- don't you understand?") Then I wrote and revised DRAGON'S EYE, and sent it off to the editor when she asked about other work when she bought SUMMER COUNTRY. She requested a sequel to SC that turned into WINTER OAK, which she bought and then afterwards bought DRAGON'S EYE. Then I wrote DRAGON'S TEETH, which she bought and which should still be coming out next year. Following that, I wrote and revised GHOST POINT and started on PENDRAGON AUTUMN, which just got shoved into the freezer after an agent inquiry showed Ace wasn't interested. Agent Lady suggests something not even set in my fictional Maine.

So I'm spinning my wheels and reading. Your tea-leaves may vary.

[(Anonymous)]

All the publishers are being strange when it comes to mid-list genre fiction these days. I know one very established editor who got a series she was doing (not for ACE!) canceled after they printed but hadn't sold a single copy of the first anthology. Said sales were too weak to continue the series. That anthology actually has sold very well, but publsiher says now, it's too late to continue the series. -- Cat

[mikaela-l.livejournal.com]

I love your books. They are great. I have both Summer Country and Winter Oak, and will buy Dragon Eye when I can afford it