Yes!!! (The Dundurn Group Accepts Rosemary and Time)

Current circumstances prevent me from engaging in a full happiness dance, but this bit of good news has helped us all a little bit, including my in-laws.

On Thursday, I received the following e-mail:

From: “Barry Jowett” xxxxxxx@dundurn.xxx
To: “‘James Bow’” xxxxx@bowjamesbow.xxx
Subject: Yes, please …
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 16:38:38 -0400

Hi James,

As expected, the pub board gave the thumbs-up to my recommendation, so …

Yes! We want to publish Rosemary and Time. We’d like to aim for a Spring 2006 publication date.

It’s your first YA novel, so our offer is our standard first-YA offer. (snip!) I’ll draft a contract early next week and send that to you to review, and we can work towards finalizing things from there.

I’m excited about this book, and assuming everything works out for a spring pub date, it looks like your book could be among some very good company - we’ve got some heavy hitters on the list.

Sorry we took so long with this … at least we gave you the right answer in the end.

Barry
—
Barry Jowett
Editorial Director
The Dundurn Group

Back in August, after I’d been rejected for the eighth time (this time by Lobster Press), I was contacted by author Marsha Skrypuch. She asked me to send her the first chapter of Rosemary and Time as well as a synopsis and cover letter and that she personally would send it to Barry Jowett, her editor at Dundurn. He was interested enough to ask me to see the rest of it, so the following November, the rest of the story went out.

I realized at the time that this was as close as I’d ever been to getting published, even after Orca Books, so this explains why I went almost completely silent on the status of Rosemary and Time; I didn’t want to jinx it. The mutterings coming out of Dundurn were good, and relied only on a business decision over whether or not to expand their young adult line. That decision came a week ago, and now I’m in.

I asked Barry who I could tell at this early stage. He replied:

Sure, you can tell whoever you want! Just don’t say “you can send advance orders to …” just yet, since it will be a few months before the book is actually in the system at our distributor. But as far as letting people know it’s been accepted, no problem there.

The Dundurn Group has been around since 1972 and are well known for their historical non-fiction (they publish Mike Filey’s books). Their young adult line is relatively knew, but features a number of up-and-coming authors, including Marsha herself, so I’m in good company.

It’s ironic. After running afoul of the fact that some publishers weren’t sure how to market a book that had elements of teen romance and middle grade fiction within them, and reducing Rosemary’s age to 12 to compensate, I’m picked up by a publisher of young adult novels. But it just goes to show that each publisher is different, as is their marketing focus.

I’ll be working with Barry over the next few months to spruce up the story for release, and I’ll be considering how best to promote the heck out of it. This blog seems a good start, and I’ll also be drafting an official book website. Marsha tells me that a book cover should be ready shortly, as the catalogues for the spring season get printed in fall.

Given this past month, I’m down in the dumps and over the moon at the same time. I didn’t think that was possible, but there you go. I am really, really pleased to finally get Rosemary and Time a publisher, five years after I started writing the novel, and I look forward to the work that still has to be done to market this book to the wider world. Time to roll up my sleeves…

Further Reading

• Rosemary and Time synopsis.