What On Earth Takes So Long? Behind the Scenes from Book Contract to (not quite) Publication

Since I signed my publishing contract with Howard in February I've been asked a few variations on the question of "Why is it taking so long for your book to come out?" So today, for all of those who wonder why on earth it takes fourteen months (in my case) to go from contract signing to book publication, I thought I'd share a little bit about what had been going on behind the scenes :)

February: signed contract - hurrah!

March/April
Macro edits (also known as developmental edits). This was the point where I got a twelve page memo from my editor with overarching comments like "your heroine's character arc needs strengthening" and "I'd like you to think about changing X part of the plot to Y" and "I think you should consider removing X characters and replacing them with Y type of characters". I got four weeks to pull Close To You apart, apply her comments, and put them back together again :)

May
Line edits. This was where my editor went through the whole book line by line and made specific comments about each scene. And I did more rewrites :)

May/June
Cover and title development. We started with over thirty potential cover options and quickly narrowed it down to a short list and then the preferred option.

July
Line edits round #2: After I'd gone through my editor's line edits and submitted my changes an associate editor then went through the book again and made her comments line by line and I got to do it all over again :)

July
Cover and title finalised. It starts getting real...

August
Copy edits: In this edit a new editor went through at a very detailed level. She specifically looked at sentence structure, spelling, continuity issues, grammar, and fact checked everything. I went through and answered a whole lot of questions, okayed most of her changes and explained why I didn't want to accept others.

September/October
In the US sales teams sell into retail six months in advance. At this point Close To You went into the Howard/Simon and Schuster sales catalogue for the sales team as one of they Spring 2016 books to talk to retailers about.

October
First proof edits: this is the first time I got to see what Close To You will look like typeset as a book. Hurrah! After so many edits you'd think there wouldn't be much left to find? Wrong! I flagged up almost 200 changes that needed to be made.

October
Galleys sent to potential endorsers: Last week my publisher sent copies of Close To You to five authors who we are hoping will read it and, if they like it, write an endorsement to go inside the front cover. This is particularly important when you're a debut author so some readers will take a chance on you based on if another author they like recommends your book.

At the same time as all of this I've been writing Book #2 that is due in this month, getting my website designed, growing my social media presence, doing my "real" day job and chasing after my two pre-schoolers, among a range of other things :) Oh, and eating quite a few of these...

Over the next couple of month there will be a final set of proofs which will be signed off to go to print. Then, early next year the publisher will send copies to book reviewers in the hope that some will review Close To You in April when it comes out.

In February-April there will be a whole range of marketing activity to try and generate interest in the book and encourage pre-orders (which are really important but that's a whole different conversation!). And then FINALLY on April 26, Close To You will officially be released!

So that's the process (as I've experienced it!). Every publisher is different but would love to answer any questions and chat about the last eight months and what is still to come!

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Close To You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. It will be an April 2016 release from Howard Books. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer and Twitter @KaraIsaac

Which Writing Hill Are You Going To Die On?

In December last year I got the news that every writer dreams of. After years (and a few more years) of experiencing every high and low that comes with being an aspiring author my agent had received that call from Beth Adams at Howard Books. Since I found out via email as I was about to start a meeting for my “real” job I also had to try and be present there for an hour when all I wanted to do was scream, hug everyone in the room and possibly break out into a jig.

Over the last six months I’ve had to keep it secret for three, handed my baby over to my amazing editor and survived developmental and line edits, talked cover ideas, growing my platform (good news – it’s so small it can’t actually get smaller!), had author photos done, wrangled with the IRS, and started writing my second contracted book that is due in October.

So I thought it might be fun to share the biggest thing I’ve learned as a New Zealand author with a US based team…

Know Which Hill You’re Prepared to Die On

Characters, plotlines, physical characteristics, title, there’s very little in your story that it out of the realms of possibility of getting changed, even when it’s contracted.

As a New Zealander, there is not much that gets me more peeved than reading New Zealand (or Australian, British etc.) characters who aren’t authentic. Most often this involves American versions of words or phrases or using products that aren’t even available in their country.

Then There Was You, my debut romantic comedy, is set in New Zealand and Allie, my heroine, is New Zealand born and bred. The one thing I wouldn’t move on was anything that would turn Allie into an American version of herself.  There was no way that she was ever going to pick up trash (or use a trash can), drink soda (or pop), use ketchup or put gas into a car.

Fortunately, my incredible editor got this. While we’ve had to make a few changes to avoid confusion or replace products that Americans wouldn’t know with more generic terms, Allie has very much retained her “Kiwi” identity. As we’ve worked through edits, there have also been some entertaining conversations via “comments” as she’s gone “I don’t understand this?” or “What is this product?” or “To a US reader this is going to mean this” and I've said "A New Zealander wouldn't say this" and "We don't have dimes in New Zealand!" and "A Kiwi would never do that!" . My absolute favourite was a scene in which I mentioned that there was a pot plant in a hotel room. To me this meant, well a plant in a pot, apparently to some US readers this would read that the hotel supplied cannabis! 

Knowing which hill I was prepared to die on made the rest of the process a whole lot easier. Everything else was up for grabs in pursuit of the strongest possible story!

So let’s talk… what’s made you cringe the most when you’ve read a character who is supposed to be one nationality (or from a certain place) and who says or does something that is totally off kilter with that? Or have you ever read something that in your world translated as something completely different to what the author would have intended? If you're a writer do you know which hill you're prepared to die on when it comes to your story?

