Tag: Agent Pam

Another Book Deal!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

12_16 2I know, right? My cup totally runneth over!! The other shoe has finally dropped and it’s a Manolo Blahnik stiletto – maybe those ones with the red soles.

Because, as excited as I am about doing the Phantom e-serial – and wow, I can’t believe I announced that exactly two weeks ago, it feels much longer – this is even bigger and better.

Like three-book contract bigger.

Like I get money up front better.

Like PRINT, beyotches!!!

Ha! I may be running around giggling like a madwoman. When my mom asked me if this is what I’d been working toward all these years, I had to say, why, yes. Yes it is. All those Christmases when my family asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told them “a lucrative multi-book contract” – well Santa finally delivered. (And yes, my family does love me – most of the time – even though I’m a smart ass.)

So, here’s the blurb from Publisher’s Marketplace:

December 17, 2012
   
  Fiction:
Sci-Fi/Fantasy 		  
Jeffe Kennedy’s The TWELVE KINGDOMS Series, three books in which the three daughters of a failing kingdom find their own magic and use that to help heal their lands and people while finding love along the way, to Peter Sentfleben at Kensington, in a nice deal, for publication in 2014, by Pam van Hylckama Vlieg at Larsen/Pomada Literary Agents (World).

This is the same editor who acquired the Phantom story. He read and loved The Middle Princess, which faithful readers of this blog will likely remember me writing. I’ll be doing some revising on that (though not much, Peter thinks – yay!) and turn that in by May 1. Then book 2 is due 11/1 and book 3 is due 5/1/2014.

Let me tell you, it feels really weird to have a 2014 deadline. “Hey, Jeffe, do you have plans for April, 2104?” “As a matter of fact…”

Please also note that these books will be classified as Fantasy. I am officially a Fantasy Author as well as a romance author. I’m all pleased with myself. Also, the books will be trade paperback (and will be available in digital, too), which is extra fancy. They don’t love my title (alas!), so that will change. We’re just kind of calling the series “The Twelve Kingdoms” for now. Which is probably for the best, because when I get emails from Peter with the subject line “Princesses,” it kind of cracks me up.

Of course, that just fits in with the whole giggling-like-a-madwoman thing.

I am beyond lucky.

New Book Deal!

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

This is that same sunrise, which has turned out to be a fabulous omen.

I’m excited, thrilled and delighted to announce that the fabulous Agent Pam has sold a project to Kensington Books for me!!

Here’s the blurb from Publisher’s Marketplace:

 Digital: Fiction: Women’s/Romance

Jeffe Kennedy’s MASTER OF THE MASKS, an update on the Phantom of the Opera set in Santa Fe with BDSM, to Peter Senftleben at eKensington, in a three-book deal, for publication in 2013, by Pam van Hylckama Vlieg at Larsen/Pomada Literary Agents (World).

The title will likely change, but it will be a very fun and sexy update of the Phantom legend. The story will be told in six installments and will launch Kensington’s e-serial line. (The very witty Carolyn Crane thinks I should ask for a t-shirt in my contract that says “Flagship Author.”)

I talked to Peter on the phone yesterday while we thrashed out details and ideas. I think he’s going to be great to work with – he also loves spreadsheets and New Orleans. (He went to Tulane, Mom!)

So, I’m just all giddy and excited and I’m probably forgetting to tell you half of it! Ask me questions!

Sunrises, Serendipity and a Tease

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

X

At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

~ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

I know, I know – I’m forever quoting that poem, but when I see a sky and a bird like this, that line always comes to me. Those bawds of euphony always kind of annoyed me, too.

There’s an element of serendipity to so much in life. Like getting a cool photograph – it’s not really something you can plan for. This morning’s sunrise bloomed with exceptionally intense reds, oranges and pinks. But I don’t always go out to snap pics. This morning, though, David needed to charge his MP3 player before we went to the gym, so I had some time to kill. Then I saw a crow sitting in the big cottonwood by our neighbor’s house, thought of Laura Bickle and her crows, and decided to go back in for my telephoto lens. The bird then obliged by winging through the molten sky for me. I got six or seven great pics – most of which you’ll undoubtedly get to see here over the next couple of weeks.

