Opening the American Publisher’s Back Door

By Anita Giraud

Towards the successful end of my Post PhD’s research I decided that my future lay in writing for the multitudes and no longer for a select, academic minority. To this end, I loosely began to collect data on writing novels, romance in particular and this endeavour took me to the Durban Municipality’s bookshelves where I found Elizabeth George’s Write away. This book started me on my first story which I wrote casually in between other more pressing activities and when I finished, I consulted the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook to find a few agents in England. These either ignored me or answered that they were only interested in block busters.

More time passed where I simply forgot about the book while I prepared for my solo exhibition at the Empangeni Art Museum. Then I got steamed up again and accidentally found a treasure trove list of a whole lot of romance publishers, including minor publishers we don’t hear about, mostly in the U.S.A. I immediately submitted to all of those who didn’t require agents. They mostly turned me down with a standard refusal email. However, one of these small publishers took pity on me and sent a detailed crit, along with the suggestion that I try Savvy Authors, an American online writing school, run by published writers, for tuition and mentoring.

I tried Savvy Authors which I found to be very reasonable and where one can select and pay for specific courses, each done by a different writer. I ended up having three large, lever arch files containing a variety of lessons, my corrected responses, synopses for three stories and mentoring for two stories which I began and developed under the tutorship of mostly one Rebecca Grace. Rebecca later instructed me separately and all the combined lessons cost roughly the sum of R2 500,00 – R3 000,00 and it was well worth it. I had learnt a tremendous amount and always found the teachers to be thorough, courteous and helpful. Of course, with the weakening Rand, it would cost more nowadays, but that is not the American teachers’ fault.

It ended up that I submitted the rewrite of my original story to several small American publishers which Rebecca found and, judging from the writers’ grapevines which she was privy to, recommended as sound companies. Rebecca attends conferences in the U.S.A. and is a mine of information. I submitted to all of these new companies I was given. The interesting thing was that one of the editors told me that the pace of my story was so fast she felt dizzy. A couple of weeks later, I received my acceptance contract from another publisher who said that their editor took to my story because she liked the fast pace of my work. So this goes to show, doesn’t it, that one mustn’t take criticism to heart too much and that if your work doesn’t appeal to one, it might appeal to another. The motto is never to feel disheartened and give up.

My American publisher, Passion in Print, a subsidiary of Mlr press, taught me a thing or two as well. First of all they sent me on a wild goose chase about an International Tax Number which SARS doesn’t know about. If one Googles it there is International Tax in Britain, the U.S.A., a number of European countries and so on but not in South Africa. After weeks of asking around, I got the publisher’s letter requesting an ITIN which is an Individual Taxpayer Identity Number. For this you have to Google the IRS, download the form and its instructions and also pay a visit to the American Consulate for the certified copies of a number of documents. With the postal strike, my application, sent by registered mail, has gone missing, so my employer has to send me another signed, formal letter requesting an ITIN for me in order to pay my royalties and the whole rigmarole has to be repeated; this time however, with the addition of an international courier company at some considerable cost.

I also had to get the U.S. Copyright which I did electronically for $35. When it comes to small publishers, they each have their individual rules and regulations and what one would require may not be the norm for others. It pays to study each one of them carefully.

With respect to American publishing, I must say that they are very thorough, very conscientious about good craftsmanship and tremendously hardworking. Pip’s executive editor works every day, including Sunday, as I’ve received several emails written to me on a Sunday by her. My romantic suspense is at present an ebook and an excerpt can be read on the publisher’s website. I go under the name Anita Jollivet-Giraud and the book’s title is Love in a new dawn. American publishers expect all their writers to market their books as well, so I can be found on Facebook, Reddit, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Stumble, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter, my website and a number of other sites. You can also see Pip’s interview of my writing methods here.

For those who would like to have some help from Rebecca Grace, she is an award winning published author, can be reached on rebecca-grace.blogspot.com where she has interviewed me.

Accepting to have your book published as an ebook for starters opens the way for agents, traditional publishers and so on. There is also the audio world, films, and large print books to explore so there is lots to keep one busy and reaching out. At least with an ebook, you have something for your CV and that is one thing done. I have a long way to go, am learning all the time and have just managed to grasp the compulsory publishing package called Apache Open Office which had to be downloaded.

For any new aspiring author, I wish you everything thing of the best, keep determined, persevere, be disciplined and bon courage.