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Then There Was You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. It will be an early 2016 release from Howard Books. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Writer and Twitter @KaraIsaac

When Writing Dreams Come True + Giveaway

Phew! The secret that I had to try and keep for almost three months is out. Last week I finally FINALLY got to tell the world that I've signed a two-book deal with Howard Books/Simon & Schuster. The first book, Then There Was You, is a romantic comedy about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. So I'm so excited to be able to share on the blog today about how it all happened :)

I'm going to be honest. Of the four manuscripts I've written, none have broken me quite the way that Then There Was You did. I started writing it in October 2013 after a conversation with an editor at a writers' conference. I was six months pregnant. Nine months, and a new baby later, I finished it in July 2014.

I literally have no idea how it got written except to say that God carried me. What I remember from the time of sleep-deprived, new baby, haze is a lot of tears, a lot of being talked off the ledge by my amazing writing sisters, a lot of staring at the screen with nothing to write, dreaming up various ways that I could kill Jackson and Allie in a blaze of romantic glory, and a horrible weight that if IF I ever finished it, it would be the manuscript that convinced Chip, my agent, he had made a truly monumental error of judgement in signing me.

And then, somehow, there were 90,000 words on the page. Not only that but, when I read them, to my utter amazement they were pretty good. And once my wonderful sister and writing sisters were through with them, they were better than good. And so, in mid-July, off they went to my agent and the editor who I had had that first catalyst conversation with.

Honestly, I wasn't holding my breath. I knew that the publishing house that editor worked for wasn't currently acquiring contemporary romances and I really didn't think any one else would be interested in it. After years of being told to write stories in America, that international settings didn't sell, here I was pitching a book set in New Zealand about Tolkien and Lord of the Rings of all things, and into a super tough publishing environment against so many other amazing books.

This was the worst part because some of those other amazing books are written by my best friends! I had read their awesome, award-winning, writing. I had critiqued it. I had helped them make it even better so it could beat me! I didn't even ask Chip what other houses he had submitted it to because I was terrified the answer would be that no one else had wanted to see so much as a sentence.

Fast-forward to mid-October. I'm on holiday with my family and get an email from Chip forwarding an email from an editor at Howard saying she loves my proposal but has a few questions. I almost fell over. Howard? The same Howard that publishes some of my favourite authors not only has it but might be interested?

Questions were answered, every word scrutinised, just in case that one particular word might cause her to change her mind. Or worse, a misplaced comma, my particular specialty. Then came a Skype conversation. Then a week waiting in agony for another meeting to discuss my book again.

That meeting was Wednesday 3 December, New Zealand time. Tuesday 2 December in the USA. The best I was hoping for was news that my book might be progressed to the next step in the publishing decision process. I kept telling myself that I probably wouldn't even hear anything that day.

After a morning of meetings, I walk into my next one with fifteen minutes to spare. My writing sisters are checking in frequently, "Anything? Anything yet?! What about now? Now?"

I check my emails. Tell myself not to hold my breath. It's 4.45pm in New York. 1.45pm in Oregon. 10.45am in New Zealand. Even if they have made a decision the editor probably hasn't had a chance to tell Chip yet what it was. Even if she has, he definitely won't have had a chance to email me.

Then my screen flashes. An email from Chip with the subject line "BIG news!!!"

And then, underneath it, in tiny little evil italic font, where the BIG NEWS SHOULD BE are the words "Unable to download email from server."

I try again. Same message. And again. Same message. My colleague walks into the room. I try to act normal and not like the DESPERATE CRAZED WRITER WHO CAN'T ACCESS THE EMAIL THAT MIGHT BE ABOUT TO CHANGE HER LIFE THAT I AM.

I text and Facebook my writing sisters that THERE IS AN EMAIL! I CAN SEE IT BUT I CAN'T READ IT. They make so much virtual noise I think they might melt the internet.

And then, as the people who we're meeting with walk into the room and the meeting begins, the email downloads. Before the screen fades out I catch the words Call... Howard... two-book deal.

I have endured some long stretches of sixty minutes in my life. Labour. Right up there. Trying to finish a marathon while struck down by a tummy bug. Pretty high on the list. But that meeting. Longest sixty minutes ever.

I finally escape Writers' Hades and call my husband. Then my sister (who doesn't answer and who I need to do some screaming on my behalf since my husband offers the to be expected low-key guy response). I buy lunch. For some weird reason something that I don't even like that much. I call Chip. I'm pretty sure my colleague thinks I'm having some kind of family crisis because I bail on our next meeting and keep ducking into meeting rooms to make phone calls. I call one of my writing sisters who is also woefully lacking on the screaming front because it might wake her children. I text another one. Facebook the others. Finally talk to my sister. Who is very obliging with the screaming.

I email my parents at some point. Three seconds later I remember that my father is the worst secret keeper in the whole world and email him back telling him to shhhhhh. Too late. He's already told every living creature in the vicinity. Fortunately he lives in Cambodia so it doesn't matter.

And then I head off for my next set of meetings and try and maintain some sort of facade of normality and productivity for the rest of the afternoon :)

And then, finally, ten weeks later, with all the contractual ts crossed and is dotted, I get to tell the world. To celebrate today I'm kicking off the first ever giveaway of Then There Was You because i get author copies to do cool stuff like that with (which you won't get for about a year but trust me, I'm awesome with spreadsheets, I will keep track of who you are and one day in early 2016, when you're least expecting it, it will show up in your mailbox!). Just leave a comment with your email address and the winner will be announced in the weekend edition :)

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand where she spends her days working in product management and being double-teamed by a ninja preschooler and his baby sister. By night she writes romantic comedy and still can't quite believe that the world will get to meet Jackson and Allie in 2016. She loves to connect with writers and readers on Twitter and Facebook