My career is officially croaked.
Mar. 29th, 2006 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseWell, I just got word from my editor at Roc that Apocaylpse Array is being remaindered. You can no longer buy any novel length fiction by Lyda Morehouse (in this country, anyway).
My writing career is far from over, but I feel like this is a kind of major milestone.
My books are dead.
It’s funny, because I went into writing with a pretty good sense, or so I thought, of how the publishing industry works. I understood that getting a book published by a major New York publishing house was a miracle. I knew I’d have to do most of my own publicity, despite the major publishing house’s support. I’d heard was nearly impossible to make good on an advance. Yet, somehow I thought things would be different for me.
For a while, they were. Archangel Protocol had a bit of good fortune. A late-breaking review in Romantic Times. Two awards -- staggered over a two-year period (one early – the B&N Maiden Voyage Award, followed by the Shamus at the end of the year). I earned out my advance, which I’ve been led to believe is fairly unheard of for a first time novelist. And, I guess, since that book lasted the longest of nearly all of them, it continued to garner some butt-kicking viral marketing.
The second book did less well.
And so on.
And, even though the final book in the tetrology won second place for the Philip K. Dick not enough people continued to buy it to make housing it in a warehouse in New York cost-effective.
I always knew that was a possibility. Yet, here it is, a mere five years after I started and all my books are gone.
It’s not that I expected things to be easy, I just thought, somehow, it wouldn’t be quite so fast. I thought my fifteen minutes of “fame” would last a bit longer.
Plus, I feel like I did everything right, you know? I put out a book a year. I wasted a lot of money on advertising my own work. At the end, when the publisher didn’t even want to spent the penny it costs them to put out a galley, I MADE MY OWN and sent them out so the book, at least, would get a few advance reviews. Plus, and perhaps more importantly, I worked my fingers to the bone trying to make sure each book not only could stand alone, but that each successive book was stronger and better written than the last.
None of it helped.
The only reason I’m surviving at all as a writer (though under a different name now) is because I was willing to say, “Whatever it takes” to my editors and to roll with the punches. I never acted the diva. I never cried. I never wailed or gnashed my teeth. I never demanded or tore my hair. And, I think that’s why when things were bad my editor was willing to say, “here’s what we can do....”
So, I say:
My books are dead!
Long-live my books!
My writing career is far from over, but I feel like this is a kind of major milestone.
My books are dead.
It’s funny, because I went into writing with a pretty good sense, or so I thought, of how the publishing industry works. I understood that getting a book published by a major New York publishing house was a miracle. I knew I’d have to do most of my own publicity, despite the major publishing house’s support. I’d heard was nearly impossible to make good on an advance. Yet, somehow I thought things would be different for me.
For a while, they were. Archangel Protocol had a bit of good fortune. A late-breaking review in Romantic Times. Two awards -- staggered over a two-year period (one early – the B&N Maiden Voyage Award, followed by the Shamus at the end of the year). I earned out my advance, which I’ve been led to believe is fairly unheard of for a first time novelist. And, I guess, since that book lasted the longest of nearly all of them, it continued to garner some butt-kicking viral marketing.
The second book did less well.
And so on.
And, even though the final book in the tetrology won second place for the Philip K. Dick not enough people continued to buy it to make housing it in a warehouse in New York cost-effective.
I always knew that was a possibility. Yet, here it is, a mere five years after I started and all my books are gone.
It’s not that I expected things to be easy, I just thought, somehow, it wouldn’t be quite so fast. I thought my fifteen minutes of “fame” would last a bit longer.
Plus, I feel like I did everything right, you know? I put out a book a year. I wasted a lot of money on advertising my own work. At the end, when the publisher didn’t even want to spent the penny it costs them to put out a galley, I MADE MY OWN and sent them out so the book, at least, would get a few advance reviews. Plus, and perhaps more importantly, I worked my fingers to the bone trying to make sure each book not only could stand alone, but that each successive book was stronger and better written than the last.
None of it helped.
The only reason I’m surviving at all as a writer (though under a different name now) is because I was willing to say, “Whatever it takes” to my editors and to roll with the punches. I never acted the diva. I never cried. I never wailed or gnashed my teeth. I never demanded or tore my hair. And, I think that’s why when things were bad my editor was willing to say, “here’s what we can do....”
So, I say:
My books are dead!
Long-live my books!
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-29 09:12 pm (UTC)I deeply regret hearing that these books are now officially out of print, because now everyone I threaten with dire consequences unless they read your work will have to seek out used bookstores, which may increase their sum of joy on earth but will do nothing for your bank balance.
I assume that distribution/publishing rights now revert to you. If so, have you thought of setting the series up as electronic books and making them available online? They are too good to disappear forever.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-30 07:44 pm (UTC)So, no. They still retain the copyright on the AngeLINK series.
However, my agent is clever. She's already mentioned considering persuing other avenues for my books to continue -- like an Omnibus edition or some such. I'm sure they will come back "into print" in some format or another. Just not for some time.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-30 09:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-29 09:19 pm (UTC)Long-live my books!
Don't know what to add.
It's a strange business.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-29 09:20 pm (UTC)To Greater Success this time!! And Multiple Lives!
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 07:11 am (UTC)You're a pro, Lyda. And now would be a good time for the rest of us to order a book by your alter ego.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-30 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-12 10:49 pm (UTC)BTW, hi! I've friended you. I didn't realize you were on LJ. (I do know where your alter-ego lives, though.)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 07:01 am (UTC)You did everything right, Lyda -- and more. It's just a bizarre business.
May we all have a longer life in our next incarnation, whatever it may be...
no subject
Date: 2006-04-13 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-16 09:46 pm (UTC)Long live your books!
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 01:28 am (UTC)Thass some scary shit, yo.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 05:28 am (UTC)I really do wish you all the best of luck in getting some more books out there in the future.
And hey, maybe you'll develop a cult following and the demand will bring your books back into print. It could happen!