Amy Plum's Blog, page 48

Literary Lunacy in NYC (A Multi-Post Story): Part 5 (the end)

I sat perched on a stool in a studio, my back facing a green screen and my front facing a huge video camera flanked by blinding lights. To my right was a bag of clothes and shoes I had brought as options for my author interview. Erin, who was in charge of the HarperCollins shoot, had chosen the only non-black items in the bag, a plum-colored shell topped with a red wildly-patterned cardigan I hadn't dared wear since I bought it a few months before in Rio. Since the shoot would be from waist-u...

Literary Lunacy in NYC (A Multi-Post Story): Part 4

Two days later I stepped off an elevator onto the top floor of a building on Union Square. I had been working with my agent, Stacey Glick, for the last two years, but our France-to-New York communication had been entirely by phone and email. Now I was about to meet her for the first time.

I stepped through the door labeled "Dystel and Goderich Literary Management" to see, instead of several uniformed guards sitting at the front desk, a woman dressed in something pretty who smiled and told...

Literary Lunacy in NYC (A Multi-Post Story): Part 3

People began filing into the conference room. Before they sat down, everyone came up to shake my hand and introduce herself. I didn't even try to remember the names, afraid my brain might Ctrl+Alt+Del if I put it under any further stress.

Once we were about ten around the table, Tara said we could start. Most of the crowd was from publicity and marketing and the questions they asked were meant to help them position the book and dig up information that could be of interest in promoting DIE FOR ...

Literary Lunacy in NYC (A Multi-Post Story): Part 2

I stepped through the door of the HarperCollins building and gave my name to a guard at the front desk. She checked some information on a computer screen and printed out a visitor's sticker for me. "Put it here," she said, indicating a spot near my shoulder. Attaching something gooey to my brand new shirt just wasn't going to happen. I smiled innocently at her and stuck it to the side of my handbag.

A few minutes later a pretty dark-haired woman wearing cute bookish glasses and a...

Literary Lunacy in NYC (A Multi-Post Story)

Here's a confession: I have never wept in a drag queen bar. Until two weeks ago, that is.

It happened at the tail-end of a 2 1/2-week visit to the States with Laurent and the kids. We had car, train and planed it from Restigne to New York. After a few days in Shelter Island, it was back to the airport, where we took three planes to Walla Walla, Washington for my family reunion. Then back to New York for a week, where Laurent and I traded off toddler-management while the other person...

Rewrite Purgatory

Two weeks ago I turned in the second rewrite of my book – now definitively entitled DIE FOR ME. My editors acknowledged its receipt and said they would get back to me with any further tweaks or changes. At which point I changed my name and moved to Rio.

Just kidding. I am so extremely thankful for the success my book has had…before even being published. (It has already been bought in seven languages, which is so incredible to me it feels unreal.) I am profoundly grateful that the...

How I Got My Agent

A few of you have asked me to be more specific on how I got my agent. I've tried to put something together that will be of help to those struggling to find representation. However, a warning for those of you who read my blog "just for fun": you might want to stop here and wait for my next, more entertaining, installment. Because finding an agent means getting down to the nitty gritty grunt-work part of publishing. It is not entertaining. Painful would be a better word. But no pain, no…book co...

Way Before the Time of Stalkers...

It was 1989, and I had just acquired a completely useless B.A. in Psychology, as well as the resulting crippling debt. To celebrate, I decided to take my big hair, my pet rat Vivien, and my mom's Buick Century for a month-long wander through the Northeast.

I was as free as a bird except for two commitments. The first was to show up in Pennsylvania and carry a Bo-Peep basket of flowers while wearing a fuchsia bridesmaid's dress. The second was to get back to Alabama in time to prepare for...

Book Update

I got the "editorial letter" from my editorial goddesses, Tara and Catherine on February 11. To be completely honest, this complex thirteen-page synopsis of their thoughts and suggestions put the fear of God into me. A few days later I got the marked-up manuscript in the mail. At which point I decided to change my name and move to Rio.

I'm not scared of work. I'm not even scared of a boatload of work. But a boatload of work, doing a job that I've never done before (I've never had to...

How It Happened: The Scoop on My Book Deal for SLEEPWALKING

I know I've only given you the bare-bones story of how I got a three-book deal for SLEEPWALKING. Since I didn't actually put pen to paper-contract until three weeks ago, I was feeling too superstitious to go into detail about it. But since several of you have written to ask me how it happened (amongst you a few aspiring writers), here's the story.

I told you about the process of writing the book.

Well, in late August I sent a few chapters of the manuscript to Stacey, my agent. She was enthusias...