Bumps in the Road - Part 3
(the audio)
If you’ve been reading this Substack for awhile, you already know that I have been through a lot on my way to getting my first novel out into the world. I’ve had a book die on sub. I’ve had two agents. I had an R&R. I was orphaned. I was bumped.
But the drama didn’t end there.
After about 8 months of back-and-forth between my agent and my publisher’s contracts department, the terms were set. I understood what I wanted to understand–namely, that they’d agreed to pay me a decent advance in exchange for world English rights to my book (which meant there was still a chance for me to sell subsidiary rights in other languages), and that my book would be published as TPO (Trade Paperback Original) with ebook and audio released on the same day.
I also understood that there were the typical ‘fine print’ kind of clauses in that very long legal document that I didn’t fully grasp (or want to grasp), but because I trust my agent implicitly and she told me it was all kosher, I signed the contract in October 2023.
Fast forward to early May 2024 when I got a celebratory email from my new editor who told me that [the biggest audiobook publisher] had picked up the rights to my audiobook! They love the cover and will be great promotional partners!
Hurray! I responded. Great news!
My agent, however, was oddly silent.
Later that week, when she had still not said anything about the audio situation, I asked her if I was missing something. She told me, and I am paraphrasing, that the logistics were unclear to her but that she was sorting it out and not to worry too much.
Naturally, I panicked.