Last year I noticed a funny thing. One of my old e-books was continually popping up for sale at Ebay and Amazon...for $150, $200, $300 each. That's for an e-book. It wasn't made of gold or anything. It was a book on a disc.
I felt sorry for any reader who felt they had to shell out $150 for any book, much less one of mine. So I brought the matter to my editor's attention, who promptly made an offer to re-publish it as a paperback. She also asked for a follow-up novella to be included, so we could see what happened after Happily Ever After.
Anyway, DOING IT RIGHT is out today. And it's an awful lot cheapter than $300. So check it out, if you like. And even if you don't!
Oh! Also, JENNIFER SCALES AND THE ANCIENT FURNACE is also out today (most books come out on Tuesdays, for some reason). Also reasonably priced. Nowhere near $300, I promise!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Jennifer Scales is baaaaack
My husband, Anthony, and I wrote what we thought was a young adult novel called JENNIFER SCALES AND THE ANCIENT FURNACE. We followed this with JENNIFER SCALES AND THE MESSENGER OF LIGHT. Aw, young adult land, tis good to see ye.
Except.
Except lots of adults were going into the YA section to buy these books. Or they'd buy it for their teenager, read it, get hooked. We had fan mail from 9 year old boys and 87 year old grandmothers, all asking the same thing: when is the next one coming out? (For the record, the series is contracted for four books, and THE SILVER MOON ELM will be out the first week in June, the same day as UNDEAD AND UNEASY).
My publisher sprang into action (a good trick, as I've seen the state of her office). Instead of ignoring the readers, she immediately decided this was NOT a young adult novel. This was...fantasy! And should have a fantasy cover! And be shelved in the fantasy section!
So it is, so it was, so it be. Yeseterday JS and the Ancient Furnace was re-released as a fantasy book, far away from the young adult section. Are my husband and I thrilled? You bet. It takes some serious house support for them to design a new cover, flap copy, and marketing plan. Did our heads grow to the size of watermelons? Well. Mine did. "Hey, I thought we were only writing a young adult novel, and instead WE WERE SO AWESOME that it's actually a fantasy novel! Yeah!"
(In case you're wondering how Anthony and I write together, I do the dialogue, and he does everything else. Yech, description and a linear plot.)
So if you're browsing in the book store anytime soon, check out the Fantasy section. Jennifer will be there, poor thing (she turns into a dragon twice a month). And so will we. Quite to our surprise.
Except.
Except lots of adults were going into the YA section to buy these books. Or they'd buy it for their teenager, read it, get hooked. We had fan mail from 9 year old boys and 87 year old grandmothers, all asking the same thing: when is the next one coming out? (For the record, the series is contracted for four books, and THE SILVER MOON ELM will be out the first week in June, the same day as UNDEAD AND UNEASY).
My publisher sprang into action (a good trick, as I've seen the state of her office). Instead of ignoring the readers, she immediately decided this was NOT a young adult novel. This was...fantasy! And should have a fantasy cover! And be shelved in the fantasy section!
So it is, so it was, so it be. Yeseterday JS and the Ancient Furnace was re-released as a fantasy book, far away from the young adult section. Are my husband and I thrilled? You bet. It takes some serious house support for them to design a new cover, flap copy, and marketing plan. Did our heads grow to the size of watermelons? Well. Mine did. "Hey, I thought we were only writing a young adult novel, and instead WE WERE SO AWESOME that it's actually a fantasy novel! Yeah!"
(In case you're wondering how Anthony and I write together, I do the dialogue, and he does everything else. Yech, description and a linear plot.)
So if you're browsing in the book store anytime soon, check out the Fantasy section. Jennifer will be there, poor thing (she turns into a dragon twice a month). And so will we. Quite to our surprise.
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