July 26, 2006: La donna e mobile

Don't worry: I won't make you look it up. It's from Verdi's opera, Rigoletto. It means "The woman is fickle." And, if you envision the publishing game as a woman, then she is the most fickle of the bunch.

Before you hear in the street, I will not be publishing any new work with Kensington-Dafina any time soon. The following is an excerpt from THE E-MAIL from my agent:

Kensington will not be offering for the option books.

Reason: The publisher did not feel the sales of the first two titles supported further investment.

The above means that the publisher chooses not to exercise their option for my third book.

I'm surprised that I'm discussing this in this blog. I am, by nature, a rather private person. But I do believe there's no benefit in keeping secrets. Everything that's done in the dark will eventually come into the light. Plus this industry is so incestuous. One person is an editor one place, then, give it a few years, and she or he has hopped over to another publishing house. Which, incidentally, is what happened with the Executive Editor of Dafina, who is moving on to greener pastures.

Of course, I was not pleased, at first, as you can well imagine. After all, being a published author has been my dream from since I was eleven and writing bad Mills and Boon knockoffs about inauthentic lives and characters. So, I was excited when I thought the search was over in 2003, and I signed my first book deal.

But hey, the one enduring thing we know about life is that it goes on. Kensington-Dafina will still be publishing Back to Life and What You Won't Do For Love, and I, personally, am proud of the numbers that the bulk of my efforts have generated. I also think about folks who I admire, who've had setbacks and have rebounded fabulously. Here's the list, which is not, by all means, comprehensive:

• 1962: Decca Records passed on an offer to sign a group consisting of four young guys from Liverpool. These four men formed a group called The Beatles. Decca, incidentally, passed on the Yardbirds and Manfred Mann
• Columbia Records let the recording contract of one Alicia J. Augello-Cook lapse. Ms. Augello-Cook, better known to us as Alicia Keys, went on to win countless awards and to sell millions of CDs worldwide.
• 2001: Mariah Carey. Glitter. 'Nuff said. Flash ahead to 2006. The Emancipation of Mimi. Killer chart-topping success. Three Grammys.
• 2003: After selling on 10,000 copies of each of his three previous books, Dan Brown dropped The DaVinci Code, which smashed publishing records like an Idaho potato.

I tell myself, from the examples from experience and from popular culture, that this is the ebb and flow of life. It certainly is not the end of my publishing career. Unlike just five years ago, there are so much more venues within which a writer can publish her fiction, which is very encouraging. I think of my colleague, Leslie Esdaile (L.A.) Banks, who is published simultaneously with FIVE major houses.

Plus, I have a base of all of you faithful fans out there who vibed with the socially conscious relationship fiction that I'm putting down. And I reiterate -- I am grateful to each and every one of you who put your cash on the barrel with gas at over $3.00 a gallon, movies over $10.00, and all other examples of the inflated cost of living in Dubya's America.

I thank God for you every day.

And now, as my agent is fond of saying: More to follow...