Author Topic: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.  (Read 207244 times)

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Sunny

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #345 on: July 27, 2011, 12:48:00 AM »
Thank you for those illuminating  answers  Sarushka . What strikes me is where you are today happened brick by brick, success built upon success and fueled by incredibly hard work ...and that is how it is done really ... there are steps,  and rarely does one get to fly over them. 

Well said, annie!

Offline Sarushka

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #346 on: July 27, 2011, 07:35:26 AM »
What strikes me is where you are today happened brick by brick, success built upon success and fueled by incredibly hard work ...and that is how it is done really ... there are steps,  and rarely does one get to fly over them. 

That's absolutely true. And my success was actually rather fast. Unless someone asks me outright, I don't talk about the number of publishers who rejected me because it's just not typical. From the get-go I was receiving personalized rejection letters similar to Alixz's, which are a form of success all by themselves. (Some authors refer to that kind of letter as a "champagne rejection.")

Offline blessOTMA

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #347 on: July 27, 2011, 07:52:27 AM »
I don't talk about the number of publishers who rejected me because it's just not typical.
It doesn't surprise me and you are wise.
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(Some authors refer to that kind of letter as a "champagne rejection.")
lol I'll remember that one!
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which are a form of success all by themselves.
They really are....and it's vital  not to disregard a" brick " , a small success like a  "champagne rejection." ...because every brick is necessary  when building  a career.

"Give my love to all who remember me."

  Olga Nikolaevna

Alixz

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #348 on: July 27, 2011, 08:10:25 AM »
Sarushka,

Thank you.  I thought about where this thread was going and had decided to apologize for taking it any further in that direction.  I felt as if I was hijacking your thread and the tribute to the work you have done.

You are very kind.  Of course there is more to my letters than what I put.  Actually the two letters are from two different people and that is why one has the referrals.

The hard part is the review of the book which also came to us because we had a "contact".  The Editor in Chief truly did like it,but as I said before the historical romance "expert" missed the point completely and her words were actually (in type) much harder to take.  We thought at the time that she was inept, but in thinking back, if she didn't "get it" then perhaps that was a good reason for rejection.  Maybe readers wouldn't "get it" either.

Having done all the research in libraries (before the Internet) and typed the 'script on a Smith-Corona Correctable (with carbons, no less), I have often thought about working it over on Microsoft Word.

But having to hire an attorney to represent my intellectual property rights and not knowing where my co-author is after 15 years keeps me putting it off.

The old adage of rewrite, rewrite, rewrite and revise, revise, revise still echos and I know that much could be done with it.  I have a good manuscript program now and a good spelling-grammar check added to it.

I actually began on Chapter 1 and discovered that so much did have to be changed.  More experience in reading the good and the bad and the ugly books that end up in libraries and a perspective from a different age makes one see things so much differently.

Offline Sarushka

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #349 on: July 27, 2011, 11:01:47 AM »
 The Editor in Chief truly did like it,but as I said before the historical romance "expert" missed the point completely and her words were actually (in type) much harder to take.  We thought at the time that she was inept, but in thinking back, if she didn't "get it" then perhaps that was a good reason for rejection.  Maybe readers wouldn't "get it" either.

There are always going to be people -- editors, readers, critics -- who don't get it. That doesn't necessarily mean the book is good or bad, or that the person is right or wrong. This business is a lot more subjective than most people realize, and there's a large element of luck involved.

Again, for a bit of perspective remember that Miss Spitfire got three completely different responses from three different publishers: No, Maybe, and Yes. If my agent told me the reason for the no, I've forgotten it. The folks who said maybe wanted some revisions that I didn't agree with. The guy who said yes was so taken with the manuscript that he went right to the library and checked out Helen Keller's autobiography to continue fueling his interest in the story -- just as I did after seeing The Miracle Worker on stage. He wanted some revisions, too, but they were changes that I immediately knew how to implement, and made me excited for the chance to enhance the story. My agent didn't know beforehand that Justin would fall for Annie and Helen -- it was luck. And the other two editors weren't wrong -- they just didn't share my vision for the story the way Justin did.

