Saturday, May 31, 2008

How About That

Well, I mailed out the contract selling "Romeo’s Kiss" to Wildside Press, and my copy has returned, signed by the publisher.

I’m still waiting on Cat Tales, volume 1 to arrive in the mail, and hoping that its sales are through the roof. I wish I knew the publication date – if it will be published at all – of volume 2 (I assume my story is in the next book; I could be wrong).

I’m also awaiting news from Graveside Tales’ Harvest Hill about my story "The Mask of Deslow Mansion." Their submission guidelines state that they are shooting for a response time of 4 - 6 weeks for the rejections, and today is week number six for me.

That may mean my story has a good chance of being accepted. Then again it may mean the rejection cometh tomorrow.

Just one more wait-n-see.

But hey, I got two posts in this month. How about that!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Contract Concerns

It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here!

The contract from Wildside Press has arrived. I’ve always heard a watched pot never boils, and sure enough when I got too busy to stress out about it, there it was in my mailbox.

With nervous, giddy fingers I opened the large white envelope and AAAAHHHH there it was: two copies of the contract, a typeset version of "Romeo’s Kiss", and a couple of pages of information.

I read the contract slow, relishing every word, then poured into the beautiful typeset version of my story. What a feeling! My first professional contract. It’s official, "Romeo’s Kiss" will appear in one of the remaining three issues of the anthology series Cat Tales.

Or will it?

After putting down the contract and the copy of "Romeo’s Kiss" (mostly because my wife was watching and I couldn’t justify staring at the same sheets of paper for hours on end) I picked up the other two pieces of paper. One was simply explaining that they would like a bio from me and gave some examples of what information I might include.

Nothing bad there.

The second sheet of paper explained how that the first issue of Cat Tales was off to the printer and would be shipped out soon. It went on to state that the publisher was unsure of how the sales would go. If they end up being low then there is a good possibility that the last three issues will be scrapped. My story will be released and I will be free to try and place it elsewhere.

Boy did that take the caffeine out of my coffee.

You mean after all this waiting, even with a contract in hand, there still is a chance that this thing won’t come to pass? Maybe it’s just a legal thing, covering the publisher in the highly unlikely event that they don’t sell enough. Right? Surely they know they will sell enough or they wouldn’t have even tried. Right? RIGHT?

Okay, here is the plan: I need everyone to go online (I’ll supply the link a little lower) and order a copy. Here is a little reading material.

Cat Tales edited by George Scithers: "Cats and mysterious fantasy: it's a magical mix that appeals to the imaginations of young and old readers alike. The first volume of this new anthology series includes colorful new stories by authors Nancy Springer, Ann Marston, Jack Williamson, Fred Chappell and P.D. Cacek, as well as classics by Fritz Leiber and H.P. Lovecraft."

If there is enough support then they will continue with the other three issues. I believe "Romeo’s Kiss" will be in issue two. So get out there and order an issue.

Come on now. Don’t make me beg.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=cat&field-author=george+scithers&field-title=Cat+Tales&field-isbn=&field-publisher=Wildside+Press&node=&url=&field-binding=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=17&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=9