Cate Meredith's Blog, page 2
August 5, 2012
Wouldn't it be interesting if...
One way I come to learn about new books, or make a buying decision about books I'm familiar with, is through my Goodreads feed. Friends - and sometimes strangers - will give a rating to a book that will cause me to click it, find it on Amazon, and either buy or not. Since I am a profligate book buyer, I tend to buy anything that catches my fancy. So maybe Goodreads could have a feature that shows how many times books have been bought based on your recommendation. I think it would be valuable to know who and what is driving book sales from Goodreads.
Just a thought.
Just a thought.
June 8, 2012
I've Finally Joined 2012
I bought the Hunger Games, finally. I'm eager to see what the fuss is all about.
I just could not bring myself to buy it at the height of the Hunger Games madness when every person you met - young or old - was reading it, when everyone was discussing the movie and whether Jennifer Lawrence was the correct choice for Katniss. There was some societal pressure there that just felt weird to me, and I resisted. I waited until it passed, barely, and then bought it. I'm eager to see if it lives up to the hype.
I just could not bring myself to buy it at the height of the Hunger Games madness when every person you met - young or old - was reading it, when everyone was discussing the movie and whether Jennifer Lawrence was the correct choice for Katniss. There was some societal pressure there that just felt weird to me, and I resisted. I waited until it passed, barely, and then bought it. I'm eager to see if it lives up to the hype.
May 27, 2012
The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey - A Note On How To Begin A Story
I'm midway through The Blade Itself by Marcus Sakey. Like all his books I've read, this one takes off like a shot. I have literally never found anyone who knows how to start a book better than Sakey. He grabs you right out of the gate and yanks you into the story. Sometimes the tension is so intense I have to put it down and go do something else just to break it up into manageable morsels.
I'm in awe of this dude's skill. I trust his voice, his plotting, and the details about Chicago bleed genuine through the text. Though I'm only halfway through with this book, I highly recommend.
I'm in awe of this dude's skill. I trust his voice, his plotting, and the details about Chicago bleed genuine through the text. Though I'm only halfway through with this book, I highly recommend.
May 25, 2012
At Any Cost
My new romantic suspense, At Any Cost, is now available at Amazon.
The decision to publish it myself was not an easy one. I'd written it with the intention - and dare I say certainty - that it would be traditionally published. At first, it certainly looked like it was going that direction. My agent loved it but saw the potential for it to be even better, so we worked over the course of a spring to get it in shape to send out. Our first round went to six publishers. Three rejected it. One - Mira - asked for a re-write. One didn't answer right away. The other one never gave any response. I jumped on the opportunity to do a rewrite-and-resubmit. When she rejected it, I was crushed but undeterred. And anyway, she suggested we send it to a different editor. When we were rejected again, I put the book away and got to work on something else.
Then one of the original publishers came back and asked for her own r-and-r. She loved it. She passed it to her editorial director, who rejected it.
By this point, I knew that this version was the best version out there and that I didn't want to re-write it. I had emotionally moved on to other projects. I'd written two new books. But I also didn't want to just let the book linger. My agent suggested that I hold on to it, certain that after another book sold, it would be easier to sell my backlist. But life moves so quickly; I was afraid the references would become aged, that the book itself would begin to sound stale. That is what happened with my book, God's Country, which had almost the same exact route as At Any Cost. So, determined not to let the book languish, I published it myself on Amazon.
It has been up for less than a week and is selling better than I thought it would, considering it has no marketing behind it and it doesn't have a super-fancy cover, like most romantic fiction does. To compensate for my rather inferior Photoshop skills, I made sure to put a pretty explicit summary on the Amazon page. That summary is almost an exact copy of my query letter.
I am not sure if I will self-publish any more large-scale works. I really want the traditional publishing contract. But for now, it is nice to feel like at least some people are actually getting to read my work, instead of letting the manuscript die a quiet, dignified death in my sock drawer.
Happy reading!
The decision to publish it myself was not an easy one. I'd written it with the intention - and dare I say certainty - that it would be traditionally published. At first, it certainly looked like it was going that direction. My agent loved it but saw the potential for it to be even better, so we worked over the course of a spring to get it in shape to send out. Our first round went to six publishers. Three rejected it. One - Mira - asked for a re-write. One didn't answer right away. The other one never gave any response. I jumped on the opportunity to do a rewrite-and-resubmit. When she rejected it, I was crushed but undeterred. And anyway, she suggested we send it to a different editor. When we were rejected again, I put the book away and got to work on something else.
Then one of the original publishers came back and asked for her own r-and-r. She loved it. She passed it to her editorial director, who rejected it.
By this point, I knew that this version was the best version out there and that I didn't want to re-write it. I had emotionally moved on to other projects. I'd written two new books. But I also didn't want to just let the book linger. My agent suggested that I hold on to it, certain that after another book sold, it would be easier to sell my backlist. But life moves so quickly; I was afraid the references would become aged, that the book itself would begin to sound stale. That is what happened with my book, God's Country, which had almost the same exact route as At Any Cost. So, determined not to let the book languish, I published it myself on Amazon.
It has been up for less than a week and is selling better than I thought it would, considering it has no marketing behind it and it doesn't have a super-fancy cover, like most romantic fiction does. To compensate for my rather inferior Photoshop skills, I made sure to put a pretty explicit summary on the Amazon page. That summary is almost an exact copy of my query letter.
I am not sure if I will self-publish any more large-scale works. I really want the traditional publishing contract. But for now, it is nice to feel like at least some people are actually getting to read my work, instead of letting the manuscript die a quiet, dignified death in my sock drawer.
Happy reading!
