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abraxas5
Stablehand

Date Joined Apr 2006
Total Posts : 31

Posted 6/29/2006 2:51 PM (GMT -5)

I'm still in shock, so I hope this post makes sense. The publisher for my first and only novel just announced that they've decided to stop publishing young adult fiction at the end of August. Fortunately, my YA fantasy novel is due out July 1, so I've just made it under the cut-off. However, my publisher, Medallion Press, has been looking at the completed sequel to my book for the past couple of months. Because they are leaving the YA market, they will not be publishing any more of my books.

This leaves me with a huge problem. I plan for Stones of Abraxas to be the first of a five-book series. Is any other publisher going to be interested in publishing them when the first book is already out through another company? Yes, SOA has been getting good early reviews, including a comment at Novelspot.net's review that they hope a sequel is in the works (join the club!), but how much will reviews matter? Medallion is a smaller publisher, so I don't think insanely high sales figures for this first book will be likely.

Does anyone have any experience with new publishers taking over old series? Any suggestions about who would be good to query? I'm trying to find an agent now for my sequel, but I've failed miserably in the past with other manuscripts, so I'm not counting on anything.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. And if you post a reply, but I don't respond right away, I might be at a local bar. Can you blame me?

Thanks!

Kim

K. Osborn Sullivan

Stones of Abraxas

July 2006

Medallion Press

ISBN 1-932815-76-7

www.kosbornsullivan.com

carnifexpress
Sage

Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 1301

Posted 6/29/2006 4:18 PM (GMT -5)

As a publisher, there are pros and cons to releasing a sequel book...

Pro: hopefully a built-in audience who wants to read the next part

Con: readers unfamiliar with the author might be hesitant to jump into a second part of a story, kind of like going to see a part 2 of a movie trilogy without having seen the first one.

For my own company, I've published an "Azieran" novella from Christopher Heath that just came out, and he has many stories and novellas already in print but it isn't a direct sequel I suppose... I am releasing Laura J. Underwood's "The Kings Wind", which is a sort-of sequel to her short story "The Gift" that appeared in the anthology "Low Port"...

But, yes, this is a tough sell...

Let me ask you, is it imperative for the reader to have read the first book or can you try to sell it to another publisher as a stand-alone story and reference the first book instead of relying on it?

Maybe you should answer this one tomorrow, after your bar excursion...

Armand Rosamilia

Visit Carnifex Press for more information!

http://www.CarnifexPress.net

The Freehold site is now up!

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/freehold

erazmus
Master

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4546

Posted 6/29/2006 4:45 PM (GMT -5)

Kim,
You are at one of those cross-roads that life seems to love to put before us.
You can basicly abandon your series, going on to other work, you can plow on the way you've been going, more-or-less coping with the situation as best you can, you can muddle through somewhere in the middle. I don't reccommend abandoning your work, but I think I would take this as a time of opportunity, a place to pause and reflect.
Medallion will not have the rights to the first volume forever. If you can not sell the sequel elsewhere, hold on to it and sell them both together. Or all together if you decide to write the other three.
Medallion may change its mind, or some enterprising publisher who thinks they made a mistake may think they can do better. It has happened, you never know.
I think I'd start thinking about what other projects I had in mind to do, this may be a good time to start one. Success will make it easier to sell _Abraxes_ later on, or resell it, or what ever. That doesn't mean you don't finish the first series, but get something else to hand as well.
Mike

Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Two Ravens" in Amazing Journeys Magazine #9 Sept. 05
"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises

PaulMc
Adept

Date Joined May 2005
Total Posts : 992

Posted 6/29/2006 4:51 PM (GMT -5)

erazmus said...
Kim,
Medallion will not have the rights to the first volume forever. If you can not sell the sequel elsewhere, hold on to it and sell them both together. Or all together if you decide to write the other three.

If they like your series, you might even find a publisher willing to buy out Medallion's option. If they aren't going to publish any more YAs after their initial run with your novel, why would they hang onto the rights?

(I don't know much about that side of the business. I'm probably being too logical or something.)

-- Paul McNamee

My Writings
The Tales of Doran Coyle
Associate Editor, SwordAndSorcery.org

abraxas5
Stablehand

Date Joined Apr 2006
Total Posts : 31

Posted 6/30/2006 12:23 AM (GMT -5)

I'm back from the bar and ready to return to work. Thanks for the kind words.

As for the sequel, it does rely on the previous book because it has the same characters and it takes place a year after the first one ended. I provide bits in there to remind readers who these people were from the previous volume, though. You know like, "During their earlier trip to Abraxas, the Stanhopes were startled when they were ripped limb from limb by a dragon, but this time around they were more accepting of the magical land's cultural differences." (Actually, this is not a line from any of my books.)

I do have a few other projects I'm working on, and it's a good point that maybe when one of them makes me rich and famous, this series might attract more attention. The comment about rights to the first book also has me wondering.

Today over a pot of coffee, I put together some queries to agents in hopes of finding an ally in this little safari. Who knows what will come of that. I've never had much luck getting attention from agents, but you never know. The first line of the query letters I sent out was, "It's premature to say that I'm cursed."

Kim