I know, also, that getting these photos is a result of other long-term efforts – from all the saving and sacrificing we did over the years to enable us to have a home in this place, with these views, to the time I’ve invested in learning to take pictures, and acquiring that telephoto lens.

The last couple of days have brought some great news into my life. I know it’s a total tease, but I can’t say much yet. Still, I’ve been on the phone with Agent Pam the last couple of days and she’s lining up a new publication deal for me. I get to talk with my new prospective editor on Monday and it feels like everything is really coming together. Sometimes I wonder if Pam is disappointed when she calls me with news and I don’t scream or make other high-pitched noises.

Thing is, it feels much like getting a great photograph now. I’ve put in years of effort to get to this place, where all I need is serendipity – and Agent Pam’s enthusiastic hard work on my behalf – to bring it all together. When she tells me the good news, I don’t feel wild excitement. I feel a deep satisfaction. That resonant sense that what I want most is coming true.

It feels good.

So, sorry for the tease, but stay tuned – official announcement should be coming soon!

Serendipity willing.

Picking Your Dream Agent – as Likely as Finding Your Dream Man

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Ah, the Dream Agent.

You know you’ve heard writers use the term. Hell, I’ve heard agents use the term. There’s this persistent idea in the publishing world that an up and coming writer should make a list of the qualities they want in an agent and, through dint of much research, develops a tiered list of desirable agents, presumably with the Dream Agent in the number one position.

Presumably this research includes the agents’ track records of sales, clients, social interactions, reliability, integrity, agency agreements and just general lovability.

It’s not that writers shouldn’t do this research – they absolutely should – but much of this is romantic silliness and not business.

Seriously.

You know what it reminds me of? Those girlfriends I had in middle school who made lists of their Dream Man. He would be rich, kind, good sense of humor, nice hands, works out, reads, loves cats and likes to walk on the beach Sounds great, right? And how many of us ended up with this person, this unicorn of a lover?

Arguably no one at all, because this isn’t about reality. This is the dream. The fantasy.

Dreams and fantasies are great – they keep us vitalized with possibility. But at some point you have to face reality.

We learn this when we start truly dating instead of making hopeful lists. Over time, over dinners and coffees and cocktails and gritty morning-afters, we discover that these dream lovers are all just people. Some make more money than others. Kindness is relative and not necessarily the best quality without a leavening of self-preservation. Maybe he reads, but he likes nonfiction and you don’t. The Dream Man list goes out the window.

Instead, you develop the Dealbreaker List.

I truly believe in this. Part of knowing ourselves is learning what we can adjust to and what’s a Dealbreaker. For me? Jealousy is a dealbreaker. Don’t love cats? Major problem. Won’t or can’t rationally discuss problems? Dealbreaker.

Because finding a life partner is really a quest to find a person who fits with you, who enables you to do in life what’s most important to you, you start discovering what qualities you need for that – and which qualitieis you simply cannot live with.

And this, my friends, is how it should be with finding an agent, too.

A gal contacted me the other day. My agent had offered her representation and she was asking after my experience, which is truly just fine. I’m happy to do that. However, she included a laundry list of questions for me to fill out. I don’t know about you guys, but I look at an email with a long list of things for me to answer and I want to hit delete. But I read through them, because I do like to be helpful, and it struck me that this was the Dream Agent list.

My first response (okay, second, after wanting to hit delete) was to wonder why she’d queried my agent at all if she had these concerns. Then I wondered if she was really ready to have an agent at all. She seemed to be asking if everything would be perfect and she’d never ever regret this decision. She wanted her Happily Ever After with the Dream.

Thing is, and I can’t say this enough, signing with an agent is agreeing to a business deal. They hope to reap rewards from selling your work and you hope they’ll sell you bigger and better than you can do on your own. It’s as simple as that.

If I compared my agent to a Dream Agent list, she would not ring every bell. That was okay with me because she brought qualities to the table I wouldn’t have known to put on a list. More important – there were no dealbreakers. Besides, we’re not getting married. We can break up if it doesn’t work out. We’re working together, developing our rhythm, seeing what we can do between the two of us.

Just like any relationship.

Oh! And for the record – I told the gal asking that I’m very happy with Agent Pam.

But I didn’t fill out the list.