Dreams Do Come True – I got THE CALL

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:

February 11, 2014
	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