I can finally answer that most magical of questions we
writers ask each other: “What were you doing when you got THE CALL?” (“The
Call” is that amazing moment when an editor/or your agent calls to say,
“we/they want to buy your book!”)
I got THE CALL after work, and I was doing two of my fave
things: Listening to The Brother Kite
and playing World of Warcraft.
Earlier in the week, my agent, Richard Curtis, had called to tell me
that we had “a nibble” on Empress Game, my space opera. Titan Books was apparently interested, and
they wanted to know if Empress Game was going to be part of a trilogy. The
honest answer? I have no idea! I’d lost a little faith that Empress Game would
be “the book” that I sell to a major publisher, and had already moved on to
working on a new epic fantasy novel. I hadn’t thought past Empress Game as far
as space opera was concerned.
But hey, if you’ve got a publisher’s interest, you better be
ready with something!
So I scrambled to come up with 2 book blurbs that might be
possible for books 2 and 3 of a trilogy. My two critique partners, Diana Botsford and Jen Brooks were a tremendous help. I
called them in a panic, saying “I have no ideas!” and they helped me to realize
that of course I had ideas, I just hadn’t considered any of them seriously yet.
The two blurbs were sent and I held my breath, waiting to
see if Titan Books was more than just “interested.” When my agent called me two
days later with THE CALL, he surprised the heck out me, but not for the reason
you’d expect. Here’s what he said:
“I haven’t heard back from Titan yet. I’m calling because Ace
Books made an offer on the trilogy.”
I might have fainted.
I definitely said “Holy shit!” (Real professional of me,
right?)
So that started off what would be a tense wait. Richard
brought the offer over to Titan Books to see if they wanted to counter-offer.
One week of intense nail-biting later, I got more amazing news…Titan wanted the
book too!
I definitely fainted at that point.
Negotiations ensued, and now I can proudly say, I am the
newest Sci-Fi author of TITAN BOOKS!
Here is the announcement of the deal as it appeared on
Publisher’s Marketplace:
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February 11, 2014
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International rights:
UK Fiction |
Rhonda Mason's debut EMPRESS GAME, the first in a space-opera
trilogy, in which an exiled psionic gladiatrix goes undercover to fight and
free her homeworld from imperial occupation and discovers she holds the key
to a galaxy-wide struggle for political domination, to Alice Nightingale of Titan, at auction, by Richard Curtis of Richard Curtis
Associates (world English).
Translation: Baror International Agency
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