I must give a huge sigh of relief that things are working out. Sure, I was really P.O.ed that that editor at Crescent Moon just pussy-footed around my asking her if she was going to take a look at the whole manuscript. Obviously, she saw it as too much work--editing wise. Which is fine. She never "got back to me", as she kept on saying she would, and I was not going to keep on knocking at a door that seemed to be closed to me.
After 5 weeks, I nearly caved. But that was when I lost my Internet. The interruption was probably my only salvation from actually crawling to this editor. That and a 10-day vacation out west. I had been contacted by a POD, telling me that they were interested in my book, Vampire Ascending. I had hoped to get on at the eBook publisher, Crescent Moon, but I had fears, from the e-mails I was getting, that they would turn my book into a paranormal romance. Probably change the theme, and the title, and I'd be stuck with it. My book is NOT a paranormal romance. It is an urban fantasy. I think there's way too many paranormal romances out there, and a slue of romance writers jumped on the vampire band waggon and saw that they could make a fortune writing for the paranormal scene.
If that's what you're into, fine. That's nice for you. I am not a romance fan. Never was. I had tried to write a fiction about Native Americans, once back in the '90's, when "Indian Romances" were in vogue. I couldn't publish it, I'm sure it was because I was unable to write it in the lock 'n load style of romance.
It was during this time--the late 90's, early 2000's--when I wanted to go back to writing my vampire fiction. I tried to get an agent to take my "Vampire Legacy" novel. At the time there were very few people doing vampire books. It was not a genre unto it's own. Anne Rice was doing her thing, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was going strong, too. But I got rejections, one after the other.
Then along came J.K. Rowling, and the fantasy was renewed for me. I wrote my self-published book Spell of the Black Unicorn, and did alright with it. I wrote the sequel, but the money that I wound up earning with it didn't give me incentive enough to spend another $350-$400 on self-publishing.
Then I heard about one place which did not charge an up-front fee. So far I have not seen anything wrong with the publisher, or the contract. The publisher is called Copper Hill Media.
After struggling with the idea of trying to find an eBook publisher, or an agent, I decided that at 56, I'm tired of playing games. Agents don't like my writing, and apparently I've struck out with the only eBook publisher I contacted, and don't wish to spend months on going through that whole thing again.
So, my book Vampire Ascending, has been accepted by Copper Hill, all I have to do is deliver the book via a disk, they will send me the signed contact, and I will read that over very carefully, make sure that they didn't change it too much and I'm not in danger of having them charge me something I didn't catch--other than when I make an order for the books.
I'd like to say I'm excited, but I'm not there yet. My first book was exciting, but I felt that I couldn't have done things differently, and I don't want to make the same mistake and send this one out too soon. I didn't see anywhere that I could make corrections for free in their contract. I have been offering a free editing (which is a far cry from the weasels I contacted at the beginning of the year. They were going to charge me 2 cents per word to edit. I told them forget it! I may as well self publish!
And so, this is where I am now. I'm happy about this decision. At least my book should be out some time this fall. I just need to get through the edits and I should be ready to send it out in a week or so.
