Author: cjconnollybooks

Part of the publishing process is ceding control of aspects of your work that you've become attached or accustomed to. And I'm fine with that. I wanted to get my work traditionally published by a publishing house (or somewhat untraditionally, in the case of Joffe Books), and I know that I'm essentially selling my book… Continue reading For the love of a good title

Two great things have happened since my last post. 1) I was in the UK for a while over the holidays, and because my new publishing house is in London, I had a chance to meet my publisher for coffee. In person! And 2) I just signed my contract, so now I can officially start… Continue reading A coffee and a contract

I'm so happy! Six years after I started writing my debut novel, three years after finishing it, and 18 months after I got an agent, I have accepted a book deal from a UK publisher. Eek! It's not signed yet, as the contract is doing a back and forth between my agency's contract lawyers and… Continue reading We have a deal!

My book journey has been so quiet, it's been nearly a year since I last wrote here. I've been focused on learning and doing well in my Big New Job, which is going great, while my agent has been methodically shopping my debut manuscript. But I'm now I'm back, hoping that everything is about to… Continue reading Could this be it?

Welp, it's been a minute, readers. This book publishing game sure seems slow to this online journalist! That said, I can no longer call myself that, since I have news: having been furloughed in April, I was fully laid off from my media job in August. Having had the delightful spring and summer to write… Continue reading Consider my expectations managed

It's always great when you figure out a method for something that works - even if it only works for you. Since I've been furloughed from my day job, I've plotted out three new manuscripts. And I've noticed that I have really figured out how I like to do it, based off the massive learning… Continue reading A new twist on plotting multiple narratives

I always like to start with the bad news: I'm currently furloughed from my much-loved day job of being editorial director at a group of real estate news sites and publications. This is, of course, due to the pandemic and the lack of advertising income. I may get my job back later, I may not.… Continue reading Time to be creative

Since last week's post about my offer of agency representation, I've read glowing references about the agent Victoria and the agency Levine Greenberg Rostan, from a number of their clients. Great news - I can have confidence in them. I've also been on yet another steep learning curve - this one about agency client agreements.… Continue reading Agreeing to agree (harder than it sounds)

Yay!!! I'm not usually one for multiple exclamation points, or even one, but this week's news definitely calls for it. I've been offered representation by a literary agency in New York! I'm so happy, and I couldn't be more excited. The agent I mentioned in my previous post, Victoria Skurnick at Levine Greenberg Rostan, loved… Continue reading An offer of representation!

It's been nine months since I last blogged and, in that time, pretty much all I've been doing is querying agents. I've repeatedly re-uploaded the updated Excel image in my last post so you can see just a sample of my rejections. I'm probably up to around 70 queries and maybe 40 or 50 rejections… Continue reading A possible query breakthrough?