Selling the first book

NIGHTMARE BEFORE I SOLD

I dreamed I got THE CALL last night. My first book had sold!

I was in the kitchen and everyone in my critique group was there (this is good), as well as my whole family (this is not so good). Everyone was talking at once, asking me questions.

My blue wall phone rings. Instead of a person, it's my voice mail. One from a guy I'm dating with a phony accent who told me that we'd found my lost cat (I haven't lost a cat, at least lately). Others from magazine companies. Two from my agent, Joanne Holly Hunter (I don't have an agent, but I do have a character in my book called Holly Huntress. The character is a cat – a dying cat). Her messages were filled with static and I yearned desperately to hear them even though I knew she wanted something impossible from me.

THE SCENE SHIFTS, BUT ALL THE PLAYERS REMAIN THE SAME, AND WE'RE STILL IN MY KITCHEN.

Suddenly I have the book in my hands. I am completely thrilled. It is a Silhouette Intimate Moments (I write futuristic fantasy). The cover of the book – well, my heroine is sickly green (I hate that color) with some sort of astral projection coming out of her chest. Still, I am enthused. This is MY book that I hold in my hands, my own words, though I don't recognize the story from the back cover copy.

I look at my name in flowing pink letters (Robin Lollity. They must have been in a rush and gave me this name. And now, I can't change it because there are hoardes of wonderful readers who will love this book and won't know who to read later if I change it. Robin Lollity. Yech.)

The book has a list on the front of all the titles in this new line, Paranormal, Fantasy, and Electrifying! My name is low on the list and not highlighted. Which means it is a children's book. (I write consummated love scenes, so this worries me).

The telephone rings. My agent tells me there are only 44 copies, and all have been sent to me. I am to distribute them. I wonder whether I should send copies to the East Coast or the West, and to what book stores. And how much I'm going to make on 44 books. Not enough to quit my day job, that's for sure.

I open the books. There are many blank pages at the beginning and the end. Padding. And really LARGE type.

IT'S NOT MY BOOK! None of the characters are mine.

The telephone rings. It's my agent. Again. They sent me the wrong book. They will fax me my book. Then, I am allowed to print out 44 copies, bind them, and distribute them.

A guy I just met (one I want to impress) will help me with the fax (since I've never mastered the incoming procedure). We walk through my bedroom strewn with clothes (untrue ) to get to my office strewn with papers (true ). The telephone in my office rings. It's my agent with more bad news.

I wake up.

I shudder. It was a dream.

And I'm glad I didn't get that call. Aren't I?

TWO YEARS LATER: REALITY

I thought it was the air duct suckers. They were supposed to call Sunday night to set a time to come on Monday. Naturally I'd spent the whole day cleaning (you know how particular those air duct suckers are about the state of a house). So after a bout of vacuuming and taking the trash out, I checked the phone. It beeped. It was an editor of The Berkley Publishing Group offering me a contract for HeartMate.

This sale is to Berkley's Magical Love line. This is the first futuristic they have purchased for that line and they are trying me out. She said that she'd been looking for a futuristic for the line for a while but hadn't seen anything she wanted before HeartMate.

This particular offer happened this way. Wisconsin's Romance Writer's chapter of RWA weren't getting enough entries in the paranormal
category of their contest, so they advertised on the Futuristic Fantasy & Paranormal loop. A lot of us entered. I won. (I didn't think I would, I thought I'd take 3rd.) This contest is interesting because it only asks for the 1st 10 pages, no synopsis. I reviewed and revised my ms. and sent it to the editor at Berkley with big permanent marker letters on it "Awarded 1st Place in the Wisconsin Fabulous Five Contest".

This was in May. I did a follow up letter in November. (Having revised the ms. for Hardshell and submitted it there-- AND having looked at the ms. I sent to Berkley and found out that in the
last 3rd of the book the hero's name was capitalized every time (**wince**). I got the letter back and found out Berkley had been
gobbled up by Putnam/Penquin (ok, I should have known this before, but I didn't). I sent an express letter (mucho dough) mid-December. I tracked it and the p.o. said they couldn't deliver it, would make a second attempt and then return it in 5 days. It didn't come back. I was convinced my ms. got lost in the move.

So goes the life of neurotic writers.

May all your writing dreams come true .