Someone (Arg -- I think I know who that is, and I LOVE the acronym) asked yesterday why I changed publishers and how that's been. That takes the discussion back one step, but there's no reason not to talk about it, while I'm waiting for my editor's comments on what I'm thinking of as the final rewrite (but I could be wrong).

My series books were done under multi-book contracts with St. Martin's Press: 3 2-book deals and a 3-book deal. That makes 9 books; WINTER AND NIGHT, my most recent, is my 8th, which leaves 1 book on the current deal. After I turned W&N in, however, and before it was published, SMP asked if I'd write a standalone -- a non-series book -- next instead of the series book due. Their thinking was that I'd reached a plateau with the series, and they wanted to "break me out." They thought this could best be done with a standalone. I didn't love the idea, but agreed to think about it when my agent said he did. That was August 2001; I was thinking about it when Sept. 11th happened. Whether I would have done a standalone if there had been no Sept. 11th I don't know, but living in NY, I felt that I had to write a book set in those times, which were so extraordinary. I won't discuss the emotional situation of writing that book here -- that's for another time and place -- but the contractual one was interesting. I told my long-time editor at SMP that I was working on a book set in, though not "about," the period directly after Sept. 11th. It took me 18 months to finish the book, and in that time SMP never asked to see it, nor did they make an offer for it. I understood that: they'd asked for a standalone, but this was a risky book. If this had been a "normal" one, my agent and I might have insisted on a contract before I got started, or tried to sell it from a proposal while I was working. However, ABSENT FRIENDS was a book I was going to write whether I had a contract or not, and it was such a departure for me that we didn't see any point in trying to convince anyone to gamble on it before they could see the finished product. So I went on writing on spec, living on savings.

This meant that when it was done, no publisher owned it. So my agent submitted it to a number of publishers simultaneously. Of those that liked it, Bantam was clearly my top choice, for a couple of reasons. One was the editor. When you submit a ms. to a publishing house, you submit it to a specific editor; making this choice is one of the places your agent's experience and knowledge is invaluable. The editor at Bantam he sent my ms. to is legendary, for being very tough, and a great editor. I wanted the chance to work with her. Also, Bantam sounded very enthusiastic about the book, and not afraid of the setting. Enthusiasm, especially when you're new at a publishing house, is a heady drug to a writer. So my agent negotiated with them, and we ended up with a 2 book deal. This leaves me still with the series book due for SMP. The 2nd Bantam standalone will come before that, and then the SMP book.

As to how the Bantam experience has been, it's been terrific so far. This editor is every bit as smart and tough as I'd heard. She saw in the ms. the book I'd wanted to write, and all her edits have been aimed at bringing that book out. Everyone at Bantam has been very welcoming, made me feel very much at home. I'm glad to be there.