One helluva ride

I’ve been in a lot of things that have broken … a boat, a plane, a car, a recycling bin (yes, a recycling bin can become an accidental mode of transportation, especially if it has wheels and you fall into it … but that’s a story for another post) … but my ride through the world of publishing is, by far, the wildest one I’ve ever been on.

My publisher, Endeavour Press, has broken down and closed up shop. As of March 9th the English editions of the Lee Smith Mystery series will be “unpublished”.

I used to think that term meant you hadn’t had a book published yet. Apparently, I thought wrong. It can also mean that your publisher has gone poof and the English editions of your published books are temporarily no longer available for sale.

I didn’t like being “unpublished” before I actually became published and I wasn’t jumping for joy when I found out that I was going to be “unpublished” again.

However, unlike when that word first applied to me, I am jumping for joy that I can also use the word temporarily in the same blog post.

My amazing literary agent, Peter Buckman, is talking to several other publishing companies about having Lee (and me) bring our stories into their houses. And he’s told me to hurry up and finish writing the fourth Lee mystery, Wave Goodbye.

And One Way Ticket is still going to be published in two new languages by Euromedia in the Czech Republic and IKAR Publishing in Slovakia – more info coming soon.

You know … this publishing business? It’s a lot like a roller coaster ride. You send out your manuscript, ride over a lot of bumps (and rejections), then reach a crest and glide through a smooth patch when a top literary agent offers to represent you, try to catch your breath when you fly up to the peak of publication (an especially high peak when it’s a three-book deal!), then all of a sudden you feel your stomach rise up as you drop back down when your publisher pulls out from under you.

Then again, I’m Canadian and the Winter Olympics just ended so maybe a more appropriate analogy would be to say it’s like swooping up and down in a half-pipe?

Welcome to my ride!