Once Upon a Time or How I Got an International Publishing Contract

Once upon a time, there was a girl who grew up on a farm and loved nothing more than books. She dreamed of writing a novel and, maybe someday, finding someone who liked it enough to publish it.

Unfortunately, my life wasn't a fairy tale. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. I queried and queried and queried. Rejection, rejection, rejection.

But then an amazing thing happened. My friend, Karly Kirkpatrick, turned out to be my fairy hotchickwriter (because if I call her a godmother she will probably rip me in two). She told me about this thing called epublishing and then sprinkled fairy dust on me. It worked. I was hooked! Then, with GP Ching another rockin' author from SCBWI-IL, we formed DarkSide Publishing! The we brought on Angela Carlie and Magan Vernon! Could life get any better?

Yet, to be honest with you, I still felt like I lacked validation. Did I need it? No. But it's nice to get it.

Then one day, I got a message from some random dude named Mark Williams. He told me how much he loved Anathema and asked if I would write a guest post for his blog. It turns out he was half of the outrageously popular Saffina Desforges writing team. They are bestsellers in the UK with their debut novel, Sugar & Spice.

We struck up a friendly relationship and at one point I thanked him for telling me how much he liked Anathema, particularly because he had nothing to gain from it. Mysteriously he kind of fell of the face of the earth and I barely heard from him again. Odd, that. Mark lives in Africa and I thought maybe he'd been eaten by a lion.




A month or so later, I happened to see this post. Go ahead and read it. I had a Sally Field moment: "He likes me, he really likes me!" It was a little embarrassing. Luckily nobody saw it but me. I felt like I finally had some validation and it felt good - I won't lie. I emailed Mark and asked him why he didn't tell me about this before the big announcement. He reminded me of what I'd told him a few months ago, about how his praise meant a lot because he had nothing to gain from it. Mark was afraid I would think he was trying to get a piece of my publishing pie.

I laughed. Really hard. Seriously, how could anyone take this as anything other than a compliment? Not only did a HUGE UK bestselling writer love Anathema, but he took inspiration from it to start a new epublishing business. Um, wow! (He's probably already made a bajillion more dollars, pounds, whatevs, than me anyway...as if Anathema could help him...I'm the one with something to gain here because in the last six months I think I've sold ten books in the UK.)

So, I think you can guess my big news. I've signed on with his new company MWiDP to have my ebook published and promoted in the UK, Germany, and France. I haven't been this excited about publishing or my future in it for a long time. So, thank you to Mark and his partner Saffina Desforges. You guys have made my year. I hope this partnership will be long and fruitful! What I doubly love about this arrangement is that it's so non-traditional. One of the best parts of epublishing has been blazing new paths with like-minded writers. A year ago, I wouldn't have believed any of this was going to happen.

Mark has all of these amazing ideas about my books and has been a great sounding board. He really listens to my feelings about Anathema and how I think it should be represented. Then he'll surprise me with ideas of his own - and, seriously, he has some awesome thoughts for how the Cloud Prophet Trilogy will be marketed.


One odd thing about Mark, though. I've never seen a picture of him. He lives this really mysterious life in Africa (he's told me tons about it ... so cool). I want to add him to my collage of British guys I adore, but I don't have a picture to steal a face from. So.....I did my best. ;)

Paperback SALE!!!!!

I have too many paperback copies of my books sitting in my office and instead of just staring at them, I would like to offer them to YOU!

I can fit up to 3 of my paperbacks in a U.S. Post Office Priority Mail envelope (which is a flat rate shipping fee of $4.75 plus $1.80 insurance for domestic mail - international is at least double the fee and will be calculated individually).

Wait ... where's the savings? You can choose any combination of my paperbacks (Anathema, Oubliette, or Sleepers) for $5 per book up to 3 books. Three copies of Anathema? $15 (plus s&h&i). One of each? $15 (plus s&h&i).

How do you take advantage of this? Simple. Email me your choice of paperbacks (up to 3) and I will send you a PayPal invoice. Easy peasy.

BUT WAIT ... THERE'S MORE!

I'll sign the books and include bookmarks!!!!!

