Good news or bad news first?

I’ll start with the good news, since the bad news overrides it. Tate Publishing accepted The Magic Telescope for publishing! Yay 😀

Bad news: I have to turn them down.  For one thing, I don’t have $3990 for a publicist.  They did say the would work with me somehow on that, but an author friend brought these websites to my attention:  

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2007/02/happy-valentines-day-from-writer-beware.html

http://www.thelostogle.com/2012/06/05/10-things-ive-learned-about-tate-publishing-ceo-ryan-tate/

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/forum/1000026/what-do-we-know-about-tate-publishing

http://www.writers.net/forum/showthread.php?111452-Recent-experience-with-Tate-Publishing-company-out-of-Oklahoma

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/misc/tate_publishing.html

So now I have mixed feelings. I mean on the one hand, I know an author who was published by them and loves the company. I’ve seen her book and heard her positive experiences so far.  But she hasn’t sold enough books to get the refundable retainer for their publisher back yet.  I hadn’t really expected them to accept my story, since it’s the first publisher I’d sent it to, so I hadn’t delved too deep and researched them yet.  I was looking forward to what they had to say. I guess I was expecting something a little more detailed about what they liked and if they felt anything needed work, etc., but all I got was a generic letter of acceptance.  But hey, I’m new to this, so I really don’t know what to expect.  Maybe if I accepted, that letter would come later. Nearly $4000 is a lot of money to just hand over to someone, especially when you have a family and other responsibilities to consider.  I’d definitely need to do some more research and quiz them on some things.  But since I don’t feel comfortable even working on some kind of plan for the retainer, I’m just gonna pass for now. So I’m happy/sad about the whole thing.  As much as I don’t want to, I think I’ll end up getting a literary agent, if I can find one who is willing to represent me. Back to the beginning. Sigh…  

Fingers Crossed!

Ok, so I met a super nice lady at Chick-Fil-A, I think I mentioned her in my last post, Ms. April Dobson.  She is the newly published author of Adventures of Tally the Turtle: Tally Moves Away  , former military, and a fellow Mississippian. Y’all should check out her book, my son loves it. I have to read it three times every time we read it :). I had already checked into her publishers and she was nice enough to take the time to talk with me about them.  I’ve been corresponding with one of their acquisitions editors and submitted one of my stories to them yesterday. Wish me luck!!! I’m a little nervous about it.  Even if they aren’t interested in my work, I look forward to hearing any comments/criticism they may have. I will keep you posted on that.

Another thing I want to share with you this morning is a new, brilliant, super awesome e-magazine, The Paperbook Collective.  It’s a “creative collaboration of work from around the world” and available in pdf or online through ISSUU. You can read it online or print it to read later.  I admit I skipped around some and haven’t read it in its entirety, but what I did read was just, well, awesome and put together very well.  I especially liked:

When Reading Turns Deadly by Hadas Nahshon, pg. 8

The World Darkly by John W. Howell, pg. 15

A Stair Case by John Arthur Robinson, pg. 26

Elephant by Jade Ashe, pg 45

The magazine includes author biographies and a submissions form on pg. 48 if you’d like to submit your own work.  I plan to do that soon.  You can find out more about it at The Paperbook Blog, which I also am fond of reading.

I’ve been making a special effort to make time for writing everyday.  Not so easy with gorgeous weather that beckons you to drop all responsibilities and soak in the sunshine and scents of summer before winter reaches out with it’s frozen, spindly fingers and withers it all away. Fall is almost nonexistent here Maybe this year will be different. Anyways, it can be done and so I’ll do it! And I want to encourage you to keep writing, too. Y’all have a great day!