A highly unlikely story
Via The Globe and Mail: Young authors turn online collaboration into book deal. Excerpt:
Two 21-year-old women have landed a book deal after writing a book together online in only 18 days. Danielle Bennett, from Victoria, and Jaida Jones, from New York, managed to attract the attention of a major publishing house with a fantasy novel featuring flying metal dragons, magicians and an all-out battle between warring rivals.
“It's still unbelievable,” said Ms. Bennett in Victoria, where she grew up. “There are still times when I flip through this book and say, ‘Did we write this?' ”
The hardcover version of Havemercy will be released across North America this week. The anticipation of the 400-page book hitting store shelves is leaving both authors nervous and excited.
“We're pretty stunned most of the time,” said Ms. Jones, who was in Victoria to visit with her co-author and celebrate their accomplishment. “We're keeping our fingers crossed that it will do well.”
This story is news precisely because it's so unusual: the means of collaboration, the speed of production, the acquisition of an agent by unknown writers. Yes, it happens. I'm delighted for these two young writers, but other writers shouldn't beat themselves up because their own projects (collaborative or not) haven't succeeded.
Well said.
Posted by: Shelli | June 28, 2008 at 12:54 PM
This is exciting news.
The way they achieved publication fills me with energy to carry on with my own debut novel :)
Posted by: Nat JM | July 23, 2008 at 11:25 AM