Jean Harkin's Blog - Posts Tagged "stephen-king"
Halloween Horrors of Publishing
I didn’t need to refer to Stephen King to recount these horror stories. Two fellow authors have furnished some frightful tales:
The author who I quoted last month as having suffered through his publishing ordeal, sustained new shocks following his novel’s release. He ordered two boxes of his books from the publisher to sell himself. In the first box he found two misprints. In the second box he found his novel printed with a page of blurbs from someone else’s book after the copyright page.
His marketing attempts ran into bookstore snafus that almost read like scams. In his first approach, he found that the store would land on the favorable side of a 60/40 split, and to make sure, the store would ring up the sales. For his $20 book, the store would earn $12 (for what?), and he would net $8. He had paid $9.25 to the publisher at author discount, thus actually losing $1.25 on each sale.
That bottom line has me spooked of scheduling a bookstore event!
Another author spent six years crafting her first novel. At a writing conference, she was thrilled to garner attention from an editor with a big-name publishing house. Following instructions, she submitted the first 25 pages of her novel for review in advance of meeting with the editor. The meeting turned out to be a terror: the editor lambasted her for not including a cover letter and had nothing good to say about the novel excerpt. Says the author, “I was so disheartened that I did not write a word for six months.” Bewitched!
She never finished that novel but went on to publish four successful ones, one with a major publisher and three with small presses.
Enchantments can happen! I have been assigned an editor, and my novel Promise Full of Thorns is scheduled for December release. We’ll see! “Many a slip”. . . stay tuned!
The author who I quoted last month as having suffered through his publishing ordeal, sustained new shocks following his novel’s release. He ordered two boxes of his books from the publisher to sell himself. In the first box he found two misprints. In the second box he found his novel printed with a page of blurbs from someone else’s book after the copyright page.
His marketing attempts ran into bookstore snafus that almost read like scams. In his first approach, he found that the store would land on the favorable side of a 60/40 split, and to make sure, the store would ring up the sales. For his $20 book, the store would earn $12 (for what?), and he would net $8. He had paid $9.25 to the publisher at author discount, thus actually losing $1.25 on each sale.
That bottom line has me spooked of scheduling a bookstore event!
Another author spent six years crafting her first novel. At a writing conference, she was thrilled to garner attention from an editor with a big-name publishing house. Following instructions, she submitted the first 25 pages of her novel for review in advance of meeting with the editor. The meeting turned out to be a terror: the editor lambasted her for not including a cover letter and had nothing good to say about the novel excerpt. Says the author, “I was so disheartened that I did not write a word for six months.” Bewitched!
She never finished that novel but went on to publish four successful ones, one with a major publisher and three with small presses.
Enchantments can happen! I have been assigned an editor, and my novel Promise Full of Thorns is scheduled for December release. We’ll see! “Many a slip”. . . stay tuned!
Fairy Tales for the New Year
Happy New Year to Friends of my Goodreads blog! Maybe you are, like me, delving into books you unwrapped over the holidays. Two holiday books revived an old coincidence for me. It has happened once again that two books I read in succession have common links. Both involve “coming of age” and both are inspired by themes from fairy tales.
“The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale” by Virginia Kantra is inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” but stands on its own as a relationship and coming of age story about grownups finding where they truly belong. Main character Dorothy (Dee) goes to the Emerald Isle, not the Emerald City, to escape an embarrassing situation at a university in Kansas.
“Fairy Tale” by Stephen King begins as 17-year-old Charlie Reade saves the life of an elderly neighbor and falls in love with his dog. The story continues into a Stephen King world of fantasy magic, horror, and heroism. Fantasy and horror fans would give this more stars than I did and will welcome the movie adaptation when it releases.
I reviewed both novels on Goodreads.com. I also reviewed and gave five stars to “There’s a Cat Hair in My Mask,” a memoir of a Covid year with cats by Portland author Mollie Hunt.
For New Year 2024, I proudly announce the November publication of “Carnival of Muses,” volume 11 of “The Writers’ Mill Journal.” A carnival of ideas and expressions have been collected from the inspirational Writers’ Mill writers of Oregon and around the world. The anthology is available on Amazon.com. Profits from sales go to the Cedar Mill Library of Washington County, Oregon.
