Without a doubt, the best news this
week is that Transworld has offered Marcia another two-book contract.
For those of you who don't know how all this works I will explain. If
you do know, please skip the rest of this section.
The whole cycle takes two years. At the
beginning of year one, Marcia starts brooding on a new book. She has
no contract for the publication of this one so it a complete act of
faith. Having brooded, travelled around finding locations, listened
to all the voices, travelled down a number of dead ends, been
thrilled when things start coming together and driving her long
suffering husband completely mad, she starts writing. That will be in
or around month four. The next six months are spent in the actual
writing of the book.
The first port of call for the
manuscript is Marcia's agent, Dinah Wiener. Dinah may or may not have
some suggestions to make which she feels would improve the book. If
she does, then Marcia will work right through making alterations as
she thinks fit (for she does not always agree with Dinah's ideas).
Once Marcia and Dinah are happy, the book is sent to Transworld and
we all sit back biting our nails waiting to hear whether or not the
manuscript will meet the approval of her editor, Linda Evans. There
are a number of options. The first is that the book is turned down
flat (although this has yet to happen to Marcia), the second is that
Linda wants to see some major alterations to the book before agreeing
to accept it. The third (and this happened this year) is that Linda
is quite happy to go ahead straight away – but that does not mean
that there will be no issues to deal with later.
Once the editor is happy, a
presentation is made to the Acquisitions Committee. This will include
some people from marketing, sales and accounts as well as the editors
and they will have available all Marcia's sales figures as well as
the manuscript. Assuming the committee agrees to publish, Transworld
will make a two-book offer. We are now probably in month nine or ten.
Shortly afterwards, Marcia will receive
Linda's 'editorial notes' which will offer various ideas – again
for the betterment of the book. Once more, Marcia will work through
the manuscript. She very rarely makes the exact changes that the
editors request but she takes each comment as a pointer that
something needs to be improved and she will ensure that each point is
dealt with.
Once the manuscript is accepted, Marcia
can relax and start to allow herself to relax. With any luck there
will be a month during which she can chill out and build up her
reserves. Meanwhile, the spotlight turns on me. In order to give
Marcia a decent break between books, I do the majority of the work on
the copy edited manuscript and also the proof reading when the time
comes. The job of the copy editor (or line editor as this person is
called in the United States) is to ensure that all the punctuation is
correct, no grammatical errors, no stylistic errors such as
unintentional word repetitions and that there are no mistakes of
fact. This last can mean real facts – such as the author mentioning
the Statue of Liberty in London – or fictional facts – such as
the author talking about a two-year old seven months after the child
was born. Yvonne Holland has been Marcia's copy editor for many years
now and she is first class. My job is to bring to Marcia's attention
and suggestions Yvonne makes which I feel may not be acceptable.
There are very few of these, I should add, but the author always has
the final say.
Then, at the start of year two, the
whole process is repeated. The only difference is that now Marcia is
working to a contract – something that she takes very seriously
indeed. The last thing she wants is for the 'second book of the
contract' to be in any way inferior to the first.
* * * * *
*
Another country – another contract.
Marcia wrote four books under the name
Willa Marsh. Willa is the spiky, rather cynical and definitely
naughty side of Marcia and these books were published by Sceptre.
Incidentally, it was as Willa Marsh that Marcia was reviewed in The
Times.
Few years ago, a French Publisher –
Éditions Autrement Littératures – decided to publish these four
books. As of today, three are out and the fourth is in production.
One of them, as I mentioned a while back, has caught the attention of
a French film company and they have bought the rights and matters
appear to be progressing satisfactorily.
If you want to watch a French television presenter talking about Willa in what, I am pleased to report, is a very positive and enthusiastic way then click here. He is, of course, talking in French which may put you off.
Anyway, EAL would have liked Willa to
have written more books but she hasn't. So, they have started reading
some of the ones Marcia wrote and have picked on The Children's Hour
– but only on condition that it is written by Willa. After a
lengthy and serious discussion, Marcia and Willa have now agreed that
this may be the case.
Marcia's French agent, in an email to
Dinah said, "Editions Autrement, part of Flammarion, have had
considerable success with her Willa Marsh titles. They want to
continue to publish some of Marcia's novels written under her real
name, beginning with THE CHILDREN?S HOUR of which they say: They
think French readers appreciate the "Willa Marsh qualities"
(tight plot, lightly cynical humor, tenderness for her older
characters)."
Marcia is especially pleased with the
bit about her older characters!
