I’m in the middle of revisions that are due back to my editor asap, so I’m bringing over a post previously published on my own blog. I’ll have something new next week!
Originally published June 5, 2006 at Alison Kent’s Blah Blog
In most situations, authors write and sell books born of their own imagination. They tell the stories of characters who tug at their muse and refuse to let go. There are times, however, a book’s concept is generated by a publishing house’s editors. Usually these are opportunities available by invitation only. I’ve been involved in a few.
My participation in both Beach Blanket Bad Boys and Jingle Bell Rock was at an editor’s request, as was that for Mother, Please! The same goes for the short essay I wrote for Totally Charmed. In all four cases, the parameters were fairly wide open . . . a summer beach story, a Christmas story, a mother/daughter situation, an essay on the television show Charmed.
I’ve also worked with other authors on multi-author projects. I did the first Blaze Men-To-Do book. That one was followed by fab stories from Jo Leigh, Isabel Sharpe, and Debbie Rawlins. I also participated in the Blaze Do Not Disturb series, again with Jo Leigh, Isabel Sharpe, Debbie Rawlins, but also Nancy Warren and Jill Shalvis. My next Blaze will be part of the For A Good Time Call . . . series with Crystal Green and Nancy Warren. Each of these series was author-generated. Groups of us got together after chatting up an idea and worked out the details that would tie our stories together.
Editors at Harlequin and Silhouette will occasionally write bibles for ongoing continuity series. A recent one found in the Blaze line was The White Star. These books are bound closely together through shared plot events, and are usually close-ended, the final book tying up any loose plot threads and answering unanswered questions. Not all of these series are found in category lines. Consider the Hotel Marchand. In either case, most authors are invited to participate rather than requesting to be involved.
Before accepting such an offer, an author has to ask herself a number of questions. How comfortable is she working closely with others in a shared story universe? How comfortable is she taking characters and a situation created by someone else and making them her own? How does she feel about having other authors put words into her characters’ mouths for their own books?
Not only that, what does she feel about the subject matter – and this is where it can get tricky. We are authors. We want to write, to get paid for our writing, and also to work our writing muscles. But should an author accept an invitation (invitation = money = writing credit) if the idea she is asked to write is one that doesn’t interest her in the least? Is the money, the writing credit, and the stretch/strain/expansion of her skills worth it?
When handed a chapter out of an editorial bible, an author will bring the characters to life in her own way. They may have a specific role to play in the story world, but she will be the one to imbue them with personality, quirks, baggage, voice, etc. It’s not always the same with the story line or story subject.
Here’s a scenario. You’ve been writing sexy urban chick lit flavored romances, and your editor asks you to be a part of a continuity that takes place in a small ranching community. You hate anything western. You hate anything small town. But you hate even more saying no to your editor, and losing out on being part of a new and hot trend. Do you accept the invitation?
Here’s another one. You’ve still been writing sexy urban chick lit flavored romances, and your editor asks you to pick up what you’ve been doing and set it down in an arena about which you know nothing. Nothing. Not the lingo. Not the mindset. (Say, pro golfing, as SEP did brilliantly in Fancy Pants.) You don’t have to change the style of what you’re writing; she still wants the sexy urban chick lit flavor. But you have to set this book in a story world with which you are totally unfamiliar – and possibly about which you are totally apathetic. Do you accept the invitation?
If you accept either invitation, how much research and world-building do you do beyond what you’ve been given in the bible? Do you verify the facts of the environment/setting/atmosphere/time period to get those right? Do you immerse yourself in this world so that your characters – their behavior, their speech (lingo, shortcuts, etc.) AND their thought processes – will ring true to readers who know this world like the back of their hand?
Can you get away with using the small ranching community as a stage or a backdrop, or do you bring it to life so that your setting is as fully developed as your characters? Can you ignore the psychology of an environment (law enforcement, forensics, pro sports, celebrity, etc.) and concentrate on the romance since your story is, after all, a romance?
Where is an author’s obligation? To her editor, her muse, her bank account, her reader – or all of the above? When should she say yes to an offer? When should she say no?
