Tag: Publishing

A new (old) release!

Or should that be an old (new) release? I’m not sure, but hang on and I’ll tell you why.

A few months ago, I received the rights back to my short story The Trouble with Firsts that appeared in the 2009 Debs e-anthology The First Time (per the contract). I didn’t think much of it until I remembered that I had another YA short story that didn’t currently have a home. What if I used those two stories to walk through the process of publishing something online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble?

Advantages? Here’s what I thought:

  • Clean, edited manuscripts pretty much ready to go
  • Short length, making the formatting and technical review easier
  • Low risk

It was surprisingly fun along with being educational. My goal isn’t to earn a lot of money with these stories–or even much at all–but to learn how the process works.

And it is also a low risk way to have some of my writing available to new readers as well. A 99-cent short story sampler versus $8.99 for Geek Girl? Some readers might want to go with the 99 cents to start. It’s nice I can give them that option.

So, without further ado, I give you: The Trouble With Firsts:

The e-book contains two short stories:

  • The Trouble with Firsts: a story about first dates, prom, and humiliation–not necessarily in that order.
    First published as part of The First Time e-anthology, October 2011
  • Speechless: a story about not speaking up–and what happens when you finally do.
    First published online as part of the launch for The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading.

So, there you have it. My new (old) release. Or my old (new) release. It’s available on:

  • Kindle
  • Nook (forthcoming ~ I’ll update this post when it goes live)

Why ideas aren’t the same as books

On February 6th, I wrote the following as my Facebook status:

Last night’s dream: I was selected to write a modern retelling of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And that’s just what the world needs right now.

From today’s Publishers Marketplace:

Frank Cottrell Boyce’s CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG FLIES AGAIN, with black and white illustrations by illustrator and animator Joe Berger, featuring the Tooting family, who discover an old race-car engine and fit it to their VW Samba Bus; soon they are hurtling across the world rebuilding the original Chitty – with a sinister character on their tail, based on the original by Ian Fleming, to Hilary Van Dusen at Candlewick Press, in a six-figure deal, at auction, in a three-book deal, for publication in Spring 2012, by Zoe Pagnamenta of the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency on behalf of Simon Trewin at United Agents.

Apparently, it is what the world needs right now, to the tune of six figures, no less. So. Yeah. It kinds of leaves you wondering. Where’s my six-figure deal?

Not in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s trunk, that’s for sure.

Here’s the thing: I do this all the time. I once wondered if anyone bothered to write a retelling of Anna Karenina. Why did I wonder this? I don’t know.

A week later, a deal came through on Publishers Marketplace for … wait for it … a retelling of Anna Karenina.

That novel about a modern US civil war? Yep, had that idea–twice (two different versions). Same for a bunch of others that I’m too depressed to enumerate here.

I’m either really tied into the collective unconscious or I should start writing these things down.

That’s the key. Everybody has ideas; writing 50,000 – 100,000 words in a row so they make sense is what separates the idea from a book. And honestly, I never wanted to write a retelling of Anna Karenina, or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, for that matter, not even to the tune of six-figures.

Still. It kind of leaves you wondering.