Ten years ago today on Monday, November 17, 1997, I received The Call. The Call is what unpublished writers dream about. At least, I did. It's that much anticipated phone call telling you an editor wants to buy your book. I thought it might be fun to look back at that day with some emails I sent out telling people about selling my first book.
This is the email I sent to my beloved group of friends known as The Goalies. We'd been together for years (and are still together today!)
I just got the CALL from Mary-Theresa Hussey. They want to buy Fiance For the Night!!!! My heart is just pounding and my fingers are trembling.
More later. I have some phone calls to make!
The next day (I'm guessing after I made all those phone calls!) I sent this email to the now defunct RWALINK that was an email list for a group of RWA members.
I just wanted to let everyone know that I finally got The Call! I sold a manuscript to Silhouette Yours Truly. It was quite a wonderful, exciting day and to top it off last night I felt my baby move for the first time in my stomach! Doesn't get much better than this!
Melissa McClone
By Thursday November 20, 1997, I had recovered enough to post this details of The Call to the RWALINK. Though I'm sure the Goalies and all my friends on the AOL Series Board had heard this by now.
I posted details of the call on AOL and thought some of you might want to know that as Russ mentioned that I wasn't as restrained as my post announcing the sale on RWAlink. Far from it *g*
And thanks for all the congrats. I've tried to answer those posts outside of the Link. Sure hope I haven't forgotten or missed anyone!
Here are the details of the call. Feel free to skip or delete:
I got the call a bit after one o'clock on Monday. One of my kittens, Rocket, was crying for no apparent reason so I had picked him up to quiet him so we could eat in peace. I'd just set him down when the phone rang. After Mary-Theresa said it was her, she said she had some bad news. I'm thinking she's telling me they rejected my book and the only reason she's calling is that it took so long (16 months) for them to get to it, but she goes on to tell me that she hasn't had time to read my newest ms. That is there. I got confused because I had just called her a week and a half ago for a status check and knew she hadn't read it. Then she says but everyone who needed to read the 16 mo. ms. has read it and they'd like to buy (don't remember the exact word cause at this point I started to freak out.) My heart was pounding like a jackhammer and I couldn't breathe. I also started jumping up and down. How I managed this while almost hyperventilating I'll never know. I asked for a minute which I leaned around the corner and told my dh that they wanted to buy my book. His questions: "Who?" "Which one?" Managed to calm down a little and get enough oxygen in my lungs so I could actually put a sentence together. I truly thought my chest would explode. She asked if I wanted to discuss the terms. I said something along the lines that I'd like to write them down and then call her back after I had a chance to review them. She said no problem. She told me the advance amount, asked if I wanted a pseudonym or not, when revisions would be due, review times for them, months to publication, option clause. I scribbled it all down and said I'd call her back tomorrow. I was having a really hard time thinking straight. We spoke a little more, but I don't remember much of it. *g*
On Tuesday I called back around 9 am my time (Oregon). We spoke about the contract terms. I get to use my real name--Melissa McClone--which I'm really happy about. Also found out the revisions are pretty minor. She described them as surface tinkering. I received the letter last night and they are pretty minor. Thank goodness. *g* Release date will probably be sometime in 1999.
So that's the story.
And for those who are interested: Baby's release date is on or around March 31, 1998. We had an ultrasound, but choose not to learn the sex. We wanted it to be a surprise.
Melissa McClone
It was funny to read my account ten years later. Hard to believe that baby in my tummy just lost another tooth and is nine! Rocket is no longer a kitten, but still cries so I'll pick him up. The part I remember most clearly was hubby telling me to stop jumping because I was going to go into labor yet that didn't make it into this version. I wish I had the post from the Goalies loop because I'm guessing that one had more personal details. Oh, well. This is better than nothing! And I must admit, I'm surprised I even found this version. I never saved a copy for myself.
Yesterday hubby plugged in my old Mac 7200, and I went on a hard drive scavenger hunt. Find file was useless, but it did lead me to a folder in AOL 4.0 where I had saved each and every email sent to me after I made the call! I had so much fun reading through each one. Some people I had never met. Others I had read. A couple were unpublished them, but award winning authors now. In that folder were also several RWALINK digests with congrats on them, which is probably why I saved them, and on one of those digests is where I found my call story. And I could have swore I sold the book on a Thursday, not a Monday so that was a big surprise!
Looking back on the ten years, I have been very fortunate with my writing career. Both Silhouette and Harlequin have been good publishers. I wish I could have traded in a couple of covers, but I've had excellent editors who've made me a better writer and given me so much freedom with my stories. Whether it was a gold-digger heroine, who even my editor had doubts about, or a spirit/ghost added to a continuity because it was the only way I could fix the problems I was having with the set-up, I've always been able to write the stories I wanted to write. My upcoming December release, inspired by my fave reality TV show, The Amazing Race, is just another example of this. As well as my current work-in-progress set on Mount Hood. I can't forget my awesome literary agent Annelise Robey with The Jane Rotrosen Agency who I signed with in 1999. She's been so helpful and supportive with my juggling writing with the demands of young children.
I feel both blessed and lucky to be able to write and raise a family at the same time. I've been able to pursue my dream of writing romances in a way I never thought possible until November 17, 1997. My hope is everyone gets that call-of-your-dreams for whatever it might be you want!
Where were you ten years ago? What was going on in your life then?
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