Pubhistory_8

Then came a waiting period when I did other things and tried not to think about the book. At last the word came from Firebird. Sharyn loved it, eagerly accepted it, and had great plans for it. Miracle of miracles, money came. I had a good contract, a good book, a great agent and a legendary editor. I already had websites up and a MySpace page.
I was home free. I would get to work with the wonderful Sharyn November and together we'd create the best Ratha book ever. The series would come roaring back, with beautiful new covers (scroll down on the link page) and an exploding readership. Maybe even achieve a place on the bestseller lists, challenging Warriors and Harry Potter for the top Y/A spots.
Well, I'm not going to go into excruciating details, but it didn't quite work out that way. The first hint that all was not well at Viking-Penguin was a slowdown in communications. Next a delay in editing. I tried to push things along by writing a critique of my own work as a guide to improving the book. Thanks, they said, very helpful, don't call us, we'll call you. I did my own edits and revisions on the novel, sent in the fresh manuscript. More waiting, more silence, more doubts. Surely they couldn't be back-pedaling on someone as co-operative and full of initiative as my wonderful self?
Meanwhile, the Firebird reprints began appearing; Ratha's Creature and Clan Ground in Spring 2007. The covers were gorgeous, the first reviews enthusiastic. They were on Amazon.com, and through Amazon on sites all over the Internet. I actually had a book on Amazon! Within a few months, Creature had corralled 30 five-star Amazon customer reviews; (42 now) Clan got 10. Authors of MySpace spotlighted the series. I set up two websites and got a flood of emails. Things were starting off like a cheetah after a gazelle.