Deja Vu

There are people who slap their novels all over the Internet, begging other people to read them.

But I can't do that. I don't know why. Except...

Well, I know why : I'm afraid Tina - not to mention Michael, or J.P., or whoever, really - might not like it.

Just like every single publisher I've sent it to hasn't like it. Well, except AuthorPress. 

But they want me to pay THEM to publish it! REAL publishers are supposed to pay YOU!!

- Forever Princess by Meg Cabot, page 31, HarperTeen, An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers  

8th September (Tuesday) - I haven't been up lately, which is no surprise since I'm now back to writing my third novel and couldn't be more thrilled. My mind is bursting with ideas and whenever I'm back from work, I turn on my Microsoft Word and BANG, my fingers start flying around the keyboard in supersonic speed. Forget about dinner, I'm on a roll. And it usually takes people to call me several time before I come back to the real world. 

So yesterday I sent out an email to a publishing house recommended by a friend (No names are allowed due to confidentiality) and when I'm handling my doctor's clinic, I got this international phone call and I went, "Wait a minute, this can't be real. I just sent out the email yesterday." Seeing as this phone call was persistent, while I was free, I answered the phone call. Surprise, surprise, it was the people whom I sent the email to. After a few Q & A, they liked my story (Okay, good sign, good sign...) then to finalize getting a publishing deal, I have to pay them a publishing package for 2 books, equivalent to five grand, which means I have to slave three months to pay. 

Wait, hold on to your seahorses, this isn't right. It sounds too good to be true. I pay the full amount, I get back twenty five percent for paperbacks and fifty percent on ebooks. I'm no mathematics genius, so I called up a few friends who are good at crunching numbers, and when they made the calculations, you'll be very surprised how much I earn back. Not those four figures, but less. A friend of mine who is a property agent basically said it sounds rubbish, not a good investment at all. I recalled the above lines from Meg Cabot's best-selling Princess Diaries, and what she said is true. We writers slaved all over our manuscript, at the very least, we should get back our money's worth for goodness sake. It's a good thing I have lulu.com to market my book. 

And now back to writing.