[mgarzon]

Hi,

I'm trying to post this in response to a question by someone called 'Micah', but I can't seem to answer just her/his post, so Micah, hope you see this!

I'm the author of Blaze of Glory, so maybe I can help you if you're still trying to make a decision. It's funny that I found your question in the context of a thread on The A Circuit, because my book was passed up by Walker Books (Bloomsbury is one of their imprints) in favour of The A Circuit. Now, I haven't read it yet - I ordered it out of curiosity - so I don't know if it's a better book than mine. The editor who read both manuscripts really liked my story, but they went with The A Circuit, and in their shoes I probably would've done the same... the Bloomberg name alone will sell books, whereas I'm a nobody (i.e., a single mom living in a small town. nothing newsworthy!). And they didn't want to publish both, fearing that 2 books about "horse competitions" as they put it, would cannibalize each others' sales.

OK, I'm WAY off topic... sorry, occupational hazard If your niece is a mature 14, Blaze of Glory would be fine, but you should know that there sex, drugs and alcohol are part of the story. If you get it, I hope she likes it

[Micah]

Hi mgarzon!

It's so funny that I just saw this post, we've been away for a while. I ended up getting both books, yours and the A Circuit. To be honest I bought yours because I just loved the picture on the cover, but my niece read it in 3 days and said she loved it, so thank you. And congratulations on your book.

[Weatherford]

LOL Didn't know there were authors, editors, publishers on COTH. And why not? In my BH (Before Horses) years, I was a children's book author, too and tried for years to get some horse books published with no takers. But this is very interesting esp with Bloomsbury as publisher. If I thought they had "lifted" my story -- not the idea for the story or series because you can't copyright that -- I'd get an attorney immediately. Or contact the Author's Guild in New York. Plagerism exists and an out-of-court settlement is better than nothing.

I started writing kids' horse books in the 70's and no one was interested. They all burned in a fire in '92, so never sent them out again. Now, I think I am so far removed from today's kids and their horses that I couldn't write about them...

[Weatherford]

Mgarzon - there is NOTHING wrong with self-publishing these days. Especially with KINDLE (et al). Many FAMOUS authors are leaving their traditional publishing houses to self-publish, because they make more money that way. Traditional publishing is undergoing a HUGE change these days, and I for one don't want any part of it (except for my non-fiction. Storey is a wonderful publishing house.)

My point is, check out self-publishing your book. If you want more information, PT me - and I can introduce you to some material and people who are doing it.

And the KINDLE is a wonderful thing. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE traditional books. But the Kindle saves me SO much money on those books that I may never read again and don't want to have hanging around my house.

[LSM1212]

I'm the author of Blaze of Glory

Just downloaded your book for my Kindle. I did read The A Circuit and liked it. I'm sure I'll like yours too!

[War Admiral]

Just downloaded your book for my Kindle. I did read The A Circuit and liked it. I'm sure I'll like yours too!

Yes, seconded, I'm glad you stopped by, I'll be picking yours up as well!

[mgarzon]

Wow, who knew I would meet so many like-minded people here on the COTH forums? To those who got the book - THANK YOU!! And I hope you enjoy it... it started out as more of a horse story with an element of romance, but my agent & editor wanted the manuscript to be less 'horse-heavy' to appeal to a wider audience. So now it's more of a romance set in the horse world

Weatherford, I would love to get your input about self-publishing. After Bloomsbury went with The A Circuit, I got a publishing offer from a small, independent publisher. But they were being acquired by a larger publisher, whose reputation (according to my agent) was not great. Plus, my book would have been shelved until after the company acquisition was final... anyways, now that I've learned so much from getting the first book out there, I would definitely be open to self-publishing the sequel, which is about half-done. Way less headache, and more control. And I'm reading Kindle books on my PC! Which is both awesome and dangerous for me.

I bought The A Circuit too, lol. And liked it.

[mgarzon]

Weatherford, when does Dead Ringer come out? I'll have to look for it TWHS, are you going to try again to get your horse stories published?

[Libby416]

Mgarzon - I just finished Blaze of Glory and I loved it! Couldn't put it down if I tried :-)

[mgarzon]

Rodolpho614, thank you SO much!! you have no idea how much it means to me that you liked my story... it's weird being a writer, we toil in solitude for so long and then our words go out into the ether, and we often get very little feedback. It's wonderful to hear from a reader. The only feedback I've had until now was from haunting the Amazon reviews, lol

[mgarzon]

Bloomsbury is actually a division of Walker Books, a VERY large publisher in the US. Bloomsbury is their young adult/kids' imprint, and it's quite well known and respected in publishing circles. I happen to know this because they were very interested in publishing my book, until the manuscript for The A Circuit came along

[mgarzon]

Sorry about that last post, it was meant to answer an earlier message - guess they're all in chronological order. Still learning about the forum!

[HGem]

Thanks to this thread I bought & read Jilly Cooper's book, Riders. I hate to admit it but I liked it. I may be a few points lower on my IQ, but it was an easy, entertaining read....

I loved that book

[Anselcat]

Here's something weird.

If you go here http://issuu.com/bloomsbury/docs/theacircuit to read a few pages, the very first sentence is "Oh man. Loser Alert." Which got a few negative comments on this board, as I remember.

I borrowed a copy to read this week, and the first sentence is now "Oh man. Stalker alert."

Anyone else notice this? Wonder why they changed it?

[mgarzon]

I liked Riders too, and she's got two others that are also good, if you're interested: Polo and Jump. What's a few IQ points here and there? For me the whole point of reading is entertainment.

[mgarzon]

Anselcat, books go through a LOT of editing before they're released, and sometimes they release promotional snippets before the final version is printed (or the entire book in the case of galleys). Maybe someone just forgot to change that line. As an example, there are already 2 versions of my book out there, and it only got released last month. So the change in that line is probably an accident.

[equinekingdom]

I recently published my first book, albeit not fiction, it's a book about riding instruction (there's a link in my sig below if you care to see it).

I'll tell you first hand there is a LOT LOT LOT of work that goes into it before it goes to the printer!! From the time I finally got it finished, it took me another 6 months of having others edit/proofread, and then all the time it took at the publisher to get the cover right, the inside, page numbers, etc etc etc...crazy.

There are so many things that go into publishing a book - and if you're self publishing, it's a LOT of work!! I went that route rather than going through a publisher - I'd rather have complete control over my works (at least for the time being). I'm currently in the process of producing my next book, hope to get it out by the end of this year. Hoping to pick up some awesome ideas here!!! Will maybe post a thread later on about what it's about.

I've written several horse novels too, but haven't put ANY time or effort into getting them published - I think they'd need more editing and changing than I'd be willing to do, since I wrote them about 12 years ago.

[equinekingdom]

wow, I just now noticed that the last post on this was almost two years ago....way to dredge up the past, self....

[MILOUTE55]

I don't know... I think we could cut the girl some slack. There are many worse things she could do with her money and status.
I was at WEF this weekend and saw a few famous names trashed and on drugs late at night. They were definitely hurting their reputations more than by just writing a teenagers book.
I think Georgina is a good rider, and if she can live the life she wants thanks to her money, then more power to her. And if she wants to write a book then why not, she isn't forcing anybody into buying it.
Just sayin'

[RolyPolyPony]

The third recently came out, in case you missed it I like these danged books - they're total fluff and half the characters annoy me, but I cannot stop reading the things!