Blurbs and Money, Oh My!

I got an email from my editor on Monday. In the email, she said she was sorry that she forgot to get “this” to me (meaning the attachment). I barely glance at the attachment name, and as I skim the short email, a line pops out at me that reads along the lines of ‘I don’t think this really works for the setup of the series.”

IMMEDIATELY, my heart slams into my chest. O-M-G, she's talking about the Book 1 of the series. She hates the book. I’m going to have to rewrite the entire book. I almost didn’t open up the attachment because I didn’t want to see what my editor had to say as to why the book was so bad….but I bit the bullet and opened the attachment.

The minute it opens in Word, I almost passed out. It was the cover blurb copy for the paranormal series that she wasn’t happy with. Talk about getting on my knees and weeping for joy! So I then read the cover blurb. And Cindy was RIGHT! Great Balls of Fire this copy totally sucked. THIS is where one understands why some books DO NOT fit the cover copy.

Anyway, Cindy asked me to take a look at the copy and makes changes. I spend most of Monday night doing rewrites, trying to figure out how to do a Readers Digest version of the book. Somehow I managed and I sent it off to her, taglines and all. She wrote back and said it looked good. Then she said she didn’t like the title I’d suggested. It was a bit too blah (my words not hers). She suggested something else, so I pondered it, and then realized that we’d both be satisfied with the title. Reason we'd both be satisfied was because she wanted a specific word and I wanted another specific word. So we married the two together.

Ta DUM!! New Title

Assassin’s Honor, Book 1 of The Order of the Sicari series.

I haven’t been told it’s “Official,” but I feel it's official enough to post here.I know that in ePub I wrote my own blurbs and taglines all the time. It was just what you do. But I didn’t realize I’d have a little bit of control over my blurbs for a NY book. I LOVE that my editor is so open and flexible. It feels like a great partnership I’m building with her.

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Show Me Da Money

I turned in Kismet back in February. Sometime in March, my editor informed me via email that she loved it the way it was and would only have line edits. So I waited, waited and waited some more. No line edits. So I just happened to mention to my agent that my editor had indicated there would only be line edits and Deidre said, well that’s D&A (delivery and acceptance). Let’s see where your check is.

So yesterday I get a nice email from the agency’s accountant who says, “LOOK what we have for you!!” Once more I’m on my knees weeping for joy. I don’t have to worry about lumping the National OUTRAGEOUS hotel bill onto a credit card. That puppy’s going on American Express and earning POINTS. LOL I will probably be conservative and change my arrival from Tue to Wed to save almost $300 If I leave Wed morning around 9am, I’ll be there at 11am and I should be able to get into a room, or at the least just park the car and keep things in there until I can get into my room. Book signings not until 5:30pm anyway.

WOOT!

For those in the US, have a Happy (and Safe) 4th of July.