This is until my supplies last, so ACT NOW! (Wow, I totally sounds like an infomercial...maybe I should have vlogged this? LOL!)

Winner of the Naming Contest!

I chose a winner for the naming contest tonight. I made a list of the top five names on Tuesday. Then I spent the rest of this week staring at that green sticky note. All but two names remained today. For hours I agonized over which name to choose - it was totally ridiculous! I even considered hosting a secondary contest and letting my readers decide because I did not think I could do it.

Then I worried that wouldn't be fair. After all, I had promised to choose a name. I hate going back on a promise. After a few more torturous hours, I finally settled on the name Zuri.

Why? Well, obviously I already loved it. Plus, I have a thing for the letter Z. I think it will fit the character perfectly too. The winner is Stephanie Overton. She won an enticing sneak-peek paragraph from Severed, 10 bookmarks, being thanked in the acknowledgments, and an eARC of Severed (which will be delivered in November). She also got an email from my personal account (this is what I get for prepping an email while I'm also getting my kids ready for bed). As most of you know, Megg Jensen is a pen name. It's not like I'm trying to live a super-secret life. I'm readily found on the web as a parenting journalist. It's my intention to keep journalism and publishing my novels totally separate. What if you wanted to look up my books under my real name? Well, a web search could result in an article on baby poop or the death of a pet. If you're curious about my pen name, read more here.

Some of you may have seen Stephanie's name pop up a lot around me. She's a reader and one of the sweetest people I've met on the web. She's pretty damn funny too. If you're wondering what the second name was ... well ... I'm not going to say. I don't want to make anyone feel bad because no one likes to come in second place.

I do want to thank all of you who took the time to enter. I don't know if you realize how much I appreciate your interest. I really, really, really do. Tons. Thank you.

A New eBook!

This week I released an ebook with a few short stories. Some of these stories have been published in national magazines (don't worry, I retained my reprint rights...never sign everything away, people!) and the rest have been published in various places on the web.

None of them are fantasy - all of them are geared toward an 18+ audience. They're a departure from the young adult novels I write.

If these stories are so different, why did I put them out? I created this ebook months ago, but held off on publishing it until a few people started bugging me about it. I'm not going to do a promotional blitz, no giveaways, no free copies for reviewers.

The word count is just under 9,000 words and runs less than fifty print pages.


Introduction

I have quite a few short stories sitting on my hard drive and I thought some of you might like to read them. I’ve included only about half in There’s Orion. I took some out because they were too personal, others because I really don’t like them anymore.

You might be surprised to see that all of these stories are your everyday, average adult stories. No fantasy among them at all. I do have some fantasy stories that might surface in a short story collection in the future...but not today.

There’s Orion gives my readers a more personal look into my life. Some of these stories come from an intensely private place inside me, which is why I chose not to introduce each story individually. I’ll let you wonder which are inspired by my real life.

You’ll find some of these stories amusing, and it’s possible one or two might bring a tear to your eye. Oh, and as a word of warning, Just Desserts is a bit harsh and contains some foul language. I considered leaving it out of the collection in order not to offend, but then I realized leaving it out would destroy a grain of truth that I feel everyone should experience.

I hope you enjoy these shorts on a quiet rainy day or when you’re snuggled up in bed. You may not realize it, but this collection is a gift straight from my heart. I don’t claim them to be of a high literary quality. A few were published on the web in the Friday Flash community. Some appeared in national magazines backs in the late 1990s, when I wrote under a different name and lived a very different life than I lead now.

Peace out,

~Megg

If you're interested, you can purchase There's Orion at Barnes&Noble or Amazon.

Name a Character & Win a Prize!!!!

It's that time again. I'm stumped on a character name and I need your help!!!!

It's a minor character in Severed, but she's important. She's evil (probably). She's huge (definitely). She's ugly (seriously).

Her name cannot end in an 'a' or have an 'l' in it. Weird, I know, but there's a reason in my crazy little brain.

Here's what you'll win:

(1) My undying thanks in the form of a mention in the Acknowledgements in Severed.
(2) Ten Sleepers bookmarks to do with as you please.
(3) A one-paragraph sneak peak at Severed. It could come from anywhere in the novel, but it's sure to entice!
(4) An ARC of Severed....to be delivered sometime before November 25th, the official release date.

