Tales in Publishing:
I'm expecting...a book!
I'm thrilled to announce the upcoming publication of my debut novel, but I'm holding off on too many details until it's in print. At this time, I'm pleased to give you some of the behind the scenes process thus far. My novel Apidae will come out most likely towards the end of next month although the exact date is not yet finalized. I don't want to give too much away, but I'll give you the pitch of the book that got publishers interested:
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| Artwork by Krista Gargano (not official cover) |
What happens if bees go extinct? In the not so distant future, scientifically
modified Emlyn and Ace find themselves thrown into the role of saviors on a
perilous mission where their tenuous relationship could save or destroy
mankind.
In the beginning, I pitched on Twitter and got a lead from the publishers of my novella (TIP: #Pit2Pub Path). Next,the publisher requested my query and manuscript, and then I waited. This is normal. Some publishers ask for anywhere from four weeks to six months to peruse your manuscript and sometimes they want exclusivity, meaning you cannot send it off anywhere else. My publishers wanted twelve weeks and boy was I happy to hear back in two! I got commendations for my premise which honestly was born of a conversation with a neighbor at the pool one day about the honey bee being endangered. A plot instantly hatched in my head. A lot of research later, I changed my mind about bees (still hate the useless evil wasps and hornets though). The plight of bees gave me a backdrop and plot device for my novel. Although this book will have romance, and it's in a possible dystopian future, there is a little bit of altruistic eco-fiction buried in, and a touch of sci-fi. I'm hoping it raises a bit of awareness while entertaining people.
Forgive me, I digress. Thus far, I've signed my contract and sent in info about possible ideas for the cover artist to show me some options. Then it really was a waiting game to get the novel back from the editors, fix what they said, fix additional things I found as well, and soon I'll be turning in a large amount of info from dedication, thanks, and marketing materials.
And now again, we wait until they pull it all magically together for me and start promoting the novel. So stay tuned for the upcoming cover reveal and my first attempt at making a book trailer.
I hope it entices you to stay tuned and grab your own copy. And after the book is out, I'll release my query letter as a model for aspiring authors.