All I wanted for New Year’s Day was a new contract or two, and I got those (counting the pre-Christmas one, three total!).
Now all I want for President’s Day is for my publishers to accept electronic signatures. Don’t get me wrong — the current process beats the old one by a mile, where publisher mailed contract to agent, agent mailed to author, author read and signed and returned to agent, agent returned to publisher. It took weeks.
Now my publishers email my contracts to my agent, who emails them to me. Process completed in a matter of minutes. Then I print out three copies, sign them and snail-mail them back. If I’d been able to do my part electronically, instead of spending an hour printing, reading and signing, then standing in line at the post office, paying mailing costs plus the cost of a mailer, and filling out customs forms, I would have all but the contract/reading time to find something more interesting to blog about here! We’d all come out ahead, wouldn’t we?
Publishing is definitely in the Dark Ages still, perhaps that’s why they are in denial about Amazon’s plan to take over the world!
I forgot about the hassle of traditional pubs’ contracts. Even with Five Star or rather Tekno publishing, they emailed me the contract. Of course, I’ve never had an agent, so every contract has been me and the pub.
You make a good point, but it’s hard to feel tooooo sorry for a gal why has THREE new contracts.
Sorry you had to waste time in an unnecessary way, but so delighted you are sooooo successful.
Hugs,
Jackie
LOL. Amazon, the Evil Empire. And my Kindle and I are helping them!
I shouldn’t complain. It took a long time to start getting contracts by email. And I still get edits by mail, though HQ does send AAs, or the galleys, by email now.
So we’re advancing . . .slowly.
True, Jackie! Thanks a bunch. I appreciate your support tremendously!
Well I’m jealous you’ve got the contracts to sign. But also proud. I love going into a book store and seeing your books. I feel so smug to be be able to say, “Yeah, I know Marilyn. She’s great!”