I will choose the name I like best by October 7th and notify the winner!

The contest will run now through October 4th, midnight CST. You may enter as many times as you like by commenting below. Please leave a way for me to contact you!!!! Must be older than 15 to enter, must have parent's permission to accept prize if you are younger than 18.

Did Megg Really Say That???

Wow, this is a topic I never thought I'd be dealing with. Twice in the last month, things I've said over what I thought were personal emails were taken completely out of context and splattered on the web for all to see. Before I tell you how I feel about this, let me tell you a bit about myself.

For six years, I was a freelance journalist. I interviewed thousands of sources for magazine articles and tried to handle each source as if they were the most important person in the world. I wanted them to trust me because so often journalism takes a quote and twists it simply to create buzz. This sickened me and after six years, I was done. None of my articles exploited anyone, but seeing the pressure out there to sensationalize took the drive out of me. I didn't want to be associated with the industry. The further along I got, the more defensive sources became. I felt terrible because I knew at one point they'd been mishandled by another journalist, giving them a bad taste in their mouth when it came to new interviews.

About 2/3 of the way through my journalism career, I signed with an agent for a nonfiction book on a topic very close to my heart. The project was meant to be a prescriptive book, a step-by-step telling of how to achieve a successful adoption. The farther I got into the project, the more my agents changed the scope of the book. They wanted it to be more sensational. They wanted gut-wrenching, super-private stories to come to life. I felt my sources shutting down on me, getting more wary each interview because they knew, as I did deep down, that the book was spiraling out of control. It was never my intention to write an expose. I wanted to help people, not exploit other's pain to sell books.

I backed out of the contract and received the harshest email I've ever gotten from the agency. Saying that I cried for hours would be an understatement. I swore that day I'd never take on another book project. Obviously that didn't stick.

Back to present day. Now I'm on the other end of the interview. That's fine; it's part of my job as a novelist. However, twice now, people quoted me from what I believed were personal, chatty emails - not part of any kind of interview. Both times the blog posts brought about confusion. People were angry with me, thinking I'd given these bloggers my blessing - when, in fact, I didn't even know I'd been talked about until it was too late. Did I say the things quoted? Sure. Were they taken completely and wildly out of context? Absolutely. To the point where I've sworn off having personal conversations with those people. I feel betrayed.

The most recent popular example of this type of misquoting comes from an interview Brad Pitt did while promoting Moneyball in Parade Magazine. As someone who's been through a divorce with a guy I'd prefer never to see again, I can relate 100% to Brad's comments about his marriage with Jen. Anyone who's been through divorce knows that it's more about who you are inside than who you are in a relationship. That's all he was trying to say, but the media took it out of context and now everyone hates him again. I feel bad for him, for Jen, and for Angelina. They are simply trying to be normal people and be honest. What do they get for it? Quotes twisted and taken out of context. I don't care how much money he has in his bank account, it has to hurt anyway.

So if you ever see a blog post about me, and you think, Would Megg really say that? Is that what she meant? Take a moment to wonder how the quote came about. What was the source? What did I really mean? This blog is the only place I can truly speak for myself. You want to know me? You'll find me here.

~Megg

A New Design & A Call for Blog Post Ideas

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with rearranging things. Since I was a little kid, I've spent my free time rearranging furniture or bookcases or, well, anything that I could move around without getting in trouble. I've gone and done it again with my blog. New background, new banner, etc. I think it's pretty and I hope you like it too.

Severed is releasing on November 25th and I'm spending three weeks on a blog tour. I will be doing guest posts on pretty much every day and while I have some topics already lined up, I wanted to know if you guys, my readers, had any questions you wanted me to answer or any topics you wanted me to address. I'm open to any ideas!

If you'll remember, a month or so ago I put out a call for vlog ideas. I haven't forgotten about them and I do still plan to do it. September has been a flurry of writing and now that I've entered revision I have a bit more time to play with. Hopefully I'll get to them soon!

~Megg