Cheers, All the Best, and Good Reads to you in 2024! Thanks for reading my blog and keeping in touch!
“The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale” by Virginia Kantra is inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” but stands on its own as a relationship and coming of age story about grownups finding where they truly belong. Main character Dorothy (Dee) goes to the Emerald Isle, not the Emerald City, to escape an embarrassing situation at a university in Kansas.
“Fairy Tale” by Stephen King begins as 17-year-old Charlie Reade saves the life of an elderly neighbor and falls in love with his dog. The story continues into a Stephen King world of fantasy magic, horror, and heroism. Fantasy and horror fans would give this more stars than I did and will welcome the movie adaptation when it releases.
I reviewed both novels on Goodreads.com. I also reviewed and gave five stars to “There’s a Cat Hair in My Mask,” a memoir of a Covid year with cats by Portland author Mollie Hunt.
For New Year 2024, I proudly announce the November publication of “Carnival of Muses,” volume 11 of “The Writers’ Mill Journal.” A carnival of ideas and expressions have been collected from the inspirational Writers’ Mill writers of Oregon and around the world. The anthology is available on Amazon.com. Profits from sales go to the Cedar Mill Library of Washington County, Oregon.
Cheers, All the Best, and Good Reads to you in 2024! Thanks for reading my blog and keeping in touch!
Fairy Tales for the New Year
Happy New Year to Friends of my Goodreads blog! Maybe you are, like me, delving into books you unwrapped over the holidays. Two holiday books revived an old coincidence for me. It has happened once again that two books I read in succession have common links. Both involve “coming of age” and both are inspired by themes from fairy tales.
“The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale” by Virginia Kantra is inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” but stands on its own as a relationship and coming of age story about grownups finding where they truly belong. Main character Dorothy (Dee) goes to the Emerald Isle, not the Emerald City, to escape an embarrassing situation at a university in Kansas.
“Fairy Tale” by Stephen King begins as 17-year-old Charlie Reade saves the life of an elderly neighbor and falls in love with his dog. The story continues into a Stephen King world of fantasy magic, horror, and heroism. Fantasy and horror fans would give this more stars than I did and will welcome the movie adaptation when it releases.
I reviewed both novels on Goodreads.com. I also reviewed and gave five stars to “There’s a Cat Hair in My Mask,” a memoir of a Covid year with cats by Portland author Mollie Hunt.
For New Year 2024, I proudly announce the November publication of “Carnival of Muses,” volume 11 of “The Writers’ Mill Journal.” A carnival of ideas and expressions have been collected from the inspirational Writers’ Mill writers of Oregon and around the world. The anthology is available on Amazon.com. Profits from sales go to the Cedar Mill Library of Washington County, Oregon.
Cheers, All the Best, and Good Reads to you in 2024! Thanks for reading my blog and keeping in touch!
“The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale” by Virginia Kantra is inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” but stands on its own as a relationship and coming of age story about grownups finding where they truly belong. Main character Dorothy (Dee) goes to the Emerald Isle, not the Emerald City, to escape an embarrassing situation at a university in Kansas.
“Fairy Tale” by Stephen King begins as 17-year-old Charlie Reade saves the life of an elderly neighbor and falls in love with his dog. The story continues into a Stephen King world of fantasy magic, horror, and heroism. Fantasy and horror fans would give this more stars than I did and will welcome the movie adaptation when it releases.
I reviewed both novels on Goodreads.com. I also reviewed and gave five stars to “There’s a Cat Hair in My Mask,” a memoir of a Covid year with cats by Portland author Mollie Hunt.
For New Year 2024, I proudly announce the November publication of “Carnival of Muses,” volume 11 of “The Writers’ Mill Journal.” A carnival of ideas and expressions have been collected from the inspirational Writers’ Mill writers of Oregon and around the world. The anthology is available on Amazon.com. Profits from sales go to the Cedar Mill Library of Washington County, Oregon.
Cheers, All the Best, and Good Reads to you in 2024! Thanks for reading my blog and keeping in touch!