Another thing to keep in mind is that an editor has to be so smitten with your manuscript that they're willing to invest tens of thousands of dollars and 2-3 years of work on it. Of all the books you've read and genuinely enjoyed, how many have resonated THAT deeply with you? Your writing can be top-notch, yet you may get rejected until you find an editor who feels a strong connection to your work.

Alixz

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #350 on: July 27, 2011, 06:53:08 PM »
Because I had a co-author, I had even more subjective reasons to deal with.  She was so sure that Dell was the place to go that she had no intention of submitting the manuscript anywhere else.  The "contact" was hers.  I thought she knew what she was doing and her writing, at the time, was so much better than mine, I went along for the ride.

Your example of Miss Spitfire and the three opinions have helped me, in retrospect, to see what I had missed before.  We should never have stopped trying and revising. Our vision was our vision and we should not have bought into the vision of others unless we could live with it and not compromise the integrity of our story.

It is interesting now that I have begun to revise using the manuscript program and also, of course, Microsoft Word to see that her writing was not all that much better than mine.  Our styles meshed enough that I sometimes now can't figure out who wrote what chapter and with spell check in place, I find that her spelling was no better than mine even though she always ragged me about it.

As to those books which have stayed with me.  I find that an interesting idea.  With the Internet, I have begun to look for books that I read years ago and somehow always remembered and wished that I had bought.

Many of them still hit me in the right place, but others I have to ask myself why?

One of the first I looked for was The Last Grand Duchess by Vorres. Not because he wrote well (I don't think he did) but because of the subject matter.  So the subject matter has to resonate with the publisher and also has to fit a popular genre that they feel they can make a buck off of.

I won't read romance novels because the plots are all the same and there is no suspense in finding out the ending.  They are all the same just set in different time periods.  I mentioned this once before in another thread.  I absolutely hate the strong minded independent woman who falls for the mysterious estate owner (or some such) feels rejected by his indifference but then finds out that he truly loves her.  Or he marries her and leaves her with child and then disappears for years while she makes do without him.  And on and on and on.

But again, I want to return this thread to you and your newly published book.  Kudos to you for doing what so many of us have always wished we could do.

Thanks again.

Offline Sarushka

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #351 on: July 27, 2011, 06:55:37 PM »

There are always going to be people -- editors, readers, critics -- who don't get it. That doesn't necessarily mean the book is good or bad, or that the person is right or wrong. This business is a lot more subjective than most people realize

Just to drive the point home, here's a blog post with concrete examples of just how maddeningly conflicting reader reactions can be:
http://sarahmillerbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/self-googling-agony-and-ecstasy.html



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Your writing can be top-notch, yet you may get rejected until you find an editor who feels a strong connection to your work.

To clarify, I don't mean to suggest that you should blow off ALL negative feedback until you find your editorial equivalent of Prince Charming. If your manuscript gets the same reaction from two or three different editors, it's time to think seriously about what you might be able to change in order to steer a greater majority of your audience toward a more desirable response.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2011, 06:59:35 PM by Sarushka »

Offline Sarushka

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #352 on: July 27, 2011, 06:57:08 PM »

Your example of Miss Spitfire and the three opinions have helped me, in retrospect, to see what I had missed before.  We should never have stopped trying and revising. Our vision was our vision and we should not have bought into the vision of others unless we could live with it and not compromise the integrity of our story.

BINGO.


But again, I want to return this thread to you and your newly published book.  Kudos to you for doing what so many of us have always wished we could do.

Thanks, and I hope it's been a productive detour.

(I think we were posting at the same time.)

Alixz

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #353 on: July 27, 2011, 07:25:49 PM »
Just one more question.  Why young adult books?  What made that a fascinating and interesting genre for you to pursue?


