So, yesterday I got a…

So, yesterday I got a call from Bob. And after much confused burbling the gist of it was that yes, HarperCollins wanted to make a two-book offer, and yes, it was for a nice little piece of money (not as much as he'd asked for, but quite a bit more than I'd expected), and did we want to say yes back?!?!?! And after much freaking out at the crazy man who appeared to think that there was even a chance I might say no, I think I managed to convince him that yes yes yes !!! was in fact the correct response.

I sold my dissertation novel! And, eep, I appear to have sold the unwritten threesome novel as well. If I understand right, it'll be a combination hardcover/trade paperback deal for them both. The dissertation novel is scheduled for Spring 2005, and the threesome book for Spring 2006. I think. It's really all still a blur. Bob was saying all kinds of things about the details and most of them slid right by me. He says he'll be sending me a deal memo. That sounds nice. A deal memo. It has a good ring to it.

What happens next? Well, I giggle my way through WisCon, that's what happens next. I spent most of yesterday alternately hugely excited and somewhat sick to my stomach. Actually, it was mostly both at the same time, not alternately at all. It was already going to be a good convention -- I've already had good conversations with a bunch of old friends, including Kristin Livdahl, Alan Deniro, Chris Barzak, Ben Rosenbaum, Ted Chiang, Gavin Grant, Kelly Link, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and of course Jed and Susan and Karen and Par and Jeremiah -- but now I expect to be pretty much blissed-out for the next four days.

Once I get home, Bob finalizes the details of the contract (it'll apparently be a month or so before I see the first piece of the money -- my mother says she won't really believe it until she sees the check, which is fair enough :-). Then I work with the editor (I don't know her name yet, sorry) through June/July to get Bodies in Motion to where they'd like it to be. They want some changes, but nothing too substantive. I think they'll be fine.

And then I send it off to them, and they give me another piece of my money (it's all divided up, on signing, on acceptance, on acceptance of the other book, etc.), and I spend the next year writing the threesome novel. So I can toss out those letters I was getting about local adjunct composition gigs, at least for the next academic year. I was all set to apply to a bunch of them, too...

I believed we'd sell this, but not nearly this fast -- this was the second editor he showed it to. And I really did think they'd give me something like $5K a book, so I was totally planning on a composition job next year. Now -- it isn't oodles of money, but it's enough to pay off the credit card bills, and buy a new computer (thank god, because this one appears to have a broken fan and is starting to have hard drive issues again), and pay for a little research trip to Sri Lanka. And maybe even a new chair for our tv room, so I can get rid of the IKEA chair I hate. A dissertation novel chair -- won't that be cool? :-)

24 thoughts on “So, yesterday I got a…”

  1. Congratulations! I will drag my old body to an actual book store and actually buy your book. I might even read it!

  2. Congratulations! That’s fantastic news! 8)

    (And when you’re getting ready to buy a new laptop, don’t you dare do it without talking to me first. 8) )

  3. That’s fantastic!

    I’m also completely not surprised. Having read a lot of the stories that’re in there (but not all of them), it’s really good stuff.

    Now if I can just figure out a way of doing the cover for this one…

  4. YAY YAY YAY

    Long Live the King. I am so pleased to be able to point my friends to an actual novel in the bookstore by King Mary Anne.

    Again congrats.

  5. Well that didn’t take long… 🙂

    On the ride up to Wiscon, Mary Anne’s all about how it may take a while, many more editors, she’s not getting her hopes up, etc…

    then next I know, a few hours after we arrive I see her at the reading. She say’s “I sold my books” – I, thinking she meant the one’s she brought to sell at the dealer’s table, go “oh, that was fast, how many copies did you bring.”

    Then she explains… 🙂

    Very, very, very (repeat a bit) cool!

    Congrats! Can’t wait to see the book.

    Shannon

  6. Congratulations, Mary Anne! How interesting it’s been for those of us who were watching the process–I can just imagine what a thrill it must be for you!

  7. Dear Mary Anne,

    I am so happy for you about the book offer.
    Perhaps you could find out from Bob if it will be laid out in the contract, that your book may be published in the UK version as well in that sense, you will be housed with a different publisher for the UK version and be paid your advances separately as from the US. That is what happens here with authors published in the UK if their books get accepted by a publisher in the USA, then they get paid separately, with a different amount of money. Do find out as that may be exciting. Just that the times they come out to the bookshops in these two (2) countries may be a year apart or so, from the other. But Congratulations! Such good news makes all the rest of us dream on. Cheers! Susan

  8. So happy for you! You deserve all this and more. I hope many, many more good things come of this! Congratulations and big, big hugs!

    Carol

  9. More details soon, but just a note that they’re purchasing world rights, and are planning on marketing it well in England, which has a big expatriate community. So no extra money on that, but any sales there will I believe count towards my advance, so I should sell through faster. If I understood all of that right. It’s very blurry right now.

    Meriko, I’ll be in touch. 🙂

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