Losing Face is on its way!

This has been a month of holidays, people coming to stay and times organising various events, but in between it all I have been signing the contract with o-books, uploading my final version of Losing Face and then reading the copy edited version that came back very quickly for me to look at.  I was impressed.  After some really helpful emails with the copy editor, I fiddled around with it a bit (it was rather difficult to leave it alone!) and it has now gone to the design stage!
Although I have had non-fiction published before, this is my first novel and it is rather complicated with emails from two very different girls trying to work through their trauma by writing down what has happened to them.   My advice?  Don't ever write a book like this - I have had two timelines running throughout and so many themes and back stories that I kept getting a little lost myself.
Having said that, if you are a writer, write what inspires you! 
So far, o-books have been brilliant.  They are not nearly as impersonal as their website suggests and they will 'listen' (via email) if you do not think their offer is what you would like.  I am now very pleased to only be paying for some extra advertising services I want, despite this being my first novel and therefore a risk to them.
So watch this space for a publication date.  My next challenge will be to sound like a teenager when doing readings!  I never thought about that when I wrote in the characters' voices . . .


Annie

To sign, or not to sign?

[This was written on 12th July - but my blogging skills lack some refinement, so I have just discovered it lurking in the place where all good drafts slumber - or waft annoyingly, depending on your spelling!  Still, better late than never, so here are my thoughts from the middle of last month:]

Some exciting news reached me last week, via my Blackberry.  My internet connection had gone haywire, so I have spent a whole eight days with only my little Blackberry screen to read.  But there it was - the offer of a contract to publish 'Losing Face'!  I scrolled up and down, back and forth, reading the email until I was sure.  Amongst all the moving images as I scrolled, I realised there were strings attached - in the form of money to pay for some of the services the company offered.

So my dilemma remains - in a slightly different form.  This is not self-publishing - they have now agreed that they will pay for all the publishing element - but it is nevertheless costing something for distribution and advertising.  But maybe I should invest in it?  If I don't believe in my book - who can?

Those of you who know me can imagine that I am now thinking about it a great deal and praying.  I know there was a reason to write this book and that somewhere, somehow, it will be published.  Is this the way?  Some of you will have noticed that I am plaguing published friends (and even strangers!) to find out their publishing stories.  I am astounded at how many others have had to contribute something to costs.

So to sign, or not to sign?  Watch this space . . .

Annie