Giving away 2 ARCs of A Whisper In Time

The final book of the Whisper Falls series is almost here!

Whispers from the Past releases on October 7th. To celebrate:

• I'm giving away 2 signed ARCs of A Whisper In Time (US only.) Enter below!
• International readers, if your name is selected, I will send you an Amazon e-gift-card for Whisper Falls or A Whisper in Time.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Through the end of September, Whisper Falls (book 1) is on sale (e-book version) at online retailers like Amazon.

My third contract as an author!

First contract: Whisper Falls

Second contract: Two sequels to Whisper Falls

Third contract: I Wish

Yay! Here are the details.

Elizabeth Langston's I WISH, a teenage girl devotes herself to raising her brother, hiding her depressed mom from social services, and juggling the household bills when an amazingly hot guy appears in a puff of smoke from a music box promising her thirty wishes, to Kate Kaynak at Spencerhill Press, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2014, by Kevan Lyon at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency(World English).

Foreign rights: Taryn Fagerness Agency 

More later. I promise!

It's a Global Reading Community

When my agent sold Whisper Falls to Spencer Hill, she negotiated the contract to include World English rights¹ only.  I retained foreign rights, i.e. the ability to sell my book for translation into other languages.

Earlier this week, Agent K asked me to send her my favorite version of the manuscript.  She believes it's a good time to market my book overseas. So I pulled Whisper Falls out, dusted it off, tweaked a word here and a punctuation mark there---and sent that file winging its way across cyberspace.

As of this hour, Agent T (who specializes in selling books outside the US) has my manuscript.  The waiting begins!

¹World English rights: the right to print, sell, and distribute the book in English anywhere in the world. If readers buy (legally) a English version of the book in Canada/NZ/etc, Spencer Hill will be the publisher.

The Check Was in the Mail

I have been paid for Whisper Falls.  The check arrived today.  I won't see any more for another eighteen months, but that is okay.

This is my first real income as an author!

Here's The Deal...

My amazing literary agent, Kevan Lyon, negotiated the book deal. The details are:

Publishing House: Spencer Hill Press
Acquiring Editor: Kate Kaynak
Book Editor: Rich Storrs
Release Date: November 2013
Book Title: Whisper Falls ¹
Pen Name: Elizabeth Langston ²
Royalties: of course
Advance against royalties: Nice deal ³

One of the things I love about joining this publishing house is how author-friendly  and enthusiastic they are.  The contract showed up within a few days (and downloaded quite nicely in the middle of my vacation.)  They responded to my questions promptly and connected me with one of their current authors for a reference.  We've brainstormed the cover art. And my editor expects to send his first revision letter next week.

While I'm waiting for those revisions, I have a business-oriented To-Do List which, clearly, I'm not getting done.⁴



1 - Yes! I’m keeping my original title.
2 - Yes! I’m keeping my original name.
3 - In publishing lingo, nice deals fall in the range $1,000 - $49,999.
4 - But I'm having so much fun writing this entry.

The Call

Authors call it The Call. It’s the phone call (or email or text or …) that lets us know a publisher has made an offer on our debut book. I received mine three weeks ago, accepted it, and then promptly left for a two-week vacation.

Stuff happens in the first few days after The Call. Exciting stuff. Things to luxuriate in after all of the years spent dreaming about this moment.

My stuff had to be put on hold while I luxuriated in the Mediterranean sun (or rain, depending on the day.) Not that I’m complaining or anything.

But the timing means I’m starting the stuff now and trying to wade through it quickly. Thus far, the stuff is totally fun. I want to remember what this is like—and I’m busy enough that I might not. So I’m going to journal about what’s happening in this blog.  Feel free to ask questions about the publishing business or what's going on with Whisper Falls.  Just lurking works too.