Copyright © 2005 by Blake Charlton. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, reposting, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission of the author.
To: the people I love enough to bother with my whiny, first-time author woes
From: Blake Charlton
Subject: "The News with Blake"
Date: 30/3/2006
...is very frustrating news. To save me from having to retell this story to every one of my nearest and dearest I'm just going to zip all of you a copy of the correspondence between my agent and the Doubleday publisher. Jason is good enough to say nice things about my MS, but because he isn't "jumping up and down" it doesn't look terribly likely that he will make an offer. Still, keep all appendages crossed for me...anything is possible.
So, viola, now you'll all know why I'm in a nervous twit when I get around to calling all of you. This means we can do away with my discombobulated explanation of said authorial situation and cut straight my discombobulated fretting about the uncertainty of said authorial situation! Oh...joy!
Hope this finds all of you well and combobulated.
All my love,
-blake
>>>>>>>>>
>>> To: Me
>>> From: Matt (my agent)
Blake - FYI
This could go either way with Jason......still some nice compliments, no?
>>>>>>>>>
>>> To: Matt
>>> From: Jason (the editor at Doubleday)
Hi Matt -- MORE than fair. I'm really sorry I've been out of commission for the last week, but things around our house are starting to return to normal! I just picked up the manuscript and continued reading last night, and I should be finished in a day or so. I'll hold back judgment until I finish, but I must say I'm VERY impressed with Blake's imagination and writing, and even though the story has some dips and rough spots, I think he's really talented. I'm excited -- I just want to finish now that I have back some version of concentration... Thanks for being patient! Jason
>>>>>>>>>
>>> To: Jason
>>> From: Matt
Hey Jason-
So - here is what I propose. I will wait until the end of the week to get some signal from you that you want to get the wheels rolling or have a conversation with the author, etc....in other words, some next step sign. Otherwise, I will start going to market. Is that fair? I just don't wait to have it exclusively with you for a long time and find out that you're passing anyway. OK? I know it is a long book though so I don't want to be unfair. But I figure if you are jumping up and down you would be letting me know.
Well - hope you have been enjoying it.
M