Beate has posed the question this month.
Over the years several of our Avalon authors have had the great good fortune to be given a contract to write two or three( or more) books. What does this mean? Are the books written and presented in one go? Are they contracted on a proposal? Are they linked as a series? What sort of deadline are you given?
Can any of our multi book contracted authors fill us in?
8 comments:
Since I'm the newest recipient of this honor, I'd be happy to fill you in on the details. I originally discussed the idea of three stories about three sisters to the Avalon editor last July. She loved the concept and asked how much I had written. The first story, I assured her, was complete. She requested the full story on the first and a brief blurb about the other two.
Earlier this week, Lia called me to say they wanted to publish all three stories! In fact, I received the contracts in today's mail.
It's an amazing feeling.
In the past year and a half, I have sold several multi-contract deals. Because I already had books published, I sold all of these except for one on just a proposal and blurb about the other books. This does, however vary from publisher to publisher. With my Avalond eal, I had the first book done and plans written down for the other three--all career women in the 1890s.
Thanks for posting Gina and Laurie Alice.
Is there a timeframe for each book in the series? A friend has a 3 book deal with another (large) publishing house and after the first which was already written they wanted the second and third (100k) books a year apart. She'd sold those on proposal. Yikes!!
Right now, my contract states a deadline of September for the edited and revised edition of Book I, with "TO BE DETERMINED" on the contracts for the other two books. I think, like Laurie Alice said, it depends on your publisher and your relationship. Since I have a track record with Avalon, they know they can count on me to deliver a quality work within a reasonable time frame. (Which means, I got a lot of writing to do!)
I didn't get a time frame with Avalon, partly becasue of editor switches, but with Barbour and Revell, I had varying timelines. Barbour, which are shorter books, I had a year to write all three, none of which were written. With Revell, I have a year between each book, and I have two series with them.
Thank you very much for your answers. I have a feeling that several-book-contracts are best if you are a full-time writer, as otherwise, your day job might make it difficult to manage tight deadlines . . . on the other hand, if you know what you can do even with your day job, and your publishers accepts this . . . then it's a good thing!
Thanks to everyone who shared their experience. I imagine it's easier to discipline yourself to writing every day when you already have that contract in hand. Right?
I always try to give myself a deadline, whether or not a story is contracted, but my self-imposed deadlines can always be adjusted. In this case, I'm already hard at work writing so I won't fall behind. So...yes. There is a difference!
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