So I finally received the formal notice that the rights to Avery McShane have been reverted back to me.
Now what?
Well, the plan is to market the first three books in the series (including the original) as a package. That much I’ve already told you in an earlier post, and I’m working on it. You’ll hear more from me on all that down the road.
What you may not realize, however, is how long this process may take. To illustrate just how long, check out this blog post of mine from almost exactly 9 years ago. I’ve edited the original a little bit to make it more relevant to this post.
Looking Back (First Keystroke to Publication)
With three days to go before Avery McShane is released by Bloomsbury Children's Books in the U.K., I decided to look back and assess how long it took to get to this point. Here are the cold, hard numbers:
From the my first keystroke as a writer
:
- to release date of Avery McShane: 1,114 days (or 3 years, 1 month, 18 days)
- to Avery McShane book deal: 595 days (or 1 year, 7 months, 18 days)
- to signing up with my first agent: 491 days (or 1 year, 4 months, 6 days)
You see, Avery McShane was not the first manuscript I started. That honor fell to Paleopeople, which I have completed several times. Or at least I thought I had, until my agent sent me back to the keyboard again. I only started writing Avery McShane while I waited for my agent to read and review Paleopeople.
Here are the numbers from the first keystroke of
Avery McShane
:
- to release date: 869 days (or 2 years, 4 months, 16 days)
- to book deal: 320 days (or 10 months, 16 days)Here are a few more tidbits:
- From first Query Letter (for A/Mc) to Book Deal: 272 days (or 8 months, 29 days)
- From first Query Letter (for A/Mc) to release date: 821 days (or 2 years, 3 months)
Obviously, not in any particular order, but you get the idea. For the record, it seemed much longer. These numbers will probably not mean jack to a non-writer, but they are the kinds of numbers any new, aspiring writer might find of interest. Good thing I never really gave it much thought. If I had, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have kept going. But I did. And now I have three more days to go. Drop in a bucket.
And now it starts all over again…