Offline blessOTMA

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #354 on: July 27, 2011, 08:14:55 PM »
Alixz  I want to say since I last read of your adventures in publishing, it seems to me you have started moving forward and I want to congratulate  you on that...any step forward  is wondrous...and Sarushka  you really helped  Alixz get further unstuck .

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We should never have stopped trying and revising. Our vision was our vision and we should not have bought into the vision of others unless we could live with it and not compromise the integrity of our story.

Every creative person should have that as a banner to hang in their work space !

"Give my love to all who remember me."

  Olga Nikolaevna

Ian (UK)

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #355 on: July 28, 2011, 07:11:35 AM »
   After reading Sarah's blogspot I'm apprehensive of posting anything at all.  :) Just to say I too thought an identification of each Grand Duchess at the top of every page would have been a good idea. A small OTM or A logo would suffice as previously suggested. I'm still not convinced by the cover too as it may send out the wrong vibes. A bookstore may very well file this work in the bored housewife section & that's a shame.
        As to the contents I thought it was 1st class, & I was entertained throughout. The ending we all know too well, though I did not expect to get so emotional when the family split up in Tobolsk. Was there a tear in my eye then, .....surely not.  :( By the time the end did come it was a sad occasion indeed as the girls speak for the very last time. To overcome this event I find the trick is to start the book again, &  they live once more.
                                     
                                          Well done Sarah

Offline EmmyLee

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #356 on: July 28, 2011, 12:42:45 PM »
I finally read the book, having suggested it to the library I work at. I knew from reading Sarah's posts here on the forum the last few years that she would do an excellent job with her book, and she really did. By having the story told in the voices of all four of the girls, I really grew attached to each one. I pretty much dreaded the end, already knowing how it would end. I was rather relieved that Sarah chose not to continue using the girls' voices for telling about the murder, because I thought that that would just be too much. It's awful enough to read about it in 3rd person but in 1st person, reading the possible thoughts that went on through the ordeal, I didn't want to have to do that.

Sarah, you did a marvelous job bringing the girls to life for me. This would definitely have to be my favorite Romanov novel.

Alixz

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #357 on: July 29, 2011, 09:26:11 AM »
I don't think that bookstores would file this under "bored housewife" just because of the cover.  Bookstores (the big chains, anyway) are sent diagrams of where to set up sections of the store and an invoice of what genre the book should be filed under.  That is why the big chain stores always have everything in the same place if you go from store to store.

Smaller privately owned shops are, of course, different, but they too would know from the invoice what genre the book should be put with.

Even chain clothing stores - Old Navy - Fashion Bug - etc, get those diagrams from corporate.  Every store is set up with the merchandise in the same section and on the same racks as every other store of the same chain. I have a friend who manages one of these stores and those diagrams come in quite often.  Moving things around makes shoppers have to look for what they want and that might make them see something they hadn't seen before.

So when your favorite store "rearranges" its inventory to clean or change design - they are really just merchandising.  Getting you the shopper out of your straight path to find what you want and making you look around thus prompting you to perhaps buy something new or different.

In book stores, if Harry Potter is out with a new book then young adult will be front and center with a lot of young adult titles on the table or shelf that might not have been visible before.


Offline TimM

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #358 on: July 30, 2011, 02:06:00 AM »
In the Chapters where I got my copy, it was in the Young Readers section.
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Ian (UK)

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Re: THE LOST CROWN - A New Novel by Sarah Miller.
« Reply #359 on: August 02, 2011, 02:01:55 AM »
   OK Tim & Alix point proven, I'm wrong. I accept the book was not specificly designed with my age bracket in mind, and I may be out of step with the tastes of young adults. As far as front covers go, if the pretty girl format works then use it by all means. All I'm saying is there are lots of the same out there young adult & other genre, and I would hate to see it drown in a sea of pretty girls. I say again I like the book, I'm just not in love with the cover, however pretty it may be.