Today I have the author of The Atheist's Daughter on the blog. They (well, he) is talking about why they chose to be indie authors rather than getting published with a large publishing house, even when they could have been. So check out this awesome post with a giveaway at the end!
Dear Candace,
Thanks for giving me an opportunity to do a Guest Post at your book blog, especially during Indie Takeover Month.Our newest story is an indie production through-and-through and we can prove it.
As I mentioned, my wife, Renée, and I write together under the quasi-pseudonym of “Renée Harrell”. Renée does most of the plotting, I play with characterization and dialogue, and together we lick the platter clean. (No, I don’t know what thelast sentence means. Seems to fit, though.) One night,coming out of a dream, she shook me awake, wanting us to start a new novel. I mean, instantly. Since it was a pretty cool dream, I agreed. Soon, we had an outline, the outline became a novel, and, after multiple rewrites and title changes, the novel became The Atheist’s Daughter.
Despite the current obsession with Young Adult novels,agent after agent passed on our book. As one agent-in-training told me, our storyline failed to check off any of the boxes in the Best-Seller Hit List. To begin with, our heroine isn't beautiful or popular. She can't find a job and, still living with her mother, desperately wants to move out on her own. She's cursed -- or blessed, your call -- with an ability to discern a certain kind of evil. She doesn't have a magical Kung Fu Grip with which to fight the evil; she only knows when it's present. She's no smarter, braver or stronger than anyone else.
There are Bad Creatures in the story but they're not any of the standard beasties. We'd grown tired of the same old frights and decided to invent something new. Our monsters aren't sexy, they're monsters. Our biggest mistake of all? Romance sells and there's little romance in the novel. We’d hoped that a fresh story, strong characterization, and our version of a 21st century Buffy might find a readership but the literary doorkeepers disagreed. Even the agent who loved the story said she didn’t think she could sell it.
There are Bad Creatures in the story but they're not any of the standard beasties. We'd grown tired of the same old frights and decided to invent something new. Our monsters aren't sexy, they're monsters. Our biggest mistake of all? Romance sells and there's little romance in the novel. We’d hoped that a fresh story, strong characterization, and our version of a 21st century Buffy might find a readership but the literary doorkeepers disagreed. Even the agent who loved the story said she didn’t think she could sell it.
Going a different route, we pitched the tale directly to acouple of publishers. After a few months, we received a warm rejection, if any rejection can be considered “warm” – and, then, days later, the second publisher responded even more warmly. They sent us a contract, offering a small advance, and promising to release print and e-book editionsin late 2012.
Unfortunately, their contract held a couple of conditions we couldn’t negotiate away. If we signed on the bottom line, the book would remain under the publisher’s control for…well, forever, unless sales fell to just above zero during anycalendar year. Secondly, “You have to change the title,” Ye Olde Publisher said. “Our reader almost passed it up, thinking it was a religious book.”
I know, those aren’t the most awful terms in the world. For us, though, they were deal breakers. We’d self-published our first YA novel and Renée was ready to do it again. She said,“That way, we keep our copyright and our title. From now on, no more agents, no other publishers.”
(A publisher in the UK is putting out our forthcoming s-f novel but, per Renée, “Doesn’t count. We signed the contractmonths and months ago. I said, ‘From now on’….”)
“Self-published books struggle to find a market,” I reminded her.
“Candace won’t like it, she’s a Twilight girl, but give us some time and the right readers will love it. Besides, we’ll put romance in the sequel.”
So here we are, C., about to launch our baby into the world and delighted to have a forum to spread the word. We’re grateful.
We have one more favor to ask: When you use this Guest Post, please feel free to schedule it before our book launch of September 14. We only ask that you don’t run the post on August 26th. As we both know, it’s the one day of the year that book blogs receive their least amount of traffic.
I mean, truly, a YA horror novel without romance is going to be a tough sell, anyway. We need every advantage we can get.
-- Harrell Turner
The Atheist’s Daughter. Out in September.
Thank so much for coming by Harrell! It was great to learn more about the book and why you decided to go indie.
Giveaway: *This Giveaway has ENDED*
They are offering up 2 ebooks of The Atheist's Daughter to 2 random commenters!
Open worldwide.
Must be 13 or older to enter.
Ends 9/5/11
They are offering up 2 ebooks of The Atheist's Daughter to 2 random commenters!
Open worldwide.
Must be 13 or older to enter.
Ends 9/5/11
To Enter: This Giveaway has ended
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