Book Loving Kiwis discussion

Hi guys

I know I haven't posted for a while and I hope you will forgive me. My novel "The Keeper of Secrets" was launched in NZ June 21st.

I uploaded it as an ebook and it was called "The Secret Keeper", some of you may have read it. It sold just under 50,000 copies and then I got an email from HarperCollins USA May 2012. It has been published as a trade paperback on the William Morrow Imprint in the USA, Canada, U.K. , Australia and New Zealand and as an ebook and is selling really well.

There have been quite a few interviews in national media recently and we had a great book launch in Cambridge last Monday night. I have a Facebook fan page with lots of info and competitions etc. Please feel free to have a look

https://www.facebook.com/julie.thomas...#

I'm currently writing the next one, due to Harpers in NY Dec 31st. So life is busy!

Cheers

Julie Thomas

A BIG congratulations, Julie. I read this when it was a BLK group read and was blown away. Highly recommend it to others in the group.

I agree Angie. Julie's book and the story behind it is an inspiration to every Kiwi and especially to every Kiwi author. We are incredibly lucky here in the Waikato, to have Julie as the chairman of our branch of the NZSA. Wooohooo! Our meetings have been so great with Julie at the helm.

Kathleen
Send me a message with your address and I'll send you an advanced readers edition
cheers
Julie

Hi Julie, many congrats on your success. Really looking forward to reading your book. As an editor, I'd be very interested to know how much of your self-pubbed version HC have changed, and how you felt about those changes. Did you have your self-pubbed version professionally edited? I'm trying to find out what effect the balance of power has on the final version, as it's quite different working with trad publishers/self pubs. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Sue
Did I have the self-pubbed version professionally edited? Yes, I am lucky, I have an old school friend who works as a freelance editor in London and she's Jewish, so she could edit the novel from a professional point of view and also pick up mistakes with the subject matter.
How much did they change? Not really a great deal, mostly the first and fourth section that deal with the present day. They wanted me to 'age' my 14 year old American boy because he read too young. Didn't tell me how, just told me to do it. Line by line picked up some stuff and reduced my use of .... between parts of a sentence.
How did I feel? Grateful and thrilled. Each change left the novel stronger. There was one copy edit I wasn't happy with and the copy editor watered it down, interestingly the Herald on Sunday picked it up as a piece of clunky exposition and I was dying to say, "I didn't write it that way!!"
There was one piece my editor wanted taken out and I didn't, I believed it was important and I still do. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and it strengthened the novel considerably. Mind you, the editor I have at HC has been an editor for 23 years and has edited some very famous writers, she is one of the best in the business and I am unbelievably lucky.
Cheers
Julie

Thank you Julie, that's very interesting. It sounds like you had two great editors there, and it must have been so interesting to work with the HC one and see what she suggested. Sometimes when I'm reading a book which seems absolute perfection (Kate Atkinson's Life After Life comes to mind), I wonder how much editing took place, especially on the development side - it fascinates me.
Your book is next on my list; I love how the internet makes it possible to connect with the authors of books we are reading.

I'd love to know if you never thought about staying as an Indie publishing your own books?

In your National Radio interview you said you said published hoping to catch a trad publisher's eye. Why?

Never for a second, for many reasons.
I am published in Dutch, eventually in Russian and German. I am reaching far, far, far more people with a story that really matters to me, a factual story that deserves to be heard. I get about 1000% more money on every book, I retain the film rights and have an agent who can approach people with the clout to get the film made. My advance was more than the ebook had made me to that date.

My dream was to see my book in print in a bookshop. I have achieved that dream and what's more it is #4 on the Nielsen International Best Seller List for NZ for the week ending June 29th, it sold out in Australia with pre-orders before launch day so they had to order more stock to send out to bookstores, the Amazon paperback sold 6000 copies in 12 days. NO WAY on this earth could I have achieved all that as an indie publisher.

I have had the most incredible help from my trad publisher, encouragement, support, practical promotional help like posters and bookmarks and a great launch party. They took radio and print ads and Facebook ads in the US, threw their weight behind it.
Yes, I was hoping to catch a trad publisher's eye, hoping my dream would come true and it has, multiplied by about 10,000%.

But royalties have to be earned out. You've obviously written that highly original book - faction? - which will catch readers.

What's next?

I'm not sure I understand your comment about royalties. My foreign sales advances have almost cancelled out the US advance before the book goes on sale. What do you mean "faction" - sorry, I just don't get it.
I'm writing the next one, similar structure, present day NZ and wartime Italy. It is optioned.

I think by 'faction' she means fact combined with fiction ie the fictionalisation of a factual event