Cooler weather is here and my editorial assistant goes straight to her heated butt warmer every morning.
May Update
World Rights
Here we are again.
Before we begin, Harper-Collins Australia (after being reminded for more than a year) finally and cheerfully gave me back the Australian rights to the entire nine book series – including audiobook rights, so I own the Australian rights to all nine books and the audiobooks. Bolinda audio have already been in touch with me about that.
It’s a long story, but Harper-Collins UK own the world rights for the first six books of the ‘Dark Heavens’ series. Ask me in person if you see me about this saga, because it’s a wild story.
UK has agreed to give me the world rights back on the first three books, and the audiobook rights back for the first six.
They’re withholding the book rights on the second trilogy – books 4 to 6 – ‘because it’s still selling’.
The obvious nuclear option is to put them on blast on socials asking people to stop buying them, but I won’t. I’m seeing a lawyer on the 19th about it. I will keep you updated.
Harper-Collins US own the print and audiobook world rights for the final three books in the series and they haven’t responded at all. (Not to me, by the way, to Harper Australia. They don’t respond to another branch of the same company!)
Cover Illustration Project Grant Progress
I’m in the process of compiling a list of possible Australian emerging illustrators to contact if and when my ‘Emerging Artists Showcase’ grant is approved. Many thanks to the fans who suggested illustrators for me!
I’ve been informed by the grant committee that I’ll hear from them by the 5th of June.
Wish me luck.
‘Dark Heavens’ Progress
If you own a digital copy of ‘White Tiger’, you’re probably aware that the formatting is all over the place. Multiple lines of dialogue are all on the same line throughout the book. This is because it was first released before digital books were a thing, and Harper-Collins plugged the final print .pdf file into InDesign (or something) and saved it as an .epub, completely screwing up all the formatting.
It has been a HUGE job (in between publishing books for my self-publishing clients) to fix all this formatting. Book 1’s formatting is particularly heinous.
At the same time:
- I’ve put back a little vignette where Emma uses her skills for the first time (at Dreamworld). Looking back, this little story item should never have been removed.
- I’ve ramped up the sexual tension. With glee. I’ve learned a great deal since book 2, and I’ll be shifting some stuff around to make the sex scene much more consensual.
- I’ve added some foreshadowing for later plot points in the series that I completely wasn’t planning at the book 1 stage. (I originally planned for Emma to be John’s Serpent but that kind of became a bit too obvious.)
In fact, when I was writing book1 I thought the entire series would be three books altogether. My fault for not being able to stop talking.
Back to work! Some of the books I’m currently working on with my self-publishing business are ‘family history’-type memoirs and these are so rewarding to produce.